River fouled by horses

[jdmidwest]

Jack's Fork is not the only place. The last few years, they have been riding the paths along the Upper Current river near Baptist Access. They have a new horse camp about a mile away that caters to riders. A standard practice of mine was to fish the river down about a mile and then hit a foot trail back to the parking lot. The foot trail is now a foot deep and full of green apples. It does cross the river in at least one place.

[Gavin]

Yeah, that trout slayer ale is pretty good stuff.

I'd agree with you JD, there is a lot more horse traffic on the Upper Current these days. I didnt see any trail riders on Saturday but there were a ton of horses down at Parker when we paddled in on Sunday...the entire access was covered with bits of horse feces and the trails and crossings look worse every time you go down there. What's the name of that new horse camp?

[Terrapin Station]

Hey Gavin, it looks like there are a few of them listed on missouriscenicrivers website. Go to http://www.missouriscenicrivers.com/HorsebackRiding.html

[polock]

i have a few thoughts on this....

I am a resident of shannon county i can pretty much say that the forest service, conservation dept, and entire town of eminence and county for that matter minus a few support the trail rides... it brings an ungodly amount of revenue to our small town of 800.

the place were the did the testing of the water were right below certain campgrounds that have a large problem with letting their raw wastes run into the river... I won't mention any names cause i don't want to start anything..

also, several herds of wild mustang horses through out shannon county that also play a big part in the horse problem...

you should see some of the forest service and conservation funded trails they are building for the trail riders... i was out on my four wheeler this summer and rode over miles and miles of these brand new very nice trails for these horses (don't tell ) i highly doubt any organization can bring something this big down that has so much support from the local and state govt.

i am not a horse buff.. don't get me wrong.. i ride maybe once a year. but the trail ride horses are far from the only cause of the river waste levels..

i would be more concerned to the canoers and floaters that cover the bottom of the river with glass, bud light cans, and trash that horses...

not every horse that crosses the river poops in the middle of it.. boats will stir up the river much much more than a horse ever will

not against boats either.. i have 2

those are my thoughts... sorry it is so crappy written.. i am at work on a the last leg of a triple shift

[Al Agnew]

Polock, therein lies the heart of the problem...money. Screw the river as long as the town businesses are making money and they can convince people the river is still clean enough for other users besides the horseback riders. The wild horse thing is a red herring...there are what, maybe a few dozen wild horses in the whole Current River watershed, compared to a few thousand many weekends on the trails? To suggest that the few wild horses (which really shouldn't be there, either) are causing any kind of problem to compare with the trail riders is kinda ridiculous. And yes, the hordes of canoeists do cause problems with litter, but the studies have shown they ARE NOT the cause of the vastly increased coliform bacteria levels in the river below Eminence.

You're right that the tests were done below the campgrounds that cater to horseback riding. That's kinda the point. It's the campgrounds without a good handle on handling horse manure that IS the main problem, but since they are right around Eminence, they affect the whole river downstream.

I highly doubt that the Conservation Department is all for horseback riding. The Forest Service and Scenic Riverways people would probably justify building good horseback trails on the idea that, without good trails, the horseback riders would just be finding their own ways and causing more damage and erosion.

The problem is, as always, too much of what might otherwise be a good thing. The horseback riding fraternity has discovered that the Jacks Fork and Current River area is a great place for riding, and there are just way too many of them using it. As you say, the businesses in Eminence make more money the more people are using the area. But it's short-sighted and, because too much use is not a good thing for the resource, unless controlled it will result in a decrease in total use of the rivers, and eventually a decrease in the businesses of the area. I suspect that will happen sooner rather than later, given the publicity the issue is getting in the KC and Stl. newspapers. The word is getting out that the Jacks Fork below Eminence is not a clean river to play in. In the end, the choice will boil down to controlling a pollution source, or watching the businesses that DON'T cater strictly to horseback riding decline.