Bureau of Land Management

Roads and Trails Terminology Bureau of Land Management

Because of the wide range of needs and uses, the BLM?s routes represent a broad spectrum of linear features?from engineered roadways with asphalt surfaces through challenging trails accessible only to nonmotorized traffic. Inherent in the wide range of uses and ?customers? is a varied vocabulary used to describe the linear features that includes roads, trails, paths, routes, and a host of derivatives of the basic terms. All of these terms have meaning and context within their respective programs but, when used collectively, often conflict and lead to confusion caused by the use of the same term to describe very different physical features.