BCH of Colorado Report

Transcription

1 Back Country Horsemen of America BCH of Colorado Report National Board Meeting Spokane, Washington April 22-25, 2018 Northern CO Grand Mesa Front Range Rocky Mountain Mesa Verde Trailwise San Juan Four Corners 1

2 CONTENTS BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN OF COLORADO (BCHCO) 4 Organization & Outreach 4 Issues & Problems 4 Projects & Plans 4 Organization Details Volunteer Hours 5 FOUR CORNERS BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (4CBCH) 6 Accomplishments 6 Current and Future Projects & Plans 6, 7 Projects and Plans 7 Organization Details 7 FRONT RANGE BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (FRBCH) 8 Accomplishments 8 Projects & Plans 8 Issues & Problems 8 Logo 8 Organization Details 9 GRAND MESA BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (GMBCH) 10 Accomplishments 10 Projects & Plans 10 Organization Details 11 MESA VERDE BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (MVBCH) 12 Accomplishments 12 Current and Future Projects 12 Issues & Problems 12 Organization Details 13 Logo 13 2

3 CONTENTS (CONTINUED) NORTHERN COLORADO BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (NCBCH) 14 Accomplishments 14 Current & Future Projects 14 Issues & Problems 14 Organization Details 15 ROCKY MOUNTAIN BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (RMBCH) 16 Accomplishments 16 Current & Future Projects 16 Issues & Problems 16 Organization Details 16 SAN JUAN BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN OF COLORADO (SJBCH) 17 Accomplishments 17 Current and Future Projects 18 Issues & Problems 19 Organization Details 19 TRAILWISE BACK COUNTRY HORSEMEN (TWBCH) 20 Accomplishments 20 Current and Future Projects 20 Issues & Problems 20 Organization Details 21 3

4 STATE REPORT Back Country Horsemen of Colorado (BCHCO) Organization & Outreach Our eight chapters remain strong, although we struggle with participation statewide. However, 2018 has started strong with a lot of renewed interest from current members and folks reaching out for information on how to form new chapters. Our three annual meetings were held in Buena Vista, CO, at the Buena Vista Community Center, the most central location for all of our chapters. They were held on April 30, August 6 and November 4, The main topics of discussion included organizational progress, nonprofit status of state and chapters, political and public affairs and how to retain and increase membership statewide. We held our Leadership Symposium on April 29, Two of eight chapters have opted to become a c(3); state is looking into regaining its c(3) status that lapsed many years ago (so we were told by the IRS), due to officer turnover. This was initiated at the request of a chapter, and we hope to help with this endeavor. We have much interest in forming new chapters, but nothing solidified yet. We have sent out many informational packets, and we are offering membership directly through our state organization now for those that don t have quite enough folks yet to form their own chapter and others that need it Butte, MT NBM was attended by Julie Chaney and Larry Zauberis 2012 Eugene, OR NBM was attended by Julie Chaney and Larry Zauberis 2013 Rapid City, ND NBM was attended by Julie Chaney and Larry Zauberis 2014 Chattanooga, TN NBM was attended by Julie Chaney and Larry Zauberis 2015 Sacramento, CA NBM was attended by Jan Potterveld and Larry Zauberis 2016 Las Vegas, NV NBM was attended by Jan Potterveld and Larry Zauberis 2017 Great Falls, MT NBM was attended by Jan Potterveld and Larry Zauberis 2018 Spokane, Washington NBM to be attended by Larry Zauberis (4CBCH) and Tif Rodriguez (MVBCH) as national directors. Issues & Problems Membership recruitment and retention is a recurring theme within chapters. Setting up best practices to pass down to newly placed officers, so they know what their responsibilities are is lacking. A common theme, getting folks to step up and do the work, so we don t tire out those that are working, is a challenge; making sure folks understand and are aligned with the BCH mission Projects & Plans We are looking at how to continue the Leadership Workshop, but moving it to biannually instead of annually. Members feel it is a great service to those new to an officer position or folks wanting to learn more about the organization. We need to promote stronger committee functioning, encouraging chairs to participate with their committees in between BOD meetings. Improving the connections with chapters statewide is a goal; enable the success of new folks coming on and long-term success of the operation and viability of state is also a goal. We have had some national board turnover and educating new folks is key. Engaging youth is also vital to our success. The chair is working on a statewide youth packing challenge; more to come on this to be presented at our March 17, 2018, BCHCO BOD meeting. 4

