Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I have recently (like last week) been elected onto a Liason Panel for the Bankhead National Forest here in my back yard.  While attending the long, 3 hour meeting, one of the topics was the ATV trails and how to keep them from destroying the forest.  One of the suprising things that came out of the meeting was the fact that the FS was afraid of the ATV groups.  Because they have lobbyist that would protest if the FS closed the trails to them.  Which of course made me think:  maybe they fear us too...just a little.   I never thought that they would fear any group unless it was the endangered mussels.   I am on the panel so that I can help preserve the trails and expand what we have there.  We have wonderful trails (25 miles) with no gravel or pavement, totally maintained by the FS, overnight camping and a day parking area.  The FS is really wanting to provide more.   So, hopefully, my presence there will be of some good in expansion.

 

Jody

Cindy Collins <c_collins@xxxxxxx> wrote:

I know I've said this many times and people chose to ignore it, but I am going to say it one more time.

There are people out there, lots of them, who think horses are extremely damaging to trail and hate sharing trails with them.  There are people who have a stated goal of getting all horses off USFS and wilderness trails.  You can hide from it all you want and it will still be true.  So, when horse folks are done bashing all other multiple users and getting them thrown off trails, there will be no one left to fight for horse folks' rights to use public trails.  In fact, they will be glad to see us get our just due.  Arrogance about our use of public trails does not serve us well.  You may personally hate hunters, four wheelers, motorcyclists and bicyclists, but I've attended meetings where they defended the rights of all users.  I also know several rides that would not exist if it were not for the support of motorcycle riders.  Now, stop and think of the most obnoxious horse owners/riders you know and how embarrassed you are by their behavior.  Then, realize that all other user groups have those folks, too.  They are not representative of all users.  

Lunch is about over, so I'm going to go back to torturing 11 year old boys who should be out in the woods on such a beautiful day and are stuck in school :)

Cindy Collins

c_collins@xxxxxxx

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