Most of us who use the trails and
campgrounds at Shimek Forest are not very familiar with issues
faced in managing that forest and the trails. Forester John Byrd
must balance the requirements of sustainability versus use everyday.
Here is a little about that process.
Shimek State Forest is over 9,000 acres
subdivided into several units disbursed in Lee and Van Buren Counties
managed by DNR Forestry.
Managing a forest does not mean just letting it grow—
sustainability requires extensive management practices followed
carefully from planting to harvest. There is a
detailed management plan online for Shimek State Forest that is over
300 pages and defines the many steps in forest management for each
piece of ground—sometimes subdivided to one acre sites . See
http://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Forests/Shimek-State-Forest
. To do all this work, when fully staffed, there is the Forester
and three full-time crew members. This past year, for four months
there were only two people doing all that work. Because of the
nature of the work and state regulations, certain aspects of the work
must be done between Oct 1 and April 1—meaning that there is no
time for other functions during this period. This work is the first
priority for the Shimek crew....“to protect, sustain and ensure
the lands” so the resources are there for future generations.
The equestrian trails are a courtesy
over and beyond forest management and come under the next priority
which is “Provide
sustainable, responsible recreational opportunities where
possible.”
Yet, there are no state budget funds allocated for
trails development, management nor improvement at Shimek. There are
only a couple of summer hires and every once in a while a part-time
technician to help with the campgrounds in summer —not the trails.
Previous Shimek Foresters had often done very little to support the
trails and campgrounds except allow them to be used. Thus, when
Forester Byrd arrived, the campgrounds were dilapidated and the
trails already badly eroded in some areas with little done to
maintain them. In fact, at the state level in 2011 there was a push
to close such trails in state forests. However, Forester Byrd is
most cooperative about working with volunteers to improve the
situation, making time during the primary riding season each year to
improve and sustain the trails and to improve the campground
facilities in cooperation with volunteers. Some funds to purchase
rock and materials for the trails as well as for forest management
come from REAP—the state fund from gaming and natural resource
license plates. (DNR statewide gets 9% of those funds.) Through
grants obtained by the Friends of Shimek from generous area
foundations and donations from individuals who support this effort,
funds to make significant campground and trail improvements were
obtained. Labor was provided by Forester Byrd and his crew as well
as Friends of Shimek volunteers to build horse stalls and develop wet
weather trails. He has often volunteered on Saturday –which
should be his day off.
Over the last few years, the number of
riders using the trails has markedly increased, causing more stress
to the resource and requiring more frequent closing of dirt trails
during wet weather. Wet weather use of dirt trails results in
serious erosion and development of deep wet loblollys. To improve
this situation, the Wet Weather Trail (WWT) system was developed. It
is designed to give a firmer foundation for riding in some of the
flatter trail areas so that it would not be necessary to close all
trails when the soil was wet and dirt trails are susceptible to
damage. There will always be differences of opinions as to whether
or not the dirt trails or even the Wet Weather Trails should be open.
It is the Forester's responsibility to make that call, with
protecting the resource the first priority. Some people have
commented that the gravel on the WWT and in bad areas is hard on
horses' feet. As the trail is used, the gravel packs and the trail
becomes a firm foundation and not so hard on the feet. However, many
people choose to fit their horses with boots such as EZboots to avoid
a problem. On the other hand, taking a horse through a mud loblolly
can easily cause serious harm to the horse and that means those areas
must either be closed when wet (and they stay wet a LONG time) or
heavily graveled. There is no way yet figured out to avoid an
inconvenience or risk in some cases for some people in deciding when
to open trails or whether to gravel or not---but we're sure Forester
Byrd will keep trying.
The frequent funding cuts to DNR have
often kept DNR Shimek understaffed – and that is happening again
now--and the cuts have meant very little equipment money. DNR
Shimek has one almost new track loader for 9,000 acres of forest
management, 25 miles of equestrian trail maintenance and about 32
miles of hiking trail maintenance. The other equipment is very old
and worn! Often in the past volunteers have brought in their own
tractors to do trail mowing as the old tractors at Shimek are not
very suitable for trail mowing.
 |
| Forester John Byrd (right) working with FOS volunteers on the hitching rails. |
We hope you will pause to thank our
Forester for his support next time you see him. We would also very
much appreciate it if you would contact your state senators and
representatives to urge them to support better funding for DNR so we
can continue to have equestrian trails and facilities now and into
the future.
And,yes, we hope you will be a friend of Shimek through donating time, items for use or auction and/or money to help support the equestrian trails.
