Re: The Gorge's Fire Management Plan and Hiking's Future
Posted: January 3rd, 2018, 7:19 pm
Because of gorge topography, north-south trails cross many life zones. When an invasive plant comes in on boots, it's vertically confined along the trail in the altitude range it grows. That gives a better chance of finding and removing the infestation. When trails are connected, especially in the east-west direction, that natural confinement by altitude goes away. Gorge winds blowing east-west also will move species quickly along east-west trails. Connections are nice for hikers to make loops and I'm not saying they should all be eliminated. But the newly restored Historic Columbia River Highway trail is going to be a major experiment in how east-west trails can spread invasives and fire. We should be very careful about the risks this trail will create. So far, I've heard no effort to plan for these risks, or to find a funding source to mitigate any damage from a careless smoker or plant material that could spread along this route.Guy wrote:Can you explain this theory Chrisca because I just don't buy it!chrisca wrote: Trail networks also encourage the spread of invasive species. .
The vast majority of invasive plants are spread by wind, bird / Animal feces or on the birds or animals bodies, beaks etc. Unless someone can give give me a specific example here in a PNW climate I'm going to say that the number of invasives spread by hikers is infinitesimally small and discontenting trail networks has no effect either way.
Even if seeds are brought in on a person's boot they are more than likely going to become dislodged on the trail it then has to germinate and grow in a place where other hikers are walking on it!