Workday at Greene Sullivan State Forest.



The ITRA, in cooperation with the Greene County Horse Council and DNR, had a workday at the Greene Sullivan State Forest on June 13th. Three ITRA members, Yvette Rollins and Carl and Trisha Lohkamp, worked all day with three additional people from the Greene County Horse Council and six DNR people. Four of the DNR people were part of the Youth Conservation Corps. Steve Siscoe, the property manager for the State, identified the task we were to accomplish and provided the expertise and needed equipment, including a nearly new John Deere tractor with loader and posthole digger. A John Deere gator was also provided for hauling materials and for traversing trails for installation of trail markers and removal of downed trees. Three mounting blocks and three benches were installed, one each at three locations, the Day Rider Trailhead, Reservoir 29 and Tremble Lake. The benches at Reservoir 29 and Tremble Lake pro Read More »

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.

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From: Barb Ferguson: Southern Indiana News



National Trails Day Report: Pekin Community Saddle Club met at Deam Lake on May 30th at 10:00am to work on getting the new trail cleared and ready for mapping, GPS, and the archeologist to inspect. We had 10 members that showed up to work with chain saws, golf carts, 1 skid loader with a good “but crazy driver” and food for lunch. ITRA provided lunch for the day. It was a nice day and we were very lucky that a storm was just over the hill so to speak and it missed the campground as we were finishing up. The next weekend we worked on another section of the trail for about 5 hours to finish up what Walt wanted done.

Pekin Saddle Club works very hard to get trees cleared off of the trails surrounding the club and at the Deam Lake area. Daniel Boone Distance Riders have always cleared these trails as well; they clear them all the way over to Clark State Forest Campground. La Read More »

I went to an open house at Symington, IL, put on by the forest preserve district of Will County. The purpose of the open house was to get the public’s input on a proposed campground near the Wauponsee Trail south of Symington and Midewin. There was a reasonable turnout of horse people while I was there and numerous park people. There was a wide variety of trail knowledge among both the park and public attendees. There was one horse lady who let it be known that she thought putting a campground on the Wauponsee (approximately 23 miles, rails to trails, open to horses) was a waste of time and money. The park people debated her and a few of the rest of us let it be known we thought it was a wonderful idea. It was interesting to meet a new group of people and see a park department that doesn’t have to have their arms twisted to be concerned with the recreational horsemen receiving their share of the new facilities. 6-25-09 Bob Thomas and I attended another open house (Forest Preserve District of Will Cou Read More »

Saturday, August 8 Well, Yvette Rollins and Pat Bowen joined me this morning at BC park, with Pat’s nice “Panther” (like a big 4 wheeler with a dump bed) By the end of the day I was affectionately calling it “Miss Kitty”. I am not a big fan of equipment on the trails, but boy, that machine sure hauled a lot of riprap and gravel down to the creek crossing! Thanks again, so much, Pat, for bringing it to use. We put down a nice layer of gravel over the exposed geotec, and filled in part of that big ditch with riprap. Also put some gravel down on the far side where it was starting to wash a little. Yvette’s trail savvy really helped in placing the stone.

Saturday, July 11 The Brown County workday went well. Stacey Johnson and Nancy and Rob Brunnemer joined me. Nancy and Rob rode the A trail on Friday and fixed the E again on the STORE/STORY sign. They also went out on B and assessed where best to put hitch rails at the B/15 intersection. Then on Saturday we worked again on Trail 7, deberming, fixing wet spots, and chopping out roots. Rob was planning to come back and dig out a couple of stumps later.for which I was VERY grateful. I HATE rooting out stumps!!!! Getting just TOO old for that! THANKS go to Stacey and Rob and Nancy. Read More »