5 STATE REPORT: BCHCO (Continued) Organization Details Chair Latifia Tif Rodriguez (MVBCH) Vice Chair Vacant (Determined at March 17, 2018, BOD Meeting) Secretary Kim Meyer (FRBCH) Treasurer Larry Zauberis (4CBCH) Volunteer Hours Larry Zauberis (4CBCH) National Directors Tif Rodriguez (MVBCH) and Larry Zauberis (4CBCH) Monica Falk (TWBCH) Alternate Committees: Education, Membership, Public Lands chairs and other committees discussed in March Volunteer Hours Chapter Total Hours Four Corners 1,402 Front Range 2,265 Grand Mesa 778 Mesa Verde 2,115 Northern Colorado 780 Rocky Mountain 438 San Juan 1,036 Trailwise 964 TOTAL 9,778 Value of Volunteer Labor for 2017: $411,981 5

6 Accomplishments Trails & Facilities CHAPTER REPORT Four Corners Back Country Horsemen (4CBCH) June 2017: Cleaned up and maintenance work Pine River Trailhead and corrals. Summer 2017: Repaired the outhouse at Farmers Cabin, Cascade Creek trail. A tree had ripped off the roof and done damage to the structure. Thanks to our efforts primitive pooping is a much improved experience. (LOL!) We also installed a permanent 6 horse steel cable highline on the south side of the cabin. August 2017: Partnered with Forest Service to pack out about 1,000 lbs. of trash left by hunting camps in the Hermosa Wilderness. This was an overnight/several day project utilizing not only our club members but their personal pack animals and horses. November 2017: New parking area for horse trailers, hikers and bikers installed on FS 527 in Sauls Creek. This was a joint partnership with the USFS, BP and 4CBCH. Besides getting the project rolling by requesting and working with the USFS our club donated money for the boulder barrier that was constructed to contain the parking area. We will be installing a sign and hitching rails spring 2018 to complete the project. Our club will also maintain the lot by picking up trash and making sure drainage is not blocked. The parking area measures 60 feet wide by 130 feet long. It is all gravel, donated, spread and packed down by BP. It has been a huge success, very heavy use this season. Sure beats the muddy ditch and small well pad access that horsemen previously had used for winter/spring parking. Education Spring 2017: One day free pack clinic hosted and put on by Ken Hoff. Spring 2017: Three new A level sawyers, chainsaw certified; three sawyers recertified. Thanks USFS for this two-day program. (Two of the three new A sawyers were women!) Sept. 2017: Participated in Trails 2000 one-day trails expo. 4CBCH decorated a booth with pack saddles, saddles and horse gear. Provided handouts, education regarding how to approach horses on the trail and information about the organization. Sold CORSAR cards at our booth as well. Our club holds monthly meetings and besides handling business at hand we have for at least the last seven years had a featured speaker. Subjects vary, and have included in the past outback first aid, timely veterinary subjects, farrier and hoof care, nutrition, endurance riding and wildlife topics. We have just started again to provide refreshments and snacks at meetings. Current and Future Projects Spring 2017: Donated $1, to Colorado Farm Bureau to fund direct relief efforts to SE CO farmers affected by the uncontrolled wildfires that destroyed fencing, livestock, equipment and structures. 6

