SETC 2002 is aimed at educating trail equestrians about the policies upon which land management agencies base their decisions concerning the recreational use of horses. Acts of Congress and state legislatures are statements of policy. High level administrative officials are expected to interpret and implement those policies. Sometimes these officials are expected to "fill in the details." At the federal level, this is called "rule-making." While a rule is not a legislated law, it becomes law. Disagreements on interpretations and the legalities of some rules are normally resolved in the courts, and the judgement of the court takes on the effect of law as it interprets what Congress or the legislature intended.
At the bottom of this process are the land managers who must conform to policy as it has been pronounced to them. Often they have the discretionary power to be more conservative in resource protection than the policy requires, but they can not be more liberal without violating the statutes or the policies that have emanated from those statutes. Agency officials with these responsibilities are the frontline troops. They are the ones with whom we deal on a face-to-face basis. They are the ones charged with explaining "why" and "why not" to us.
An obvious barrier to the development of a harmonious working relationship are the facts that land managers and equestrians are usually coming from different frames of reference, and they rarely speak the same language with regard to conservation policy. The purpose of SETC 2002 is to raise: 1) awareness of this problem, 2) equestrian awareness of some of the most important conservation policies affecting recreational horse use, and 3) land manager awareness that equestrians are seeking ways to harmonize recreational horse use with natural resource conservation processes.
Wanting what we want and finding justification for it seems to be a characteristic of the ordinary human condition. Equestrians are, in large part, ordinary humans. What we want is the opportunity to ride our horses in places that we think should be great places to ride. It is not unusual for us, like all other users of open spaces, to believe that when others are not conforming to our wants, then they must be uninformed, selfish, or afflicted in some manner.
In reality, conservation policy in a democracy is a complex product that is derived by complicated, and often convoluted, processes. Only a fool would ever boast that he/she has a full understanding of it all. The wise expect the unexpected.
Conservation policy is shaped by six primary forces that gird a democratic republic dependent upon a capitalistic economic system. These forces may be diagramed as follows:
This is the web that trail equestrians must learn to negotiate if they are to successfully preserve a cultural heritage in a natural heritage setting.
SETC 2002 brings an array of land management officials from national, regional, and state levels to meet with equestrian trail users eager to understand conservation policies and how they affect the recreational use of horses. This exchange of information, viewpoints, and ideas of equestrians and land managers will make progress in closing the policy language gap. Equestrians will learn how to become more meaningfully involved in the policy development and implementation processes. Land managers will learn more about the values of trail equestrians and their desires to be a part of solutions.
