Protected area managers provide formal trail systems to accommodate recreational visitation on resistant “hardened” treads, while protecting off-trail vegetation, soils, and wildlife. When formal trail networks fail to provide visitors the access and experiences they require, visitors frequently venture “off-trail” to fish, hunt, explore, climb, or engage in other off-trail activities. Even relatively low levels of off-trail traffic can wear down vegetation and organic litter to create visible informal (visitor-created) trail networks. This research investigates methods for monitoring and managing these informal trail networks in protected natural areas.
The Challenge: The proliferation and degradation of visitor-created “informal” trails in protected areas can be a vexing management issue for land managers. Formal trail systems never provide access to all locations required by visitors seeking to engage in a variety of appropriate recreational activities. Traveling off-trail may be necessary to engage in activities such as nature study, fishing, or camping. Unfortunately, management experience reveals that informal trail systems are frequently poorly designed, including “shortest distance” routing with steep grades and alignments parallel to the slope. Such routes are rarely sustainable under heavy traffic and subsequent resource degradation is often severe. Vegetation impacts include trampling damage leading to loss of vegetation cover, changes in species composition, and the potential introduction and dispersal of non-native plants. Soil impacts include the pulverization and loss of organic litter, and exposure, compaction, and erosion of soil. Soil deposition in streams, disturbance to wildlife, and damage to sensitive historic resources are also possible.
The Science: Our studies of informal trail impacts have been conducted in several National Park Service areas, including the Potomac Gorge (C&O Canal/George Washington Parkway), and Acadia, Haleakala, and Denali National Parks. We’ve refined research and monitoring protocols incorporating accurate GPS devices for efficiently and accurately assessing trail spatial distribution and resource conditions. We’ve also developed analytical techniques using GIS software to characterize the extent of landscape fragmentation caused by trails and to evaluate their sustainability. Finally, we’ve conducted several studies designed to evaluate the efficacy of alternative site management and educational practices designed to deter off-trail traffic and protect rare plants or sensitive sub-alpine vegetation and soils.
The Future: Our results are being applied in many protected natural areas to characterize and monitor the extent of informal trail impacts over time. Future studies aim to further model off-trail hiking and impact, evaluate the sustainability of informal vs. formal trails, assess the efficacy of management efforts implemented to deter off-trail hiking, and document the extent of natural recovery on informal trails that are successfully closed to use.
Below are publications associated with this project.
The efficacy of combined educational and site management actions in reducing off-trail hiking in an urban-proximate protected area
Indicators and protocols for monitoring impacts of formal and informal trails in protected areas
The science of trail surveys: Recreation ecology provides new tools for managing wilderness trails
Deterring off-trail hiking in protected natural areas: Evaluating options with surveys and unobtrusive observation: Final report
A spatial exploration of informal trail networks within Great Falls Park, VA
Informal trail monitoring protocols: Denali National Park and Preserve. Final Report, October 2011
Formal and informal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Great Falls Park and Potomac Gorge. Final research report
Informal and formal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Acadia National Park
Assessment and monitoring of recreation impacts and resource conditions on mountain summits: Examples from the Northern Forest, USA
Below are news stories associated with this project.
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
Protected area managers provide formal trail systems to accommodate recreational visitation on resistant “hardened” treads, while protecting off-trail vegetation, soils, and wildlife. When formal trail networks fail to provide visitors the access and experiences they require, visitors frequently venture “off-trail” to fish, hunt, explore, climb, or engage in other off-trail activities. Even relatively low levels of off-trail traffic can wear down vegetation and organic litter to create visible informal (visitor-created) trail networks. This research investigates methods for monitoring and managing these informal trail networks in protected natural areas.
The Challenge: The proliferation and degradation of visitor-created “informal” trails in protected areas can be a vexing management issue for land managers. Formal trail systems never provide access to all locations required by visitors seeking to engage in a variety of appropriate recreational activities. Traveling off-trail may be necessary to engage in activities such as nature study, fishing, or camping. Unfortunately, management experience reveals that informal trail systems are frequently poorly designed, including “shortest distance” routing with steep grades and alignments parallel to the slope. Such routes are rarely sustainable under heavy traffic and subsequent resource degradation is often severe. Vegetation impacts include trampling damage leading to loss of vegetation cover, changes in species composition, and the potential introduction and dispersal of non-native plants. Soil impacts include the pulverization and loss of organic litter, and exposure, compaction, and erosion of soil. Soil deposition in streams, disturbance to wildlife, and damage to sensitive historic resources are also possible.
