Public means you are not allowed except by permission.
Unfortunately you are correct, and more so as time passes.
This is simply one group attempting to grab exclusive use of public lands for their activities. The enviro-jihadists are on the march or should I say hike. In Colorado they have banned 4-wheeling in many formally popular places, now bikes. These Sierra Club type hikers are spoiled brats that don’t know how to share. BLM and national forest lands are to be multi-use, sometimes that includes mining, ranching, recreation, hunting, biking, motor-sports, climbing, timber harvesting and even hiking. If they are to be exclusively used by any one interest then the land is essentially as if it were private. In that case the land should be sold to the highest bidder - in the mean time I suggest that the Sierra Club fork over the equivalent property tax for all the public land they think they own (a couple of billion dollars would come close).
Has Bush sold off the Parks? What in the hell is going on? Doesn’t the new owner allow trespassers?