Trail Plan Needs Horse Sense

Horse manure.

That’s the excuse the Ventura City Council is using to keep equestrians from sharing the final stretch of the Ventura River Trail, which someday will give walkers, joggers, skaters and bicyclists a paved route from downtown Ventura to Foster Park, connecting the longer Ojai Valley Trail with the coastal Omer Rains Trail.

The council voted last week to ban horses from the lower portion, at the recommendation of biologists who believe droppings from the mounts could attract cowbirds. Those, they say, are aggressive little critters that steal nests from weaker birds and could add to the troubles of the endangered Least Bell’s Vireo, which lives in the Ventura River estuary.

The debate has held up construction of the trail. Further delay, city officials worried, could jeopardize nearly $1 million in grant money for the project. So the council voted unanimously to ban horses from the trail south of the Canada Larga channel, and to consider eventually building a horse trail on a parallel route nearby.

Horse manure.

That’s what equestrians think of the whole issue, which reared its head years into the decade-long planning process.

“Horse trails in Ventura seem to be slowly disappearing,” 12-year-old Diane Biller told the council. “As the trails disappear, so does old Ventura.”

The real issue is timing. Whether cowbirds are such a problem or not, concern about them could trigger a legal challenge that would push the much-delayed project even further into the future.

So the council was right to do what it takes to get the River Trail project moving at last.

But it was equestrians who first proposed this final link to join the mountains above Ojai to the ocean at the mouth of the river, beside the fairgrounds. They have been among the trail’s most enthusiastic advocates all along.

Cutting them out at this point isn’t fair. Let’s not give up on finding a way to do it right--for all potential users, two-legged or four.