Assessing and Understanding Trail Degradation: Results from Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area

Abstract

This report describes results from a comprehensive assessment of resource conditions on a large (24%) sample of the trail system within Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area (BSF). Components include research to develop state-of-knowledge trail impact assessment and monitoring methods, application of survey methods to BSF trails, analysis and summary of results, and recommendations for trail management decision making and future monitoring. Findings reveal a trail system with some substantial degradation, particularly soil erosion, which additionally threatens water quality in areas adjacent to streams and rivers. Factors that contribute to or influence these problems are analyzed and described. Principal among these are trail design factors (trail topographic position, soil texture, grade and slope alignment angle), use-related factors (type and amount of use), and maintenance factors (water drainage). Recommendations are offered to assist managers in improving the sustainability of the trails system to accommodate visitation while enhancing natural resource protection.

Four-year soil erosion rates in a running-mountain trail in eastern Iberian Peninsula

“…Wimpey and Marion (2010) found that fall-alignment trails (low-level trail alignments) are correlated with wider trails due to the superficial water flow that follows the maximum slope angle, which is encouraged by the trail that functions as a drainage line. The cumulative effect of the slope angle and trail alignment was demonstrated by Marion and Olive (2006) who obtained a greater influence of the slope angle as the trail alignment was reduced.…”

“…2), a widely applied method in trail erosion research (e.g. Fish et al, 1981;Marion and Olive, 2006;Olive and Marion, 2009;Esque et al, 2016;Tomczyk et al, 2016), which is the most replicable method for monitoring trail segments (Jewell and Hammitt, 2000). We measured soil depth every meter of the trail and 10 cm along each cross-section and employed a metal bar which we placed over the edges of the trail considering that it was the original ground surface before the use of the trail (Webb et al, 1978).…”

Trail erosion in the area of the Seven Rila Lakes Cirquе, Rila National Park, Bulgaria

“…Навигацията на терен до избраните точки е осъществена с помощта на мобилното прилоhttps://doi.org/10.52215/rev.bgs.2021.82.3.256 жение QField. Измерването на ширината и дълбочината на пътеките е извършено съобразно установените стандарти, описани в научната литература (Martin, Butler, 2017;Jewell, Hammitt, 2000;Marion, Leung, 2001;Marion, Olive 2006;Rangel et al, 2019;Salesa, Cerdà, 2020). За анализ на събраните данни е използвано полупроизведението от ширината и максималната дълбочина на пътеките, което е интерпретирано като производен показател за напречно сечение на пътеката, респективно, като индикатор за деградация на пътеките.…”