Chuck and Natalie, BCHA responded to the WRNF in part because of the letter forwarded here. You'll note that the date was Oct '06 so I'm a bit surprised that Ottie forwarded it to you without much of an explanation, or did that get lost? In a nutshell despite what the Forest Supervisor asserts in her letter they are still closing more than 3 dozen trail/trail miles to pack and saddle stock use solely because some hikers have expressed a desire for a stock free trail experience in Wilderness. Nothing in the Wilderness Act of 1964 tells the FS that they should favor one user group over another and there is nothing in their documentation that supports that proposal scientifically or legally. They haven't been able to show a resource problem that is occurring either from what we have seen. Bottom line it is but one more example of the trend on the part of the FS to exclude P&S from Wilderness or to confine them to a much smaller part! Steven J Didier Public Lands Chairman Back Country Horsemen of America