The article 'On the trail to extinction: Rogue Saanich hikers threaten future of park plants' reviewed how foot and paw traffic on herd trails, and people widening the trails are damaging plants, threatening the extirpation of some rare species. I walk in Mount Doug Park every week, rain or shine, and have noted evidence of increased foot traffic in the last five years, especially after heavy rainfall.
Occasional users express surprise that the trails are muddy in the winter. People come into the park wearing street shoes or clean running shoes. When the trails are muddy, they walk along the side of the trail to keep their shoes clean, trampling and uprooting snowberry and Oregon grape bushes and rare plants.
To protect the native plants, it is a good idea to wear sturdy footwear and gaiters or rain pants when it has been raining. Properly equipped, we can walk in the middle of designated trails, thereby allowing plants to grow off the trail. Undisturbed vegetation provides habitat and nesting sites for birds and other animals.
I wear hiking boots and gaiters year-round and walk only on designated trails. When the earth is wet and sticky, I walk in or near the centre of the trail, and think of singing the chorus of Swann and Flanders' Hippopotamus Song: "Mud, mud, glorious mud; Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. So follow me, follow, down to the hollow; And there let us wallow in glorious mud."
Robert Shepherd
Saanich