7 CHAPTER REPORT: 4CBCH (Continued) Current and Future Projects (Continued) To help fund our yearly projects we hold a Spring Tack Sale at the Durango Fairgrounds. It is now in its 10th or 11th year and is highly anticipated by the local horse community. It is a twoday effort capped off by a six-hour sale. Last year over 70 club members donated their time and effort to make this sale a success. Local businesses, City Market, Basin Co-op, join with us to help accomplish this sale. Sale is always the first weekend in April. It is traditionally our largest fundraiser of the year. Another popular seasonal club activity is a social horseback ride headed by Chuck Wanner, a club board member. Up to six club members can sign up for a trail ride that usually lasts about three hours. Trailhead and meeting location are announced in advance and encompasses local and regional horse trails. Another social activity is the annual opening and closing of Farmers Cabin. We usually host a picnic at the cabin to feed the hungry members that have volunteered to participate. Twine recycling: We have partnered with the Mesa Verde Chapter to collect plastic baling twine. Last October was the first delivery of tons of twine to a front range recycling center. This netted our chapter $111 and we are donating all the proceeds to plant trees in the wilderness. This will be an ongoing project, keeping tons of twine out of our local landfills. Projects and Plans For 2018 we have yet to decide trail projects but we have committed to doing more trash pack out in the Hermosa Wilderness. Another new fundraiser that we are going to try is a Poker Ride at Sauls Creek. Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members National Director State Representatives Dues Structure Individual $30 Family $40 Associate $35 (Business/Organization) Julie Figg Vacant Kathy Sherer Ken Hoff Chuck Wanner, Chris Smythe, Bill Gilbert, Rachel Mikelson, Katie Minkler Larry Zauberis Larry Zauberis (BCHCO Treasurer) Cathy Roberts 7

8 CHAPTER REPORT Front Range Back Country Horsemen (FRBCH) Accomplishments Maintain trails in the Mount Evans Wilderness (73,459 acres) - mostly clearing fallen trees and some noxious weed management Maintain trails in the Lost Creek Wilderness (114,875 acres) - mostly clearing fallen trees Maintain our two adopted segments of the Colorado Trail Our annual Colorado Trail Ride. Volunteers from our chapter serve as trail ride leaders, camp cooks, and transport camping gear and horse feed. We put on a week-long ride every summer and over five years riders can complete the full 486 miles with us. Camping weekend and trailwork with local youth Educational booth at the Colorado Horse Expo Annual spring horsemanship "tune up" clinic with Forest Service mule packer Assist National Forest personnel with other projects as needed, such as trail maintenance and Christmas tree cutting Evolving partnerships with other outdoor stewardship organizations (hikers, mountain bikers) who use and help maintain some of the same trails we do Projects and Plans We will continue with all the projects listed above. We are planning more trailwork projects that involve camping. Many of our members have campers or living quarters horse trailers and we get better participation. Issues and Problems Aging trailwork volunteers, fewer people willing and able to work on the trails. 8

9 CHAPTER REPORT: FRBCH (Continued) Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members State Representatives Kim Meyer Linda Baur Courtney Case Kitty Bladt Linda Mackety, Sharon Root, Laura Thornberg Kim Meyer (BCHCO Secretary) Julie Chaney Dues Structure Individual $30 Family $35 Corporate Sponsor $55 We were founded in At the end of 2017 we had 80 members. 9

10 Accomplishments Trails & Facilities CHAPTER REPORT Grand Mesa Back Country Horsemen (GMBCH) Adopted Trails. GMBCH has adopted a number of trails in the Fruita Division of the Grand Mesa National Forest. Each year we have work projects to clear and maintain these trails: Haypress, Fruita Reservoir, and Black Pine. These are ride-in projects as the trailheads are quite distant. In addition we have been working on the Cow Creek trail and Frank's Bench trail, both in the Northern Uncompahgre National Forest. These are trails that have not been maintained in a number of years. They are at high altitude and require significant clearing of downed timber. Wet weather on our scheduled days had an adverse impact on our ability to complete these projects and thus they will be carried over into Other Trails. These trails, the Old Spanish Trail (BLM), the McInnis Canyon NCA Trails (BLM) including Devils Canyon, Pollock and Flume, get some light attention during the course of the year, both monitoring and light maintenance when needed. When so indicated, we are also available to support maintenance on trails up on the Grand Mesa and elsewhere in the Grand Valley. Community Support/Education Representatives of GMBCH meet regularly with the Grand Valley Trails Alliance Roundtable for discussion and planning of trail needs with all other trails users, such as hikers, bikers, ATV users, jeep enthusiasts, motorized bikers, the BLM, NFS, and other members of the public. GMBCH sponsored a Horsemanship Clinic open to the public and led by a Mounted Policeman from Telluride with an emphasis on horsemanship skills useful when engaging with the public. Film clips are available and included with this package. GMBCH manned a booth at the Fruita Coop outdoor recreation event to showcase our club and display what we do to support the community. Projects and Plans GMBCH fully participated in the assessment phase of the GMUG Plan Revision, particularly in the assessment of various areas for wilderness treatment or special management designations. This effort will continue in partnership with the NFS during We are still working on the placement of a corral in the northern Uncompahgre NFS after failure to reach agreement with the Fruita City Recreation Department on a suitable location. Trail Rides - Part of our agenda is to lead recreational rides into the back country for members of our Chapter and their guests. These rides were very nice and we have made up a short video to illustrate some of our activity. 10

