Alternative A is the interim management plan detailed in the Record of Decision for the Eastern Interior RMP and is the least restrictive alternative. The BLM would implement no improvements, new limitations, or closures. It is the status quo. Alternative B proposes a route network that emphasizes a balanced level of protection, restoration, enhancement, and use of resources and services to meet ongoing programs and land uses and comply with RMP Records of Decision. This alternative emphasizes multiple-use management by protecting sensitive resources, while continuing to provide recreation and travel opportunities. Alternative C would provide the greatest extent of resource protection, while still allowing route use where resource protection conflicts do not exist. This alternative would reduce the number of managed routes, primarily where soils are poor, and reduce the size of OHVs allowed on some routes. Alternatives A, B and C include some proposed decisions that would limit summer cross- country access for all user groups, including federally qualified subsistence users. Even though much of the area has had OHV use limited to winter for all user groups for decades, compliance with Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) requires that the BLM evaluate the potential impacts of allowing unrestricted access for federally qualified subsistence users before implementing such decisions. Alternative D analyzes the same scenario as Alternative B (least restrictive that fits the sideboards), except that restrictions on summer overland travel would not apply to federally qualified subsistence users. The final decision may be one of the alternatives in whole, or a combination of decisions from within the range of analyzed alternatives, so the BLM welcomes public comments explaining how a "mix and match" alternative would best meet the purpose and need.

The 1-million-acre White Mountains National Recreation Area is located north of Fairbanks between the Elliott and Steese highways. The White Mountains NRA was designated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980 for outdoor recreation use. Twelve public-use cabins and 250 miles of groomed winter trails are available, as well as several hiking and multi-use summer trails. The first 127 miles of Beaver Creek Wild and Scenic River runs through the NRA. The 1.2-million-acre Steese National Conservation Area is split into two units (north and south), located on either side of the Steese Highway. The Steese NCA was designated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980 to protect the area's special values, particularly Birch Creek Wild and Scenic River and caribou habitat. Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail skirts the edge of the north unit. The Birch Creek Wild and Scenic River crosses the south unit.

Both travel and transportation plans propose keeping existing BLM-managed routes. These routes would continue to be subject to current weight, width, and season restrictions for off-highway vehicles. The alternatives for both plans vary in how they address routes that the BLM does not manage or that public land users have created themselves. In some of the alternatives, the BLM proposes assuming management of such routes or simply keeping them open if they are in areas open to cross-country travel. Existing routes neither managed nor created by the BLM would be closed only if they were in areas where resource conditions warranted prohibiting summer OHV use or limiting it to specified routes.