SantaFeNewMexican.com - Full Article
Tripp Stelnicki | The New Mexican Nov 6, 2017 Updated Nov 7, 2017
Santa Fe County has finalized a long-awaited plan to open up almost 2,500 picturesque acres in the heart of the Galisteo Basin.
Hikers, bikers, outdoor explorers and horseback riders will soon be able to enjoy the Thornton Ranch Open Space. New trails will be built, and much of the “culturally sensitive” land and archaeological resources in the scenic conservation area 15 miles southeast of Santa Fe are to be improved or restored.
The Thornton Ranch master plan was approved last week to applause by county commissioners. They also authorized an interpretive plan for the Galisteo Basin and a management plan for Petroglyph Hill, a small volcanic summit that is sacred to Native tribes and was designated for protection by Congress in 2004.
These documents will together guide the public use and management of what is the county’s largest open space, with 360-degree mountain views and immaculate night skies.
“There’s been an attack in other parts of the country associated with our public lands and many areas that are saying they want to give them back,” said Commissioner Robert Anaya, referring to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recommendations that at least four national monuments be shrunk. “That couldn’t be further from what we really need. What we need is to continue to have projects like this...”
Read more here:
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/thornton-ranch-area-to-open-for-public-access/article_b4cb6b4f-105f-5155-89e9-7526aaee5ba9.html
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Monday, November 6, 2017
Why You Don't Want the States Managing Public Land
Outsideonline.com - Full Article
The GOP doesn't think the feds should oversee our national heritage. Here's why they're wrong.
Wes Siler
Nov 2, 2017
States should manage the public lands within their own borders, right? It sounds like one of those common sense, local management, small government things that will be in the citizens’ best interests.
It’s actually exactly the opposite.
That's because the federal government is mandated to manage public lands for multiple uses. So for-profit enterprises, like logging and drilling, need to co-exist with folks who want to hike, bike, and play on those lands, as well as the wildlife that already lives there. In contrast, states are mandated to manage their lands for profit, which means logging and drilling take precedent over public access and environmental concerns.
The difference really is that simple, and it's really all you need to know to understand why federal management is better for our wild places than state management. But the ramifications of that difference are incredibly far reaching...
Read more here:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2256531/why-you-dont-want-states-managing-public-land
The GOP doesn't think the feds should oversee our national heritage. Here's why they're wrong.
Wes Siler
Nov 2, 2017
States should manage the public lands within their own borders, right? It sounds like one of those common sense, local management, small government things that will be in the citizens’ best interests.
It’s actually exactly the opposite.
That's because the federal government is mandated to manage public lands for multiple uses. So for-profit enterprises, like logging and drilling, need to co-exist with folks who want to hike, bike, and play on those lands, as well as the wildlife that already lives there. In contrast, states are mandated to manage their lands for profit, which means logging and drilling take precedent over public access and environmental concerns.
The difference really is that simple, and it's really all you need to know to understand why federal management is better for our wild places than state management. But the ramifications of that difference are incredibly far reaching...
Read more here:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2256531/why-you-dont-want-states-managing-public-land
Top Trail Picks – Nov 2014 – CT, NE, OR
Trailmeister.com - Full ArticleDecember 22, 2014
November is one of my favorite month’s of autumn when the horse riding and camping trips can vary between encounters Indian Summer’s warm breezes and glorious golden leaves to bitterly cold sheets of driving rain that drives us indoors to the welcome warmth of a fire. It’s a month of change as we move into winter.
Let’s embrace November and the changing of the seasons with visits to three wonderful horse riding and camping areas with names starting with the letter N. This month we’ll again travel coast to coast; starting on the eastern Atlantic seaboard in Connecticut then traveling 1,600 miles due west to the rolling sand hills of Nebraska, then continuing further westward another 1,500 miles to the Pacific coast of Oregon...
