Protecting Our Access to Trails

by Angie J. Mayfield 

From the April 2023 Issue of Mules and More

Trails are as old as America, allowing exploration and recreation – and it was horses and mules that kept them open. The Grand Canyon, Going-to-the-Sun Road, and other famous tourist attractions couldn’t have been built without equines. Yet, beginning in the 1980s, organizers, government agencies, and environmentalists began excluding and eliminating more and more trails for equestrians. Most of us older riders just ignore the ongoing prejudice and keep on riding wherever we can. However, the threat to our way of life is becoming more and more apparent and hostile, and we must fight for access to trails or risk losing them.

The Mayfield family at Shawnee National Forest

The equestrian trails are the primary reason I moved to Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois last year. So imagine my distress to find out that activist groups are funding a proposal to turn Shawnee into a national park. Like most political and environmental campaigns, a national park sounds great in theory. However, the consequences for residents, equestrians, hunters, and the forest are disastrous according to the research I’ve done and the professional foresters and residents of national park areas I’ve talked to.  

“Preservation” and “climate change” have become buzz words that politicians and environmentalists use to win votes, money, and power. For example, one of the groups trying to change Shawnee into a park calls itself “Shawnee Defenders” to confuse us, though their offices are in New York and California and destroying – not defending – our way of life in southern Illinois is their goal. The group wants complete preservation, with no trees or plants touched and no horses or dogs allowed. They claim they want the forest to remain in its original state of wilderness. Actually, most of the Shawnee’s original state was homesteads and pastures. During the Depression, when people were starving, they agreed to sell parcels cheaply to the forest service. Remnants of old cabins, chimneys, wells, and flower patches still scatter the landscape and along the trails.

National park promoters also claim there will be an increase in tourism, which will help the local economy. However, thousands of trail riders and hunters travel to the Shawnee every year, spending money on fuel, food, camping, and camping supplies. If trail riding and hunting are prohibited, like in most national parks, tourism and the economy may suffer rather than flourish.

National Parks are noble endeavors to save beautiful places like Yosemite that were being mined, logged, and farmed unrestricted in the 1800s. However, Shawnee is already protected. It’s a national forest, and the National Park Service would have to be forced by Congress to take the management of the Shawnee National Forest. They do not automatically take control of any land that is being protected by another agency. The forest service is a conservation agency – not a preservation, “hands-off” national park where no hunting, cutting trees or controlling underbrush is allowed. 

Due to an overpopulation of deer, Shawnee allows permitted hunting. And to help the appearance and health of the forest, they perform prescribed burns of a few acres to control underbrush. If invasive species such as autumn olive, honeysuckle, and thorn bushes are not touched at all, they take over a forest. The large oak and hickory trees that produce acorns and hickory nuts to feed our wildlife will struggle and be forced to compete for sunlight and water if the forest becomes a “climate preserve” as park-supporters are calling it. Even Native Americans, who relied on nuts in their diets, performed controlled burns to manage underbrush and protect their valuable resources. In the Shawnee, Let the Sun Shine In (LSSI) was established in 2016 as a Southern Illinois conservation program dedicated to restoring and maintaining southern Illinois’s Oak Ecosystems. LSSI works with federal, state, local, nongovernmental partners, and private landowners with the goals of addressing threats to woodland and forest communities, maintaining biodiversity, and reducing forest fragmentation, so the Shawnee is already protected in many ways – contrary to the malarkey activists proposing a national park here are feeding the public.

Sadly, propaganda is a tool of persuasion. People are gullible, and the activist groups are falsely claiming a national park will protect Shawnee from clear cutting. However, there hasn’t been logging or clear cutting in Shawnee National Forest for more than 30 years. The one area they did eliminate was replanted and is again a forest of trees. Only selective cutting is used now to remove damaged and junk trees from Shawnee’s old hickory and white oak forests, and it only affects 100-200 acres a decade of Shawnee’s vast 289,000 acres. Therefore, “saving the forest from being clear cutted” is another manipulative lie that radicals are known for to emotionally provoke the uninformed. 

Flowers and a trail marker on the RTR Trail

 One look at Montana and California wildfires warns us the devastation of not managing the forest. However, continual lawsuits and protests have led to a hands-off approach by the government and forestry service to save money and pacify activists. The consequence is more than 10 million acres of forests destroyed every year in California and 340,000 acres in Montana. If dead trees aren’t removed and underbrush isn’t controlled, they become kindling to every lightning storm and discarded cigarette and we lose all of the trees and animals. However, many people act on emotion rather than facts and common sense.

Contrary to public opinion, research shows national parks can have negative consequences such as budget and waste management problems, a lack of water, an increase in invasive species, and a splurge of urban tourists who litter and trample vegetation and saplings and trespass on private property. National parks also lead to fees and increased property taxes for local citizens, plus numerous restrictions on trails and access, including limited hours of operation. Shawnee National Forest lacks the infrastructure for a national park, and the only funding the Department of Interior will provide will build more toilets and concrete paths to disfigure and deface our scenic sites. 

Another issue is the ongoing abuse of eminent domain. The laws that govern eminent domain should function to protect citizens—not to enable government overreach. Because state and national parks, recreational facilities, and other non-essential services are not specified in law as prohibited uses of eminent domain, they are by default allowed. Therefore, if Shawnee is made into a national park, they will want a unified block of land and can forcefully take private property that lies within the boundaries of the forest – including my 54-acre farm and local horse campgrounds. Even if they don’t take our land, our access will be denied as well as hunting within 150 feet from the park land, even on our own property. Seclusion, trail riding, and deer hunting are the main reasons most people own land next to the forest, and all will be restricted. I never go down my gravel road without seeing at least 15 deer every day. I can’t imagine the increased number of vehicle collisions and starving deer if no hunting is allowed in my area. 

Angie and Honeysuckle at Rice Hollow at Shawnee National Forest

I’ve ridden in hundreds of forests over the years but very few parks because most don’t allow trail riding. If they do, it is usually restricted to a short loop trail hidden at the back of the park away from the scenic landmarks tourists and hikers are allowed to access. It’s so expensive and so much trouble, I tend to avoid national parks. Equestrians and property owners lose more and more trails each year because we don’t stand up to government entities and activist groups. Join your local equine and trail conservancy groups and write and call your congressman and forest service. Also, use trail etiquette. Don’t litter, allow your horse or mule to damage trees, ride in erosion areas, and give others a reason to believe equestrians are a threat to our forests. 

Allowing uneducated urbanites to control forests and rural areas in the name of “preventing climate change” is the new form of domestic terrorism. Our rural and equestrian lifestyles are under attack, and we must unite together and act before it’s too late. For more information about the Shawnee proposal, example letters you can send, research, and addresses, emails, and phone numbers of legislators, become a member of Shawnee Trail Conservancy. You can go to their website Shawneetrailconservancy.com or follow them on Facebook. If we don’t stand up for our rights, we lose them. Happy trails! I’ll see you out there.

Angie J. Mayfield is an author, educator, co-owner of Mayfield Farms, and a lifelong mule rider who has trail ridden more than 20,000 miles in all 50 states on her mules and lives in Shawnee National Forest in southern IL. She can be contacted at Mayfieldmules@gmail.com