National Parks

In February 2023, BCHA Chairman Sherry Copeland and National Park Service(NPS) Director Charles F. Sams, III, signed a 5-year General Agreement orientedtoward mutual cooperation. It’s a long-awaited renewal of BCHA’s previousagreement with the agency. The agreement encourages national park unitsthroughout the nation to partner with local BCH chapters for service, education-related and trail maintenance projects. Park units across the nation … Read More

BCHA’s Formal Public Comments on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Proposed Rule to Increase Recreational Opportunities Through the Use of Electric Bikes (e-Bikes) June 5, 2020—BCHA submitted a public comment letter that voiced strong opposition to elements of the BLM Proposed Rule (i.e., policy change) that would, if adopted, superimpose e-Bike use—a motorized form of travel—on non-motorized trails used … Read More

A year of planning, months of scouting and grooming trails, and 11 days and 133 miles of camping and riding on the Buffalo National River in northwest Arkansas. Those are the stats, but the numbers don’t begin to tell the story of what members of the Buffalo River BCHA are calling their trip of a lifetime. Plans for the Buffalo … Read More

Comment Online with BCHA Talking Points Below Yosemite National Park recently issued “Preliminary Concepts & Ideas” for its forthcoming Wilderness Stewardship Plan. The plan covers over 704,000 acres of designated Wilderness, or 94%, of Yosemite National Park. The park identified four topics that have substantive effects on wilderness and wilderness management. Those topics are visitor use and capacity, stock use, trail management, and commercial … Read More

Here is the BCHA Ad placed in the USA Today Special Edition Your National Parks Guide. “Spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties…” These words cause even the most restrained American to choke up. They describe our America, the America we cherish, the America founded on the backs of horses. Back Country Horsemen of America strives every day … Read More

Mount Rainier National Park Wilderness Stewardship Plan – BCHA-BCHW public scoping comments regarding the park’s Wilderness Stewardship Plan Here is the full PDF document for you to read.

  In 2002 the National Park Service all but eliminated horseback use at Mount Rainier National Park, with the sole exceptions being the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and one feeder trail to the PCT? That decision represents an enormous bur under the saddle of horsemen, who have endured the near prohibition of pack and saddle stock in that park for … Read More

Members of BCH New Mexico Northwest Chapter Scouting Trails in Tent Rocks National Monument Back Country Horsemen of America believes that protecting our right to ride horses on public lands starts with taking part in maintaining those trails. Members spend countless hours doing trail and facility maintenance that public lands managers’ budgets don’t allow. As members care for these trails … Read More

A smile is a powerful tool in the effort to keep stock part of the trail scene! – BCHW Western Washington Long Ears Chapter This photo is what we need to be working for as we trail riders and packers meet folks on the trail. The smile on the faces of these two unidentified hikers says it all. Several years … Read More

When mules and horses are golden! – BCHW Western Washington Long Ears Chapter In July of this year as Sue and I were packing in a team of Biologists to survey the fish population on the North Fork of the Skokomish River in the Olympic National Park I had a field change thrown at us. My park issued radio cracked on … Read More