What Can You Do?

Figure 1. Results of a WTA survey conducted in the Snoqualmie Corridor.
The large orange bar represents the category of hiking 

For park managers, including your fellow hikers and recreational enthusiasts for input concerning conservation management of conservation areas in your state creates an opportunity for frequent trail users to comment on improvements to be made and why they prefer certain hikes over others. In 2012, the Washington Trail Association (WTA) asked hikers for input in the Snoqualmie Corridor (includes the area of Tiger Mountain, Rattlesnake Mountain, Mount Si, Little Si, Mailbox Peak, and the Middle Fork Snoqualmie). What resulted from this survey was a large preference of hiking as a recreational activity (Figure 1). Interestingly enough, those surveyed showed an awareness of wildlife conservation by with suggestions of underpasses and overpasses for wild life.

For hiking enthusiasts:

Washington Trail Association's Volunteer Victories

• Taking more deliberate steps on the trail and being attentive to where you wander (for example, if you go off the trail path) can help counteract the effects of trampling (Deluca et al., 1998). 
• Join local trail advocacy groups or volunteer trail crew to help maintain trails. For example, countering the effects of trampling and soil erosion through duckboards and the building of stairs (Torn et al., 2009), or reseed plant areas ravaged by wild fire/floods
• Washington Trail Association, Seattle, WA
• Pacific Northwest Trail Association, Sedro-Woolley, WA
• High Cascades Forest Volunteers, Oregon
• Ashland and Woodlands Trails Association, Ashland, OR
• Help out at conferences, like the annual Washington State Trails Conference, to show your support  and events
• Contact legislators to provide funding for trail/road maintenance and law enforcement presence. Policies like the Roadless Conservation Policy and the Wild Sky Wilderness Act were policies that helped de-list endangered trails from editions of the Washington Trail Association's "Endangered Trails Guide"
• Please click here to learn more about how the Wild Sky Wilderness Act granted a new wilderness area in Washington state!

Sources

Daly, Matthew. "Bush Signs Bill for Wild Sky Wildrness." Local News. Seattle Times, 9 May 2008. Web.
Deluca. T. H., W. A. Patterson Iv., W. A. Freimund. and D.N. Cole. "Influence of Llamas, Horses, and Hikers on Soil Erosion from Established Recreation Trails in Western Montana, USA." Environmental Management 22.2 (1998): 255-62.
Törn, A., A. Tolvanen, Y. Norokorpi, R. Tervo, and P. Siikamäki. "Comparing the Impacts of Hiking, Skiing and Horse Riding on Trail and Vegetation in Different Types of Forest."Journal of Environmental Management 90.3 (2009): 1427-434.
Volunteer Trail Crews:
-http://www.wta.org/volunteer/trail-work-parties
-http://www.pnt.org/volunteer.html
-http://www.highcascadesvolunteers.com/
-http://www.ashlandtrails.org/events/
Policies: http://www.fs.usda.gov/
Endangered Trails Guide: http://www.wta.org/trail-news/publications/endangered-trails/endangered-trails
"WTA in 2013 By The Numbers":http://www.wta.org/about/2013_accomplishments

Figure 1: http://www.wta.org/signpost/snoqualmie-survey-hiking-most-popular-activity