Subject: Fwd:Forest Supervisor's Response to email regarding White River National Forest


Well folks, thanks go to Khadija Haynes, CoHoCo Board Member. She was able to get a timely response from Maribeth Gustafson, White River National Forest Supervisor, regarding the letter written by "Elaine" that was forwarded to many organizations including BCHA, CoHoCo and the Tennessee Walking Horse Assoc.

When I received the letter forwarded to me by Ottie Otterstein from the BCHA office as well as from the CoHoCo office, I replied by asking for supporting documentation preferably from the WRNF office. Brian Kitchen (CoHoCo ED) was unfortunately out of town due to the upcoming RM Horse Expos in Durango & Grand Junction. Apparently Khadija was asked or volunteered to research this situation in order to allow equestrians to respond in an informed and levelheaded manner.

Attached is a letter from the Forest Supervisor addressed directly to Khadija as well as another file with excerpts from the WRNF Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Travel Management (DEIS). Unfortunately we do not have any BCHA chapters in the WRNF area that would have information about those exact Wilderness area trails proposed to be closed to stock use. This is the central, very mountainous, part of the state and has very little private land below 9,000' where it is reasonable or affordable to keep trail horses.

The key negative sentence regarding horse use that I see is on the 2nd page regarding complaints about trail damage and manure. This is to be expected, but I do not believe are valid reasons for "waving the magic wand" and arbitrarily closing trail access to horses. Remember, there is no scientific evidence here that these personal conflicts are not manageable and even the WRNF's own document admits that there is conflict even within user groups. What I think needs to be asked is when will the closures stop because I will BET that complaints will continue, possibly even from environmental/animal extremists posing to be valid members of other user groups.

Am I being extreme here? Possibly, but, even though it appears overall horses may be loosing very little in "trail miles" in the WRNF, the damage is done when broad, unsubstantiated claims are published in reports such as these regarding pack and saddle stock use. Opponents to our use will see that they can succeed simply by "dropping a dime" and citing previous reports by other National Forests.

On a brighter note, I attended a skills clinic to celebrate NPLD sponsored by the Rocky Mountain BCH that was very nicely put together. They had 2 representatives from both the Forest Service and the BLM. All 4 gentlemen were very knowledgeable and supportive of educated stock users in their respective areas. We even received SWAG bags from the Colorado BLM with the slogan "Use, share, appreciate.....your public lands." Too bad all federal land managers can't embrace this line of thought-it might get them closer to nipping the complainers in the bud rather than pandering to them (and this includes equestrians).

Please forward this information to anyone you received the previous e-mail from.

Sincerely,



Julie Chaney
President
Front Range Back Country Horsemen
PO Box 1524
Elizabeth, CO 80107
303-646-2135
www.frontrangebackcountryhorsemen.org
www.bchcolorado.org
www.backcountryhorse.com