11 Organization Details CHAPTER REPORT: GMBCH (Continued) We publish a Newsletter each month and maintain a website for the public as well as two Facebook sites [one is a page for the general public and one is a group site for our members]. President VP Treasurer Secretary Board Member Board Member Board Member Board Member State Director State Director Newsletter Editor Volunteer Hours Welcome Packets Grand Valley Trail Alliance Social Media and Website Jan Potterveld Penny Ackerman Helen Rajewich Sharon Roper Phyllis Singleton Connie Johnson Cheryl Ballew Dave Dashner Dave Dashner Sharon Roper Ryan Roesch Jan Potterveld Helen Rajewich Dave Dashner, Jan Potterveld Jan Potterveld Membership: In 2017 we had 33 members plus 13 family members. Dues Structure Individual $35 Family $40 Associate $100 Youth $1 11

12 Accomplishments CHAPTER REPORT Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen (MVBCH) Trails & Facilities Adopted trails Mavreeso, Fish Creek, Goble All of these trails require chainsaw work at least twice yearly, along with limbing, pruning, riding, maintenance throughout the year. All were done, with the exception of the upper section of Fish creek, which the FS finished for us. Education We certified three A chainsaw sawyers in We certified five B crosscut sawyers in 2017 to help with work in wilderness. An educational speaker is provided at almost every monthly membership meeting; topics discussed include local travel management planning, history of the railroad in our area, veterinary care, chiropractic care, proper agency guidelines for trail maintenance, mountain lion activity, and so much more. Organization Annual social events are always well attended. Website and Facebook are used; Facebook is pretty active, considering its infancy. There are members and nonmembers that regularly post. We have a monthly newsletter with a new editor for Committees Public lands, Education, Trail Work pared down for The Chapter opted to become a c(3), gaining this status about mid-year. We have representation within the Southwest Trails Roundtable, consisting of all user groups that recreate and volunteer on the San Juan NF; we have representation within the Mancos Trails Group, a nonmotorized group working in and around the town of Mancos. Current and Future Projects We used the matching grant awarded from BCHCO to fund regraveling of the Mavreeso trailhead area. This was done last in 2008 and needed some work. We try to stay involved in local public lands issues, as many areas are being used more heavily. We ve partnered with 4CBCH on a twine recycling project; a much needed community service to keep baling twine contained. Our annual Poker Ride fundraiser, four years now (although one year we were rained out), is a big success; annual tack sale (this year will be the third) is a good community service. Issues and Problems Recruitment of new members; engaging current members to be active; passing down education of BCH to new folks. Parking for our rigs is always an issue, but we work well with our office to keep horse folks at the table. We are being inundated with mountain biking in the area. Beetle kill and trail maintenance backlog are huge concerns; we haven t completely felt the impacts yet, but are starting to. 12

13 CHAPTER REPORT: MVBCH (Continued) Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Larry Dozier Vice President Cindy Clare Secretary Ronaele Martin Treasurer Ted Saunders Board Member Wayne Schaaf (through 2018) Board Member Vacant National Director Tif Rodriguez State Representatives Tif Rodriguez (BCHCO Chair) Wayne Schaaf Dues Structure Individual $33 Family $38 Business/Associate $38 Youth $9 Honorary $0 History 1998 Incorporated in February; official chapter of BCHA , Volunteer Hours; 32 Family and 29 Individual Memberships ,067.1 Volunteer Hours; 30 Family and 27 Individual Memberships , Volunteer Hours; 28 Family and 25 Individual Memberships , Volunteer Hours; 27 Family and 30 Individual Memberships Volunteer Hours; 25 Family and 23 Individual Memberships Volunteer Hours; 15 Family and 15 Individual Memberships ,086 Volunteer Hours; 18 Family and 18 Individual Memberships , Volunteer Hours; 15 Family and 21 Individual Memberships , Volunteer Hours; 21 Family and 21 Individual Memberships 13

