Surely there aren’t enough people walking them constantly to mash the grass to death, is there some kind of membrane placed under the dirt to stop grass growth?
Here is a pic of worn path from walking on, rough edges, clearly not intentional.
Will post pic after walking the dog of the trail that I’m speccifically curious about.
Yes, there are enough people walking on it to just kill the grass. No further effort is needed to form the pathway. Many wild animals make paths by walking on them a lot too.
Plants are actually pretty sensitive to soil compaction, which can take a lot of time to reverse. the composition clay/sand in the soil can changed the time it takes to resettle, and it might even just erode down to rock.
Where I live they’re not maintained at all. If nobody uses them for a while they disappear. I have a “path” nearby that’s on every single map but you can no longer see it used to be a path.
dirt compression its what killed my potted plant
Obligatory reference to desire paths: !desire_paths@sh.itjust.works
Traffic – under foot or otherwise – is one way to keep a path in decent shape
laughs in New England accent
Absolutely not.
“Rock before root and root before dirt - and never touch the mud if you can help it.”
Literally hiking 101 out here. What we teach the children for trail preservation.
Is also why ~5 miles in ADK, the greens, or the whites, is like ~10 miles anywhere else. But yeah… No. Traffic definitely does not keep a trail in shape.
Can you please elaborate? What is that children’s rhyme meant to teach? What are green and white ADKs?
Google was not very helpful.
