Trail Mix: Good Intentions, Bad Results

In a recent blog, “A Few Good Men and Women”, I highlighted FORBA‘s praise for all of our small groups of volunteers that work to keep our trails flowing.  While it can be said that it only takes a few good folks to give our trails what they need, such as trimming, clearing downed trees and cleaning drains, the opposite can also be said when a few folks do things to our trails that can cause damage.  Examples of this include blowing leaves that should be left alone, building unsanctioned trails and creating shortcuts that can cause even the most savvy bikers confusion. These things, if done without  prior planning and authorization, create more harm to the trails and jeopardizes access for everyone.   

You may be wondering what’s the harm in blowing leaves? The shortish explanation is when the leaves and the top layer of soil is removed, everything is exposed and the trails have no protection whatsoever. When left on the trail, leaves will decompose and a recycling process will  begin putting those essential nutrients and organic matter back into the soil.  Leaving the leaves is how nature replaces what summer storms and rider usage have stripped away, also allowing for a protective barrier against winter’s freeze and thaw cycles.  

Building unsanctioned trails and creating shortcuts is frustrating for trail advocacy groups because it is very difficult to prevent, causes more, avoidable work for the organization, and a lot of confusion. Riders can find themselves on something new with no prior warning without proper signage and in most cases, they are able to safely find their way back to the main trail, but sometimes they stumble upon something that is above their riding ability, or even worse - a janky feature that the only thing worse than it’s design is it’s build quality. What looks like a fun line or a quicker way to get to your favorite parts that are not planned or signed not only looks bad on the organization responsible for those trails, it could end up being a liability.  Someone could get hurt or lost.  The most frustrating part is, the folks responsible rarely consider what the trail may look like years up the road or how much time and money it will take to fix it.  

These are just a few things that all trail organizations must consider in order to build trails that are safe, accessible and sustainable.  It can sometimes be a long process that requires patience, communication, partnerships and collaborative efforts with the community and we, at FORBA, continue to work with these ideas in mind. We welcome any and everyone who has an interest in building/maintaining trails in Winston Salem to come to our monthly community input meetings on the first Wednesday of every month. We’ll continue to host various trail work opportunities and as always, if you would like to get involved please let us know!