Flawed equestrian trails bill passes Missouri House

A bill supported by Missouri equestrian groups and sponsored by Representative Larry Wilson has passed the Missouri House.

The bill is intended to preserve land and trail access for equestrians. However, the language in the bill that has passed is loose and unfocused, and has mountain bike groups, trails groups, and parks, recreation, and natural resources groups very concerned.

For that reason the Missouri Bicycle Federation opposed the bill as it stood in the House of Representatives.

We are now working with bill sponsors and supporters to improve the language so that we can support the bill as it moves through the Missouri senate.

The bill is HB 250; the language of the bill as it passed the House:

8.890. No individual shall be denied access to any public land owned, managed, or funded by the state of Missouri for the purpose of riding horses or mules, when such individual has the lawful authority to use the public land.

Such access also shall not be denied to trails and roads that are currently in use by the state as land upon which horses or mules are ridden, except that access can be denied where conditions are not suitable because of public safety concerns, necessary maintenance, or for reasons related to the missions of the department of conservation or the department of natural resources so long as a written statement is posted at the trailhead stating the cause and estimated duration of the closure.

Nothing in this section shall cause horses or mules to be excluded from inclusion in the development of new trails on Missouri public lands.

Issues:

* The first sentence is unclear (it can be interpreted two different, vastly different, ways).
* Interpreted one way, the first sentence is very broad (giving equestrian access to any public land with public access); interpreted the other way it is meaningless.
* The term "public land" is very broad and will apply to land such as MoDOT right-of-way or grounds of government buildings where it is quite inappropriate and even counter to the Missouri constitution.
* The reasons equestrian access may be denied must be expanded to include reasons such as: trail sustainability, conflicts between users or different user groups, and protection of resources.

As much as MoBikeFed supports access to public lands and trails for all users, there are times, places, and situations where access must be denied--even for mountain bikers and hikers!--when access will damage trails or public land, when it will conflict with other users, and for many other reasons specific to a particular trail or location.