Mike Vandeman wrote:
It is not experimental, so it is impossible to determine the relative
impacts of different forms of recreation. It simply compares
trailsused "mostly" by certain user groups. It is impossible to
conclude anything meaningful from such research. In order to get
meaningful results, you have to compare measured impacts from equal
numbers of passes by specific user groups. If 100,000 hikers used the
hiking trail & 10 mountain bikers used the mountain biking trail, no
useful information can be gleaned from comparing the" trail
conditions", as this "study" did.

It was a STUDY, not an EXPERIMENT. The work of a scientist like Dr.
Marion who has published numerous peer reviewed articles in scientific
journals certainly trumps the opinion of an amateur like you.

Dick Durbin
Not a mountain biker