National Policy on Fixed Anchors
Your is Voice Needed to Shape National Policy on Fixed Anchors
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) just released draft language responding to the EXPLORE Act, a sweeping recreational bill that includes the PARC Act (Protecting America's Rock Climbing Act). This is our nation’s first nation-wide policy on fixed anchors, and you have a chance to help shape that policy on USFS, NPS, BLM, and USFW lands.
A quick recap: The PARC Act was signed into law on January 5 2025, the result of years of advocacy led by the Access Fund, Outdoor Alliance, and partners across the country. CCC staff, board, and volunteers like you helped this effort as well. The driving issue was 2023 draft guidance that would have effectively banned fixed anchors in Wilderness areas, treating each existing fixed anchor as a prohibited "installation." The EXPLORE Act changed that trajectory, and this new draft guidance is the next step in a workable policy for all federal lands including USFS, NPS, BLM, and USFW. This new draft policy from each agency is a vast improvement for climbers from the pre-EXPLORE Act draft language.
Why this matters to climbers in the Carolinas: The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) policy affects over 2000 climbing routes on National Forest land across North Carolina, including our most iconic areas like Linville Gorge, Looking Glass, Whiteside Mountain, and all the cliffs and boulders between on USFS lands. The National Park Service (NPS) language is relevant to climbing areas within the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor including Ship Rock. Nationally, this NPS language affects countless iconic climbing areas from the Tetons to Yosemite to the New River Gorge, and has further implications for other climbing lands throughout the nation.
What CCC thinks so far about the USFS language: This new draft language from USFS recognizes climbing as a legitimate use of both Wilderness and non-Wilderness designated USFS lands. It recognizes that the discretionary placement of fixed anchors is allowed for climbing in both the Wilderness and non-Wilderness setting, representing a major leap forward from the 2023 proposed prohibitions. At the CCC, we believe that fixed anchors are a necessary tool in the climbers tool kit, to be used in discretion in appropriate areas where removable protection is not possible, while factoring-in land management policy and historic use. While fixed anchors are not prohibited in Wilderness per the draft, the draft plan does state that ‘bolt intensive’ climbs may be incompatible with Wilderness character. We applaud USFS for including education and collaboration with Local Climbing Organizations as a key tool for climbing management, which will be relevant for making more nuanced decisions regarding subjective policies.
Within the language of the USFS draft, there are some unclear pieces about the Climbing Management Plan process and how this will affect the many nuances of fixed anchor placement and replacement. CCC currently has a great relationship with all Forest Districts in NC. These positive relationships make us optimistic that this policy will be implemented in a collaborative way with each Forest District within future Climbing Management Plans (CMP), but the details of how the CMP is initiated and how the collaborative process unfolds is unclear in this draft policy. The draft also has a lack of clarity on new routing and fixed anchor replacement when a certain climbing area does not have a CMP. We urge USFS to be more clear on the CMP process and more clarity on public expectations in areas where there is not a CMP.
We applaud the USFS for including that climbing approach trails could be reviewed and potentially added onto the USFS system. This is critical for rescue egress and sustainability of approach trails and staging areas in our heavily used climbing areas. We applaud the continued use of collaboration, stewardship, outreach to local climbing organizations, and education as tools for fixed anchor policy within future climbing management plans. The comment period closes July 20, 2026. You can review the full USFS draft language here.
Take Action: Submit a public comment directly to USFS: Submit your comment here
Not sure what to say?: We've put together a CCC letter template you can use as a starting point, check it out below and feel free to copy and paste, just make sure to personalize it:
***Add a paragraph about what climbing on National Forest lands means to you. If you can get specific about your experiences, places you care about, how climbing drives you to steward lands or teach others, that is great too!!!***
I applaud USFS for recognizing that climbing is an appropriate Wilderness activity and for allowing fixed anchors, a critical part of the climbing safety system, in both Wilderness and non-Wilderness lands. I also appreciate that the draft permits discretionary use of fixed anchors based on Climbing Management Plans (CMPs), provided the anchors are unlikely to affect natural or cultural resources. I support that the draft names education and collaboration with Local Climbing Organizations (LCOs) as key management tools.
The draft is unclear on how the CMP process will be drafted, adopted, and will work in practice, particularly around the many nuances of fixed anchor placement and replacement.. Our Local Climbing Organization currently has a great relationship with all Forest Districts in my region, which gives me confidence this policy can be implemented collaboratively. But the details of how and when the CMP is initiated, and how the collaborative process needs to unfold is unclear in this draft policy. It's similarly unclear how new routing and anchor replacement should be handled in areas without an existing CMP. I urge USFS to be more clear on the CMP- creation process and expectations for collaboration with LCOs, line officers, and local climbers.
I applaud the USFS for including climbing approach trails as eligible for review and potential addition to the USFS trail system. This is critical for rescue egress and sustainability of approach trails and staging areas in our heavily used climbing areas. I applaud the continued use of collaboration, stewardship, outreach to Local Climbing Organizations, and education as tools for fixed anchor policy within future climbing management plans.
What we think so far about the National Park Service Wilderness Climbing language: This new draft language from NPS is better for climbing than the pre-EXPLORE Act language. We applaud the NPS for including that climbing and discretionary fixed anchors are an appropriate use of Wilderness. We saw some room for improvements to their draft language including a streamlined way for climbers to be approved to replace bad bolts. We would like to see more clarity on their approval processes needed for new routing, ensuring that the process is not overly burdensome on climbers or land managers. We have seen that overly burdensome policies for both the land manager and user effectively become a moratorium on new routing. While North Carolina does not have NPS Wilderness-designated lands with climbing, we believe these policies are important to follow as they will have ripple effects to NPS-owned areas like Ship Rock.
Utilize the Access Fund Action Alert for submitting your NPS, BLM, and USFW comment: Submit your comment