Written by: c2itconsult
10/1/2009 9:29 AM

Update on Covered Bridge State Forest (Country Haven)

Submitted by Yvette Rollins, VP



On June 27th, 47 volunteers came together to work on the trails at the Covered Bridge State Forest. It was a wonderful sight to see so many great volunteers. Brett was beside himself with excitement to see so many people. We impressed the forest service people as well. We were so lucky to have 4 skid steers there to do the work. Matt Goings and family came with two, Greg Hersberger with one and Steve Auth with the fourth. We opened about 4.5 miles of trails, cut out overhead limbs and walked a lot. Brett Erwood has spent about 200 hours GPSing and flagging the trails prior to our arrival or we could not have gotten as much done on the trails. I would also like to thank the boys from the Hoosier Youth Conservation Corp and the men from Greene-Sullivan State Forest for their work.

This is a message from Steve Siscoe, Property Manager for Covered Bridge after my report on the work day, “Thank you for all of your efforts and please pass on my thanks to your members”.

We are very hopeful that Covered Bridge will open this fall. The property manager has been working to get the place ready to go and I do know that now that the budget is set, they can make future plans for the area.

The plan is to keep the trails we worked on. The history of the purchase of the property from the Nature Conservancy will not allow more trail miles and it will also affect the additional property being purchased.

We, as horse people, need to be mindful of our past reputation of not staying on trails and make sure we stay on trails that are designated for our use. If we don’t, we will lose trails or won’t have future trails because of our cowboy ways. I don’t know how many times I have heard it from people, “you guys tear the heck out of the place and don’t stay on trails and you are cutting your own throat”.

I know that I am preaching to the choir because horseback riders that take the time to work on trails and join horse groups are not the people I need to reach with this message. How do we reach people who don’t care if we keep what we have to ride on? They are going to ride wherever they want, whenever they want, until they get caught and then scream about it and think we should do something to protect their rights. They have the right to stay on the trails and not get caught riding off trails. If you are going to, then don’t whine when you get caught. Just remember what you do today will either ensure the future of our trails either in a negative way or a positive way. It is your choice.

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