14 CHAPTER REPORT Northern Colorado Back Country Horsemen (NCBCH) Accomplishments Trails & Facilities Two adopted trails, Little Beaver and Fish Creek. Both are accessed from Jack s Gulch Campground near Pingree Park in the Comanche Peaks Wilderness. Current and Future Projects Two largest projects: A complete overhaul of the corrals at Pelton Creek in the Medicine Bow mountain range that were originally constructed in 1997 by Snowy Range BCH (now defunct). This project was completed with help from Wyoming Great Divide Basin BCH, under the supervision of Bill Baer of the USFS, Laramie Ranger District. We installed four new 12X20 corrals at Corral Creek at the request of the BLM, Laramie District. This project was also a dual project with WYGDB BCH. These corrals have been utilized very successfully and we have been asked to build at least four more in the summer of 2018 in the same location. We will be building other corrals in other BLM areas as they see a need! At both of these events we were treated to gourmet food provided by NCBCH and masterfully prepared by Chris Vigil with assistance from Nancy Flippin and Vickie Buchanan, respectively. Nancy s cast iron cooking is second to none! We are planning several projects throughout the spring and summer with Great Divide Basin BCH. Projects have yet to be named or scheduled. We are hoping to contact someone in the Steamboat Springs area to get some projects scheduled for this year and the next several years, understanding trails need serious maintenance in that area. Noteworthy: Chuck Peterson of CSU and a NCBCH member was featured in an article in the January 2018 edition of Western Horseman. Issues and Problems The issues we are having is motivating our members to attend monthly meetings, our inability to recruit new members, as well as our inability to get most members truly interested in the work we do, and to understand that we need members to bolster our credence when weighing in on state and national trail issues. Another HUGE issue is difficulty getting people to record and submit their volunteer hours each year or as they are done. (A small easy to carry notebook with what information is needed would be a Godsend!!) 14

15 CHAPTER REPORT: NCBCH (Continued) Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members State Representatives L. Jay McDonald Vickie Buchanan Kate Vassel Rick Farasyn Kate Vassel (Chair), Nancy McDonald, Dale Bratton, Rick Grabish, Chuck Peterson, Nancy Flippin Nancy Flippin, Nancy McDonald Dues Structure Individual $40 Family $45 Corporate $60 comes w/website advertising for business Volunteer Hours hours, value of $84,452 greatly underreported. This year we re putting together a cheat sheet for members to complete as they do their trail work (Tif at state passed along the format she created years ago and it greatly helped with MVBCH hours). We re hoping this will make the recording work done much easier. 15

16 CHAPTER REPORT Rocky Mountain Back Country Horsemen (RMBCH) Accomplishments Trails & Facilities One adopted trail within BLM trail system Organization - Rocky Mountain Back Country Horsemen (RMBCH) is a member of the Back Country Horsemen of America - RMBCH was the first chapter in the state of Colorado, founded in RMBCH is a non-profit chapter made up of individuals dedicated to maintaining and preserving our historic right to enjoy the use of horses and mules, for recreation on public lands. RMBCH is based in Penrose, Colorado and meets at the Penrose Community Center, now called the Penrose Station, on the first Wednesday of each month, at 7:00 pm - The public is always welcome to attend. Current and Future Projects October, 2017, we, in coordination with the San Isabel NF office, jointly obtained the materials, provided the final installation man hours, for a 20x20' steel pipe corral at the Horn Creek Trail Head A pipe hitching rack and highline were also installed. Issues and Problems RMBCH has faced low meeting attendance and recruitment, lack of public interest. Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members Work Project Coordinator: Quartermaster State Representative Debi Weger Barbara Tigyer Vacant Chris Lesko Jerry Martin Chairman Karen VanHaverbeke, Merle Blankenship, Ron Jayson Becky Schiola Loretta Ropollo Barbara Tigyer Dues Structure Individual $30 Family $ Summary 10 projects, 438 volunteer hours; 42 members; $940 paid to State and National BCH 16