The Science: Our studies of informal trail impacts have been conducted in several National Park Service areas, including the Potomac Gorge (C&O Canal/George Washington Parkway), and Acadia, Haleakala, and Denali National Parks. We’ve refined research and monitoring protocols incorporating accurate GPS devices for efficiently and accurately assessing trail spatial distribution and resource conditions. We’ve also developed analytical techniques using GIS software to characterize the extent of landscape fragmentation caused by trails and to evaluate their sustainability. Finally, we’ve conducted several studies designed to evaluate the efficacy of alternative site management and educational practices designed to deter off-trail traffic and protect rare plants or sensitive sub-alpine vegetation and soils.
The Future: Our results are being applied in many protected natural areas to characterize and monitor the extent of informal trail impacts over time. Future studies aim to further model off-trail hiking and impact, evaluate the sustainability of informal vs. formal trails, assess the efficacy of management efforts implemented to deter off-trail hiking, and document the extent of natural recovery on informal trails that are successfully closed to use.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
The efficacy of combined educational and site management actions in reducing off-trail hiking in an urban-proximate protected area
Park and protected area managers are tasked with protecting natural environments, a particularly daunting challenge in heavily visited urban-proximate areas where flora and fauna are already stressed by external threats. In this study, an adaptive management approach was taken to reduce extensive off-trail hiking along a popular trail through an ecologically diverse and significant area in the CheIndicators and protocols for monitoring impacts of formal and informal trails in protected areas
Trails are a common recreation infrastructure in protected areas and their conditions affect the quality of natural resources and visitor experiences. Various trail impact indicators and assessment protocols have been developed in support of monitoring programs, which are often used for management decision-making or as part of visitor capacity management frameworks. This paper reviews common indicThe science of trail surveys: Recreation ecology provides new tools for managing wilderness trails
Recreation ecology examines the effects of recreation on protected area ecosystems. One core focus of recreation ecology research is trail science, including the development of efficient protocols to assess and monitor the type and severity of resource impacts, analyses to improve knowledge of factors that influence trail conditions, and studies to assist land managers in improving trail design, mDeterring off-trail hiking in protected natural areas: Evaluating options with surveys and unobtrusive observation: Final report
This report presents the results of research conducted on the 96-acre Bear Island along the Billy Goat Trail, Section A (BGT) that evaluated visitor motivations for off-trail hiking and the efficacy of four treatments designed to reduce this activity. This research was prompted by concerns about the impact of an extensive informal (visitor-created) trail network on Bear Island, because it providesA spatial exploration of informal trail networks within Great Falls Park, VA
Informal (visitor-created) trails represent a threat to the natural resources of protected natural areas around the globe. These trails can remove vegetation, displace wildlife, alter hydrology, alter habitat, spread invasive species, and fragment landscapes. This study examines informal and formal trails within Great Falls Park, VA, a sub-unit of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, managed byInformal trail monitoring protocols: Denali National Park and Preserve. Final Report, October 2011
Managers at Alaska?s Denali National Park and Preserve (DENA) sponsored this research to assess and monitor visitor-created informal trails (ITs). DENA is located in south-central Alaska and managed as a six million acre wilderness park. This program of research was guided by the following objectives: (1) Investigate alternative methods for monitoring the spatial distribution, aggregate lineal extFormal and informal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Great Falls Park and Potomac Gorge. Final research report
This report presents the results of research on the conditions of formal and informal (visitorcreated) trails conducted within the Great Falls Park (GFP) portion of George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP), Virginia, and the adjacent Maryland portions of the C&O Canal National Historical Park (CHOH). This research was prompted primarily by concerns about the impact of extensive informal trail netInformal and formal trail monitoring protocols and baseline conditions: Acadia National Park
At Acadia National Park, changing visitor use levels and patterns have contributed to an increasing degree of visitor use impacts to natural and cultural resources. To better understand the extent and severity of these resource impacts and identify effective management techniques, the park sponsored this research to develop monitoring protocols, collect baseline data, and identify suggestions forAssessment and monitoring of recreation impacts and resource conditions on mountain summits: Examples from the Northern Forest, USA
Mountain summits present a unique challenge to manage sustainably: they are ecologically important and, in many circumstances, under high demand for recreation and tourism activities. This article presents recent advances in the assessment of resource conditions and visitor disturbance in mountain summit environments, by drawing on examples from a multiyear, interdisciplinary study of summits in t - News
Below are news stories associated with this project.
- Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.