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If the social paths are more popular than the official paths, then why not make the social paths official and let the official paths return to nature?
by mcdonje 4y ago
If the social paths are more popular than the official paths, then why not make the social paths official and let the official paths return to nature?
- rascul 4y agoSometimes the official paths are made to attempt to minimize erosion and damage that other paths could cause.
- Arrath 4y agoAs rascul said there are environmental concerns. There can also be access/ADA issues, like path width or slope/rise:run. Or it may simply be budgetary.
- euroderf 4y agoLow stakes with string or wire strung among'em should be enough in most cases to deter off-path tromping eh ? Plant something inside their perimeter so it all looks preplanned.
- Arrath 4y agoThat's a pretty easy 80/20 style solution, sure. That 20% there is the little fact that all the fences and signs in the world don't keep a certain subset of headstrong people from e.g. leaving the path and falling into geysers in Yellowstone, or getting too close to wildlife.
- lukas099 4y agoIt's generally desired to put up as few artificial features as possible to maintain the natural look of the park. Sometimes it is necessary, of course. The other problem is that many trails are just maintained by a couple of volunteers. Many in the US are done by local mountain biking clubs, for example. It can be hard enough to maintain what is already there when you're relying on the goodwill of a couple volunteers to do heavy labor at 6am on a Sunday.
- lukas099 4y agoIt's not that they're more popular. It's that the entire forest becomes one big social path devoid of ground cover flora. One purpose of paths is to keep human disturbance to a small, well-defined area.
- lukas099 4y agoIf they were obviously more popular, that's what we would do. But usually it is all just a big mess of erosion and there isn't any obviously most-popular path.