About
Our Mission
- To promote care and conservation of Backcountry trails, campsites, streams and meadows.
- To foster the use of Backcountry trails by horsemen and women in the National Parks, National Forests, State Parks, BLM lands, and other public entities.
- To keep the unit’s membership informed of regulations that effect stock use on public land and to inform the membership of any pending regulation that might effect that use.
- To promote public awareness of the historical aspects of stock use in the Backcountry.
- To keep the public administrators aware of the works and interests of the unit.
About San Gorgonio Unit
The San Gorgonio Pass Unit was formed in October 1994 by a group of folks, consisting of two members of the Santa Ana Unit, both of whom lived in the desert, a member at large who resided in Yucca Valley, a horse vet, two hikers and at least three other equestrians.
At this time, there was a question of whether horse use would be eliminated from Joshua Tree National Park. These folks were all actively attending the planning meetings at Joshua Tree.
We felt if we formed a unit of Backcountry Horseman we would have more impact on these issues.
We held our first meeting in Cabazon at the Wheel Inn in October 1994.
And now we have over a 125 members and growing.
History of BCHC
A group of private and commercial packers met in 1981 to form the High Sierra Stock Users Association with the purpose of representing horsemen in dealings with the administrators of public lands. Five years later the HSSUA joined with Montana, Idaho, and Washington to form an affiliation called the Back Country Horsemen of America. The national organization’s task is to coordinate activities of the various state backcountry organizations. The BCHA now has BCH organizations in 12 western states. The HSSUA adopted the name Backcountry Horsemen of California in order to conform to the national name and to better reflect its growing statewide membership. The association has a membership that totals over 3,000 men and women most of whom are affiliated with one of our 22 units.
