Managing Shimek Forest and the Equestrian Trails

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.