Mounted search and rescue

[Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>]

Responding to:

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:36:57 -0600
From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Southern IL USA training
To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <20091014143657.GA22843@att.net" ymailto="mailto:20091014143657.GA22843@att.net">20091014143657.GA22843@att.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 05:01:27PM -0700, Lois Guyon wrote:
>Soil in this part of the country holds water and does not dry out fast,
>especially when the weather is cooler. 

Thanks for the explanation.  Training on waterlogged agricultural soils
would be bad for the ground cover.  Would finding another venue be an
option?

Illinois is famous among ecologists for its sand prairies.  Those are
areas of the state where there is no topsoil, only deep deposits of sand
and gravel.  In them, drainage is excellent, right?  Are there none to be
found where horses are welcome?

There's a western movie filmed in Illinois, called "Sand Prairie", made
a few years ago in Hopedale.  Here is some PR about the location, with
photos:  http://www.sandprairiemovie.com/town.html

    Una Smith
    New Mexico


Una, I live on an ILLINOIS savanah sand pond/sand prairie and we are right nextdoor to a conservation ground where we actually OWN half the bog along with the state and their half.  The land there as is ours is A PROTECTED WETLAND.  It contains precious rare wildflowers and wildlife ONLY found there.  So with that respect, the DO NOT TREAD applies regarding horses, vehicles and such and there is no dumping, hunting etc. BUT SOME PEOPLE are idiots and have no repsect for this.  And those that are ignorant to what abounds can cause more harm just by their lack of knowledge of the area they go in and even near.

 

They come with no respect for the rare system that abounds, they try to drive on it, they trash it and have no regard for what is protected, or how it is protected or even WHY and we as do others in this field work VERY hard to keep the riffraff out.  People like us work extremely hard to PROTECT IT and the land WE OWN and as private owners  it all comes at a price.  Pardon me repeating, but most outsiders come knowing little about the land and in that they have disrespect because of lack of knowledge.  Their ignorance is havoc hurting the land, its resources and the water.  Most come from the city to the country and know little about what goes.  They have no agricultural background, they have no conservation mind.  They think they can do anything they want and that is the farthest from the truth.  And yet they go on and hurt the natural resources most unwittingly in the process.

 

One of the major reasons horses are excluded from the PROTECTED conservation land in particular is that the manure itself can propose a detriment to the water source there and upset the PRECIOUS ecosystem as well as the visitors tracking in unwanted seed on their person no less IN the manure, and/or hay feed,  the vehicles they drive etc and they do not even know it. And their likewise causing dispicable harm to the precious and rare ecosystem that exists and the plants and wildlife within.  Foot traffic is allowed on the conservation land.  There is a sign on that land explaining more in particular what is allowed.  Pity some people cant read or won't.  On our land adjacent.. there is a sign too.. SAYS NO TRESSPASSING, NO HUNTING, NO VEHICLES, ETC AND VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED.  Again, pity some people cannot read and some are reluctant to learn or maybe even cant learn.

 

More on manure, YOU  all will find it in your better interest to learn more on nitrates.  Learn more on what a PROTECTED land is as there are various kinds and different issues to each and you will understand the whys why things are not available for use and or  why you should or should not do things.  There are rules for farms in how to apply their manure or rid themselves of it.  Just as there are rules for the vehicle you own and drive and the horses as well.  As for manure, one thing it can cause is algea and that is what can choke the ecosystem.  Algea can spread rapidly through a watercourse.

 

The land and bog here for instance has a unique intrinsic value once gone, there is no more.

 

There is NO HUNTING ON the conservation land and likewise on ours.

 

We are more adamant than the state about any people coming on to our portion of the bog and prairie land be it on horseback, foot or vehicle and violators would be subject to serious tresspass.  There is no hunting,  no picking or digging of flowers by folks from the outside and etc. just as on the conservation ground.   We obviously have horses here and motorized equipment, but we KNOW where it is we can tread and not cause harm.  We do not cotton to monkey see, monkey do.  No one other than ourselves are welcome without our permission nor without escort.

 

In regard to topsoil!  Ha, there is none to very little on a sand prairie.  You sneeze and you blow it away as the "topsoil" is so minute. The ground fertility wise is very poor.  What is able to grow here ONLY grows here.  We have issues with invasive weeds and controlling and or ridding the system of those plants is a battle to protect the prairie and bog for what it is.  Again, the plants here are unique to the system.  If you fertilize the ground you change things.  How big a change depends on what you do.  You trash the ground, you ruin things.

 

As for drainage...hmmm, the water table here inparticular is so very high so there is a drainage issue.  No less tracking issues. Just when you think the ground is solid.....right?  When its high, the water it has NO PLACE TO GO.  The prairie and surrounding lands here are subject to ponding.  Water does not flow, it ponds mainly and sits.  It will drain when the entire water table goes down and will drain only then.  Our area in particular is actually a former LAKEBED.  Want to get caught in a quick pit with your horse?  I think not so dont go where you are not welcome or on land you do not know.  Bad enough a quick pit will take you down on foot, yet alone a machine, no less a horse and they can occur without notice anywhere.  Been in a few living here.  Sand is not mud, it liquifies.  When the watertable rises, so to do the ponds and not just from rain.  You cannot drain a pond unless the water table goes down too.  If you pump it out, it will just rise again and it does not need an additional rain to do so. 

 

The bog here is not stagnant water it is virtually pure. It is one of the most interesting studies I know.  When the bog is not polluted and ecosystem here is in balance there are no mosquitoes here.  It is a natural aquafier and pristine in nature.

 

We have been living here coming on just over a decade living and just when we think we know this land it teaches us more, it has been our study for the past decade and then some and the changes that have occured just in nature alone here in just the last few years are phenominal without mans interference, however, man can interfere without even treading on the protected land and it is a real shame that more people are not educated to know it.  Ironically in this state,  the Grand Prairie state of Illinois, we own privately some of the RARIST type of ground in the entire state.  There is only 50 acres of this specific type of ground  found in Illinois. One fifth is ours, another one fifth is the conservation land right nextdoor to us and that is protected by the state. You want to mess with that?  ANd folks, the bog is shrinking.

 

What is in Hopedale is not all the same.

 

I have a sign in my office that states... WHAT PART OF NO TRESSPASSING DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND.  I always say, If you dont know, dont go!

 

My only wish is that more folks on the SAR and MSAR rescue force were also more educated to know the terrain they tread so that they knew the issues better and so they too could always do a better job.  And so too the laws could be better enforced when need be.  It is a waste of time arresting someone on wrong and or false pretenses and issues if you in LE are not aware of the issues in your own backyards yet alone elsewhare.  That is where it costs the taxepayers a lot of money and serves no purpose when the wrong people are in court because you too are ignorant.  (Notice I did not say stupid!)  And it does no good to prosecute the wrong people as it teaches  just  more of the wrong people how to do no good.  And it is does no good for those in LE to be standing in a courtroom telling a judge, why they did not do a thorough job and another bad guy got away..

 

As for searching on ground like this.. We live it, so there fore we know it.  While you on the other had visit it when the need arrises.  But there are ways to learn about the land and how to.

 

Una, I am so very glad you brought this issue up.  Hope others will tell of their lands and issues as well.  It will serve this community for the better good.  I apologize for being long winded.  This grand land, is a great passion.

 

 

        Karen Nesbitt

Iroquois County, Illinois

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Some trust in chariots, and others in horses: but we will always remember the name of the Lord our God.  Psalms 20:7..and the bay went forth,  and sought to go to and fro that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.  So they walked to and fro through the earth. Zec 6:7