Read more here about
Natchaug State Forest – Ashford, Connecticut
Natick Horse Camp – North Platte, Nebraska
Nehalem Bay State Park – Manzanita, Oregon
https://www.trailmeister.com/top-trail-picks-nov-2014-ct-ne-or/?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Nov+2017+general+newsletter
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Montana: This Land Is No Longer Your Land
Bloomberg.com - Full Article
The fight over preserving public land during the Trump era is taking a strange, angry twist in Montana’s Crazy Mountains. Both sides are armed.
By Monte Reel
Brad Wilson is following a forest trail and scanning the dusky spaces between the fir trees for signs of movement. The black handle of a .44 Magnum juts prominently from his pack. If he stumbles on a startled bear at close range, the retired sheriff’s deputy wants to know the gun is within quick reach, in case something stronger than pepper spray is needed. Wilson isn’t the type who likes to take chances; he’s the type who plans ahead.
Before setting foot on this path, he unfolded a huge U.S. Forest Service map and reviewed the route, Trail 267. He put a finger at the trailhead, which was next to a ranger’s station, then traced its meandering path into the Crazy Mountains, a chain in south-central Montana that’s part of the northern Rockies. Like many of the trails and roads that lead into U.S. Forest Service land, Trail 267 twists in and out of private properties. These sorts of paths have been used as access points for decades, but “No Trespassing” signs are popping up on them with increasing frequency, along with visitors’ logs in which hikers, hunters, and Forest Service workers are instructed to sign their names, tacitly acknowledging that the trail is private and that permission for its use was granted at the private landowners’ discretion.
Wilson hates the signs and the logbooks, interpreting them as underhanded attempts by a handful of ranchers to dictate who gets to enter federal property adjacent to their own. Several of the owners operate commercial hunting businesses or rental cabins; by controlling the points of ingress to public wilderness, Wilson says, they could effectively turn tens of thousands of acres of federal land into extensions of their own ranches. That would allow them to charge thousands of dollars per day for exclusive access, while turning away anyone—hikers, anglers, bikers, hunters, locals like Wilson, or even forest rangers—who didn’t strike a deal...
Read more here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-25/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land
The fight over preserving public land during the Trump era is taking a strange, angry twist in Montana’s Crazy Mountains. Both sides are armed.
By Monte Reel
Brad Wilson is following a forest trail and scanning the dusky spaces between the fir trees for signs of movement. The black handle of a .44 Magnum juts prominently from his pack. If he stumbles on a startled bear at close range, the retired sheriff’s deputy wants to know the gun is within quick reach, in case something stronger than pepper spray is needed. Wilson isn’t the type who likes to take chances; he’s the type who plans ahead.
Before setting foot on this path, he unfolded a huge U.S. Forest Service map and reviewed the route, Trail 267. He put a finger at the trailhead, which was next to a ranger’s station, then traced its meandering path into the Crazy Mountains, a chain in south-central Montana that’s part of the northern Rockies. Like many of the trails and roads that lead into U.S. Forest Service land, Trail 267 twists in and out of private properties. These sorts of paths have been used as access points for decades, but “No Trespassing” signs are popping up on them with increasing frequency, along with visitors’ logs in which hikers, hunters, and Forest Service workers are instructed to sign their names, tacitly acknowledging that the trail is private and that permission for its use was granted at the private landowners’ discretion.
Wilson hates the signs and the logbooks, interpreting them as underhanded attempts by a handful of ranchers to dictate who gets to enter federal property adjacent to their own. Several of the owners operate commercial hunting businesses or rental cabins; by controlling the points of ingress to public wilderness, Wilson says, they could effectively turn tens of thousands of acres of federal land into extensions of their own ranches. That would allow them to charge thousands of dollars per day for exclusive access, while turning away anyone—hikers, anglers, bikers, hunters, locals like Wilson, or even forest rangers—who didn’t strike a deal...
Read more here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-10-25/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land
Monday, October 30, 2017
Canada: Horseback riders lose bid for access to DCF Main Tract
Citizen.on.ca - Full Article
October 27, 2017
By Mike Pickford
What appears to be a longstanding, bitter feud between two different user groups of the Dufferin County Forest reared its head last Thursday as County Council heard from horseback riders who feel hard done by recent changes to the recreational policy for the site.
