USGS Study on trail impact

All,
Here is a artical originally posted by Pete Rissler. It did not get
near enough attention, so I am reposting it:





Here's a recent study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey on trail use
in a National River and Recreation Area for the National Park Service.

Here's a synopsis and link from the IMBA page

http://www.imba.com/news/news_releas...nps_study.html

Here's a link to the report, again off the IMBA page

http://www.imba.com/resources/scienc...nps_report.pdf

Obviously since IMBA is linking to it, the report shows mountain biking in
a
favorable light at least being no different than the impact of hiking. ATV
and Horse trails were the worse degraded. Mountain Bikes had the smallest
width and Cross Sectional Area than the other users (ATV, Horses) though
there was no significant difference between bikes and hiking (essentially
the same). Bike trails also had the lowest amount of soil loss. In short
bike trails were in the best condition followed by hiking then horse then
ATV trails. If nothing else, the report is invaluable just for the
references.

One thing I haven't seen on these discussion between hikers, horse riders,
and mountain bikers is the spread of invasive weeds by horses into Natural
and Wilderness Areas. Since horses are herbivores they have the potential
to spread non-native plants (seeds) into new areas by defecation. This to
me is far worse than any type of trail damage caused by hikers or bikers.

Let the discussion and flaming begin!

Pete Rissler



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