Until recently, the Co-Trails project has mainly had representation from hike, bike, horse and motorized user groups but we’re looking for input from groups who use the trails of the national forest to hunt or fish.
We are in the process of preparing educational materials for what a forest user can do to volunteer, what constitutes a sustainable, maintainable trail, and how to use trails responsibly, including guidelines for interacting positively with other forest users.
We’d like to know how you use the trails, how you use the forest and how you would like other forest users to interact with you, but any information would be helpful. Please comment.
One user group that is under-represented is the firearms enthusiast. These users are quite active on the trails during the entire year. Yes, there are hunting seasons when deer or smaller animals are taken from the forest, but firearms use continues year round. Owners will rebuild older guns, clean their guns, and “sight-in” a new gun to get ready for the coming hunt seasons.
Thanks for that, Kevin. You are right that the trails collaboration process did not consider this use. What is the best point of contact for this user group? Is there an organization that would reach most of them?
Does this mean that there are people out there on hiking, biking and equestrian trails shooting guns all year round?
Yes, firearms use can occur at anytime. I asked the gun users why they were firing guns outside of hunting season. They assured me that they were not “hunting” anything. Don’t know if the USFS approves of this thinking.