17 Accomplishments CHAPTER REPORT San Juan Back Country Horsemen (SJBCH) Trails & Facilities Anderson Trail Worked w/pagosa RD trail crew to clear and maintain trail; monitor invasive weed eradication Williams Creek Trail Worked w/usfs Rocky Mtn. Specialty Pack String to haul in four tons of gravel; original project funded largely by NWSA matching grant Piedra Area 168 trees cleared on Lower Weminuche; opened up trail for first time in 10 years Squaw Creek Helped USFS pack in supplies for Step Outdoors crew and packed out collapsed Squaw Creek bridge South SJ Wilderness 7 trees cleared on Leche Creek; 20 trees cleared on Opal Lake/Fish Creek; more is planned Turkey Springs worked with USFS and 8 th graders to pack in water, educated folks on horse use and safety on the trail Rock Wall Repair Repaired 20-foot section of rock wall in front of Pagosa RD office Education National Public Lands Day Performed a crosscut demo and branding of cut rounds Various members are Wilderness Information Specialists for the San Juan Mountains Association Horseless Packing Workshop - We had one of the first indoor Winter Packing Workshop and it was all presented by SJBCH women members. Four stands with pack saddles were set up and educational material was handed out with information about different packing knots and some gear and what to take in your pack. The reason this was a really good idea was, many of us have attended packing clinics before, or even done a bit of packing but, like myself it had been a few years since I was able to attend a packing clinic and use knots. Lots of us don't have access to packing equipment and saddles and it is nice to revisit and learn more and different ways people may tie even the same knots on a pack. Our workshops were set up during the afternoon on a couple of occasions and a few in the evenings, this way we could break up the groups into smaller more manageable sizes. Some didn't want to come at night, some had to work and could only come in the evenings. One thing that we had noticed in our chapter is that we have lots of women that have packing skills and lots of women that were wanting to learn, and not often do we let the light shine on our women packers and this was a great opportunity for that! 8th Grade Service Project - June SJBCH participated for the 2nd year in this project. The 8th grade class works with the Forest Service to build new trails in the Turkey Springs Trails system. Two large Igloo coolers full of water were packed in for the workers. This is an educational project sharing with all the young adults information about BCH and stock use on the trails and the pack horse, with lots of questions asked about the horse and search and rescue. The students were amazed when they found out how many miles Donna puts on her horse in the mountains! Created our first SJBCH brochure - Had the brochures mailed so they were available at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Horse Expo with the BCH booth. Social Media - We are trying to make sure that we have gotten news with pictures to the Back Country Horsemen of America for the National quarterly Newsletter. 17

18 Current and Future Projects CHAPTER REPORT: SJBCH (Continued) Anderson Trail, SJBCH adopted 12 mile long trail on Pagosa RD of San Juan NF; clear downed trees, maintain tread and drainage structures, monitor invasive weed eradication efforts at MP2. Archuleta Trail, SJBCH adopted 8 mile long trail on Divide RD of Rio Grande NF; clear downed trees, maintain tread and drainage structures. Clear first 3 miles of trail by mid-july ahead of Wilderness Volunteers trail crew August National Public Lands Day, September 2018, assist Pagosa Area Trails Council and FS with crosscut saw demonstration, horse packing demo. Piedra Primitive Area trail clearing; clear downed trees from various trails in the area, including Lower Weminuche Creek Tr., Coldwater Creek Tr., Sand Creek Tr., Little Sand Creek Tr., Piedra River Trail, Skunk Creek Tr., Shaw Creek Tr.; use chainsaws and crosscut saws. Project Raghorn; assist FS with trail crew support at four high elevation camps; pack gear and tools into camp, cook meals for crew, assist with trail clearing, etc. South San Juan Wilderness trail clearing; assist with clearing of several trails in the area, including Opal Lake, Leche Creek, and Fish Creek. Pagosa Springs schools 8 th grade trail project; assist FS with one day project at Turkey Springs. Wilderness Information Specialist (WIS) and horseback patrols; patrol Wilderness areas, ride with FS personnel to assist with patrolling, reconnaissance, project work. Pagosa RD rock wall repair; continue repair of masonry wall at district office. Continental Divide Trail marking; assist CDT Coalition with signing and rock cairn construction in areas of trail on Divide RD and Pagosa RD that have no signing. SJBCH tack sale May 5; conduct community tack sale to raise funds for trail work. Weminuche Creek Trail bridge component pack-in; assist Divide RD Rio Grande NF with removal of old bridge and pack-in of new bridge. Banquet/Auction/Fundraiser - Wilderness Trails Forever campaign; assist WTFc of Pagosa Area Trails Council with 2018 fundraising effort ($40K) for trail clearing work on Pagosa RD; only 50% of Wilderness trails were opened in 2017; hire conservation corps crews to assist FS with trail work. Our President Larry Smith late last fall brought to our Chapter s attention that there was a local rancher/outfitter who wanted to gather some of our local groups, including PATC, local outfitters and the SJBCH, to try to work together to address the situation in our forests in this area, and make no mistake our forests in this area are in a CRISIS situation. So from the first meeting in November, the Wilderness Trails Forever Campaign was started. 501c3 status couldn't happen, so we are doing all of the fundraising for the SJBCH through the PATC, the Pagosa Area Trails Council, under their 501c3 umbrella. So between the Big Game Forever, BGF and PATC and the local Outfitter and us, the SJBCH, we are trying to raise $40,000 to hire extra crews this summer. In 2017 there only 50% of our trails in the Wilderness and back country were open... this is putting lots of over use on just 50% of the trails... this is our effort to try to help with money to hire more crews. The local BCH doesn't have enough manpower to do all of this. The Forest Service can handle normal conditions of fallen trees and trail repairs, but not with the dead forests in this area now, instead some trees down here and there we have sometimes hundreds of trees down in a mile of trail!! So... 18