It was a busy night inside council chambers as people on both sides of the issue filled the gallery, with the horse riders especially vocal as they sought to change a new policy, implemented in May, that the County spent the best part of four years putting together.
In that policy, Council agreed to dedicate a 26-kilometre loop of the Main Tract in the Dufferin County Forest to mountain bikers only, much to the chagrin of the local horseback riding community. Eight delegates spoke at the meeting on Thursday, each presenting different thoughts, opinions and points on the new policy.
The main issue most of the horse riders seemed to have is the feeling they’re being punished for not involving themselves throughout the four-year period it took to construct the policy. That feeling of injustice is only intensified by the fact that a member of the Forest Operation Review Committee, who helped form recommendations for the policy, is Johnny Yeaman, a leader of one of the local mountain bike clubs set to benefit from the new policy...
Read more here:
http://citizen.on.ca/?p=10111
October 27, 2017
By Mike Pickford
What appears to be a longstanding, bitter feud between two different user groups of the Dufferin County Forest reared its head last Thursday as County Council heard from horseback riders who feel hard done by recent changes to the recreational policy for the site.
It was a busy night inside council chambers as people on both sides of the issue filled the gallery, with the horse riders especially vocal as they sought to change a new policy, implemented in May, that the County spent the best part of four years putting together.
In that policy, Council agreed to dedicate a 26-kilometre loop of the Main Tract in the Dufferin County Forest to mountain bikers only, much to the chagrin of the local horseback riding community. Eight delegates spoke at the meeting on Thursday, each presenting different thoughts, opinions and points on the new policy.
The main issue most of the horse riders seemed to have is the feeling they’re being punished for not involving themselves throughout the four-year period it took to construct the policy. That feeling of injustice is only intensified by the fact that a member of the Forest Operation Review Committee, who helped form recommendations for the policy, is Johnny Yeaman, a leader of one of the local mountain bike clubs set to benefit from the new policy...
Read more here:
http://citizen.on.ca/?p=10111
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Keeping Paradise Possible
Trailmeister.com - Full ArticleFebruary 20 2017
By Robert Eversole – North East Chapter, BCHW
Paradise. For some that’s an image of a tropical beach, for me it’s a dirt trail that twists and meanders to a backcountry camp deep in the wilderness. It’s a quiet solitude punctuated by the peaceful clip clop of hooves and the far scream of an eagle aloft. It’s the sweet perfume of pine on a warm summer day. It’s the
companionship of a trusted horse who will faithfully take you home.
Unfortunately, in a growing number of cases paradise has padlocks.
In only a few short generations we’ve “improved” a lot of backcountry and rural areas into suburbia and shopping malls. Trail Closed signs are both dreaded and unfortunately frequently encountered. Least we lose them, we’d better take care of the equine friendly country that remains. Paradise needs protecting.
You don’t have to be a trail rider, or even have your own horse, to recognize the importance of conserving horse trails. There are many things that each of us can do to preserve equine trails. Unfortunately, often it’s sometimes hard to explain why groups like ours are important. Here are some of the reasons to join that I talk about during my expo clinics.
Horse clubs are focal points for both social events and trail stewardship efforts. For me the biggest reason to join an equestrian club is for the comradery of people who have the same interests. Being able to talk about trail conditions, feed, training, etc. is priceless.
Don’t have a local Back Country Horsemen group nearby, or don’t care for the one that is? Start a new one. These organizations are always looking for new members and new chapters. A quick google search will put you in touch with someone who can help.
Here are four reasons to join a, or start, a horse club. And quotes from those who have...
Read more here:
https://www.trailmeister.com/keeping-paradise-possible/
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Webinar: Design and Construction for Equestrian Trails - Sustainably
Register here
Topic: Design and Construction for Equestrian Trails - Sustainably
Description
This webinar will cover some basic insights on how sustainable and long lasting trails should be created. The discussion will start with proper design techniques, where the trail should go, where shouldn't it go, and why. This will be followed by a talk about best management practices for construction that will create durable trails in many different terrain and soil types.
Time
Oct 17, 2017 7:00 PM in Eastern Standard Time (US and Canada)
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