Federal Highway Fund Bill Includes Trails
BY SUE SMITHSON: Equestrian Correspondent
The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (S 1072.ES and H.R.3550.EAS), widely known as the SAFETEA highway funding bill, is winding its way through Congress with funding increases for recreational trails. The Senate version includes a clarification that horses be allowed on federal shared-use paths.
Another bill known as the Right To Ride bill (H.R.2966) recently passed the House Resources Committee. Introduced by George Radanovich (R-Ca), the bill seeks to preserve public and wilderness areas for pack and saddle horse use on all federal lands managed by the National Park Service, the Federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
The Right To Ride bill would mandate that these lands be managed by the federal agencies “to preserve and facilitate the continued use and access of pack and saddle stock animals on such lands, including wilderness areas, national monuments, and other specifically designated areas, where there is a tradition of such use.”
