Cabinet Back Country Horsemen get help clearing trails

A partnership between the Cabinet Back Country Horsemen, Kootenai National Forest and LOR Foundation helped clear some trails earlier this year in the Libby Ranger District.

The group has assisted the Kootenai National Forest with keeping trails open for hikers and pack and saddle stock for more than 40 years. 

The Cabinet Horsemen group is a local chapter of Back Country Horsemen of Montana, a state organization, and Back Country Horsemen of America, a national organization. 

Leslie Ferguson, a retired Forest Service employee and the secretary of the local Back Country Horsemen chapter, explained that as the group’s membership has aged and decreased in numbers, it has become more difficult to do trail work.

“In years past, CBCH volunteers have cleared 50 to 60 miles of trails per year. In the last 10 years or so, membership has dwindled and aged, and it has been difficult to clear that many miles of trails. A new way of keeping trails open was needed,” Ferguson said.

The all-volunteer Cabinet Horsemen group sought help from the LOR Foundation, wondering if a trail clearing contract would be a suitable project. 

“If we could work through the necessary agreements and demonstrate that contract trail clearing was a viable option on the Kootenai National Forest, then Forest officials might begin working with volunteers to secure funds and hire contractors to work on National Forest Lands,” Ferguson said. “This process would allow more trails to stay open and usable on the landscape. Sustaining trails on the landscape would benefit local hikers, hunters and trail riders.”

LOR ended up funding the $15,000 project and CBCH worked with Libby Ranger District of the Forest Service to put together the parameters of a contract and determine which trails to clear. 

While trails accessing the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness have a high priority for trail maintenance within the Forest Service, some of the less visited areas on the Forest have not had trails cleared in more than a decade, Ferguson explained. 

“The risk of not keeping trails maintained is that they can become clogged with down trees and brush and ultimately end up lost to trail users potentially for good,” Ferguson said. “Trails on the east side of Lake Koocanusa were considered and a list of potential trails was compiled and prioritized for clearing. “

After it was all said and done, 13 miles of trail in the Dunn Creek drainage were cleared with a local contractor, opening areas that hadn’t received trail maintenance in more than a decade. 

The contractor is M&K Trail Services, led by Nick Monroe and Lonnie Kirk.

“The success of this project demonstrates that trail clearing with local contractors through a volunteer organization is a viable, usable option for both the Forest Service and CBCH to increase trails cleared annually and keep this recreation resource on the landscape for all recreational trail users. This grant also generated local employment for the contractors that cleared the trails,” Ferguson said.

The Backcountry Horsemen also worked for about a week on a summer project, washing, oiling logs and painting porches on the Upper Ford Cabin in the Yaak. The structure is a Forest Service rental cabin, which is nearly a century old.

The mission statement of the Back Country Horsemen is:

- To perpetuate the common sense use and enjoyment of horses in America’s back country, roadless backcountry and wilderness areas.

- To work to ensure that public lands remain open to recreational stock use.

- To assist the various government and private agencies in their maintenance and management of said resource.

- To educate, encourage and solicit active participation by the general public in the wise and sustaining use of the back country resource by horses and people commensurate with our heritage.

- To foster and encourage the formation of new state back country horsemen organizations.

- To seek out opportunities to enhance existing areas of recreation for stock users.

For more information about the group, contact Deena Shotzberger at 406-293-8188.