19 Issues and Problems CHAPTER REPORT: SJBCH (Continued) The ongoing problem of funding for the agency, limited manpower to clear trails, especially in wilderness. Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members Past President State Representatives Larry Smith Rodney Pepper Jo Ann Senzig Annie Pack Ted Wortman, Nancy Seay, Gary Staplekamp, John Nelson, Kristie Hefling Ted Wortman Larry Smith, Kristie Hefling Dues Structure Family $40 Individual $35 At-Large $25 (Support only) 19

20 Accomplishments CHAPTER REPORT Trailwise Back Country Horsemen (TWBCH) Trails & Facilities Formally adopted the middle fork of the San Francisco Creek trail and are working on adopting the Hanson Mill trailhead and Wheeler Geologic Site trail. Education - We've developed a business card sized information item to hand out when we meet other users on the trail. Organization - We are active in a partnership with several user groups and the USFS in a group called DiRT (Divide Round Table). The idea behind the group is to promote and facilitate cooperation and companionable use of public lands by everyone. Current and Future Projects We plan to continue to develop and improve the Hanson Mill site which is the trailhead for access to the Wheeler Geologic site. There are a few camp sites there as well. We also have a proposal for the USFS to aid in cleaning up the protective sleeves which were used when they planted seedlings to reforest after the Million fire in These sleeves were supposed to be biodegradable but have not deteriorated and are now littering Shaw Mesa as well as choking some of the developing trees. Issues and Problems Beetle kill is huge. It's a safety issue in that the standing dead trees are unpredictable in their stability and fall without warning. Along with that is the need to keep trails clear and the limited number of work crews to clear the network of trails. We also are seeing an increase of users on public lands, especially bicycle and UTV use. This can create conflict among users but we're working on education and informing folks about best practices when encountering equestrians. Along with this spike is the limited amount of trailhead parking and poor design. The parking lots aren't very trailer friendly and seem to discourage use by equestrians. Lastly we are having great difficulty recruiting and retaining membership. It seems there are not as many younger folks in our area interested in equines and project work. Most of our membership are older retired folks. 20

21 CHAPTER REPORT: TWBCH (Continued) Organization Details Board of Directors (for 2018) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board Members National Director (Alternate) State Representatives Volunteer Hours Coord. Anne Robinson Carl Hill Kate Brooks Ronnie Day Barb Carpenter, Kate Brooks, Greg Loftis Monica Falk Smoky Barker, Greg Loftis, Monica Falk (Alternate) Monica Falk Dues Structure Individual $30 Family $35 Association $15 (No voting rights) History 1998 Became organized in August 1998 Became affiliated with BCHA in December volunteer hours volunteer hours volunteer hours volunteer hours volunteer hours paid members as of January 1 21