Developing Your Expertise as a Trail User
Steve Kasacek | OSI Director of Trail Development & Education
Many people use trails to recreate outside. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re an avid trail user, and if so, THANK YOU! People like you are the backbone of maintenance, stewardship, and support for trails. You have the passion and commitment to help keep trails open, introduce them to new users, and ensure your community stays excited about trail projects. Because of this, I want to speak to the critical expertise you possess and how you can build on it.
Trails Gone Wrong
In my career developing trails as a professional across the country, it is common to be brought in when something goes wrong. The most common issues are negative resource impacts like eroding trails or social conflicts – such as unauthorized trails. Overwhelmingly, the trails in question have been developed by users without any formal planning, design, or construction process.
Such trails are usually created without an overarching plan and without input from stakeholders. They might traverse private or conserved lands, lands that have other important objectives like maintaining wildlife habitat or ensuring good water quality. Often, after trails were put in place, the communities in question have changed - people leave, new people arrive, demographics and recreation trends shift; and trails built by a few people for their own benefit have failed to meet evolving needs.
Despite the best intentions, devoted trail users often do not fully comprehend the varied and competing interests of land management and recreation. That’s because as enthusiasts we generally get hyper focused on one thing – our own personal experience. And while yes, all the benefits of trails stem from our personal experiences, there is more to creating successful trails than knowing what we like. Often, as avid trail users, our views are limited to what we want “right now.” Instead, we need to consider how our use and appreciation of trails will evolve and change over time.
“Often, as avid trail users, our views are limited to what we want “right now.” Instead, we need to consider how our use and appreciation of trails will evolve and change over time.”
It's easy to conflate expertise in using trails for expertise in developing trails, but let’s take roads as an example. We all drive, some of us probably drive a lot. Maybe you’ve put hundreds of thousands of miles on vehicles over your life. Most of us, though, would not be capable of planning, designing, and building roads. As a society, we have engineers, landscape architects, and construction workers who specialize in that field to effectively develop our roads and highways. Trails are no different.
Trails, especially the trails we are developing today, are not simple matters. It’s important to engage everyone in the community, even those who may not currently use trails. Often, those very people become avid trail users when presented with well-thought-out systems that allow progression and growth. Our public lands and conserved spaces are for everybody and require thorough assessment and knowledgeable planning to bring about the best recreation, that meets the greatest need, while causing the least amount of impact to our natural environment.
Why Trail Planning & Design?
One of the key resources we provide at OSI is community trail planning and design. During the planning process, we engage with all relevant stakeholders. I often tell our partners that doesn’t just mean trail users, it means businesses, neighbors, schools, governmental agencies, tourism departments, economic development people, and of course you! The list never really ends.
Why do we talk to all these people when we begin trail planning? Truly successful trail systems need to be supported by everybody - not just the people who use the trails the most. Trails can offer new solutions to our community issues. Whether it’s “how do we get more kids active, outside, and away from screens,” or “how do we revitalize our economy” – trails offer distinctive opportunities to answer these questions in relatively low-impact and enjoyable ways.
“Truly successful trail systems need to be supported by everybody - not just the people who use the trails the most.”
Trail planners and designers need to blend their knowledge of hydrology, wildlife biology, soil science, forestry, and land management with the community’s wants and needs. There is a science to understanding the feasibility of trails on terrain, and with today’s ever diversifying trail types and styles, that science is getting more detailed. Trail planners must understand transportation theory and how people move within a network. There is a need for comprehending systems and how small changes ripple across them. Designers negotiate sustainable trail guidelines with potential user speeds, experience goals, and resource protection. Balance all of this with needing to know a little about psychology and why people recreate, and trail development quickly becomes complex.
Good trail planners and designers will be able to walk the fine line of science-driven land management, contemporary recreation theory, community wants, and feasible options given the political, fiscal, and terrain landscapes. They can help a community make sure recreational trails provide the highest good to the land and people.
Trail planners and designers need to be empathetic and visionary, they need to be able to see a future unbuilt trail from another’s point of view. Enthusiast trail users generally have advanced skills, and it is human nature to forget what it was like before we had those skills. Truly understanding what beginners need, or what non-traditional trail users want, is not easy. It comes from years of talking to people, watching them, working with them, and setting aside one’s own ego to walk (or bike or ski) in their shoes.
Your Expertise
This does not mean you should just stand back and let the “pros” do their job. As an avid trail user, you can focus your knowledge and enthusiasm on inspiring others in your community and rallying them around the beneficial nature of more and better trails. This is what truly helps create successful, high-quality trails.
“Locals know the special spots, the history, the local flavor, and what makes their home unique. Professionals can help accentuate, protect, and enhance these local goals.”
Your expertise lies in knowing what vision you have for your home. Do you want more children playing outside? Maybe you want visitors who will stop and support local businesses, not just pass through. Maybe you want to foster a tightknit community, or invite skill progression. Trails can play a part in addressing all these matters, but it’s vitally important to engage professionals who understand how trail infrastructure is related to, and influences, community change. Locals know the special spots, the history, the local flavor, and what makes their home unique. Professionals can help accentuate, protect, and enhance these local goals.
Your voice is important and your input matters. You are most effective when you consider and support decision makers, land managers, businesses, and neighbors. You can help your local trail projects by showing up, encouraging the use of professional planners and designers, and educating yourself about the intricacies of contemporary trail development. This spring you can take the next step in learning about effective trail development by joining OSI at one of our trail-focused courses in our Spring Learning Lab.
If you’re new to trail development, I hope you’ll join us HERE!