[RC] Restrictions in SE National Forests - Linda B. Merims
This just came through on the Blue Ride Trail
Riders'
newsletter:
>Cherokee National Forest: those
who live near or ride in the Cherokee, north or south, need to >sit up and
take notice! The Management Plan calls for limiting horses to classified roads
and >designated trails which will concentrate all the traffic in just a few
areas. Many of the customary ->use areas will be off-limits, and trails
crossing streams and passing through wildlife openings will >be closed.
Equestrian access to wilderness areas could be drastically curtailed. Riders
first of all >need to do an inventory of the trails they ride: which are
designated and which are not?
>Your access to the National Forest is in
jeopardy! The folks in the Chattahoochee and Oconee >Forests in Georgia
expect to lose camping areas and trailheads as well as trails by the end of
2003! >This could happen in TN as well. What we need is a planned system that
will disperse the use and >additional camping areas and trailheads to keep
them dispersed, but the USFS lacks the funds to do >all these things and
plans to pull back to a limited plan that is easier to maintain. Equestrians
need >to be involved in this planning process as well as in the construction
and maintenance of the >remaining horse access points. Find out just how
these restrictions would affect you and, area by >area, help plan for a
sustainable trail system which the Forest Service can
afford.
What is going on down there! It almost
seems as though
all the effort at education being put forth at
the SE Equestrian
