Saving Trails

[connie B Berto <cberto@juno.com>]

Hello all:    I've read most all of the posts about AERC's Trails Fund
and, this close to the holidays,  I'm saving my thoughts on replying
until after the New Year.   However, someone had a question on how to go
about saving trails, therefore I'd like to leave y'all with a few
thoughts for New Year's Resolutions:
     So you have favorite trails, and you're afraid of losing them.   Do
you know if they are on private or public land?   If private, have you
made a point of meeting the landowners and introducing yourself, and
offering some kind of barter (for instance, checking fence lines)  in
return for the privilege of  using their land?
     If the trails are on public land, which agency is it?   Do you know
the director of this agency (and if not, make a point of meeting him).  
Have you and a friend offered to take the director out for lunch?  Have
you ever attended public meetings of this agency?  Does your county have
a parks and recreation department; if so,  do you know the director or
some of the staff?  Have you applied for appointment to any of its
committees so that YOU can be in on the decision-making process on
trails?   Have you written letters to them expressing your concerns?  
Offered to work onNational or State Trail Days, or offered to donate
equipment such as water troughs or hitching rails?
    Do you belong to a local trails club?  If there isn't one where you
are, and if you have friends who ride trails, how about starting a trail
riders club?  If there is a trails riders club, are you active in it? 
support events with $$$?   Help them to wave the equestrian flag in
public?
    This is not easy, it takes time and effort, even years,  but THIS is
how YOU, not AERC,  keep local trail access.   I've done every single one
of the things I've mentioned above, sometimes at an uncomfortably  high
personal price.    For instance:  last week was a mishmash schedule. 
Seemed like every dang committee and sub-committee  wanted to get a
meeting in before the holidays and in four days I had seven meetings, all
on trails or open space.   (These are unpaid memberships.)   Doesn't
often happen this badly, but  I was pretty frazzled by Friday, and bless
my patient and supportive husband.   However, I'll recover like people
always do, and becuz I have an old family recipe for eggnog <VBG>.   And
we always have a wonderful huge family Christmas  (:-)))).   
      But after the New Year, I'll be back with what EnviroHorse has done
lately and what it proposes to do,  with information about certified
weed-free feed in California, and what the AERC Trails Fund can do.  
And,  as a final FINAL note,  let me tell you all that  the AERC Trails
Fund helped send Greg Jones as a PANELIST to the November 1999 Congress
on Recreation and Resource Capacity in Aspen, Colorado, and he wrote a
report that will knock your socks off.   Stay tuned, and I wish everyone
the happiest of holidays...Connie B,  AERC Trails Chair

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