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About
the HHC:
Trail Policy Issues:
Single-Use Trails
Single-use
trails are best for all users:
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All trail users have different needs. Bikers
like the thrill of speed and challenge of steep trails,
which need costly hardening. Horseback riders need
high, wide clearance and trail hardening to withstand
the impact of their mounts. In large numbers fast-moving
bicycles will interfere with horseback riders' safety,
as well as the enjoyment and safety of hikers.
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Hikers
need narrow paths. These enable hikers to be near
the natural features that have drawn them to the trail.
Unlike horseback riders and bikers, hikers are in
direct contact with the trail. Hardened trails for
bikes or horses distance hikers from the hiking experience;
they push wildflowers out of the field of vision.
Mud, ruts, and horse droppings draw the hiker's eye,
instead of the natural surroundings. A well-designed
footpath is "not there"; the primary experience is
that of walking in the forest.
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The
American Hiking Society has endorsed single-use trails.
See the American Hiking Society 1998 Board position
statement at www.americanhiking.org.
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Cost-benefit
analysis proves their worth. Single-use trails
allow managers to assess and allocate fairly the costs
of maintenance and development of trails for low and
high-impact users, such as horseback riding and mountain
bike use. They also prevent high-impact users from
spreading erosive, costly impact to all trail miles
in a forest. [link to 1st NARRP article]
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They
are the only kind of trails it is appropriate to use
hiker volunteers on: hikers won't work on multiple-use
trails, as they perceive that it is unfair for them
to repair the damage of animals with 100 times the
impact of hikers. Hikers doing hand labor can build
20 miles or more of footpaths for the time it takes
to build/rebuild 1 mile of multiple-use trails. The
DNR has stated it will no longer build anything but
multiple-use trails, but the HNF is reconsidering
its multiple-use trails policy, as it has found that
hikers have been largely avoiding its multiple-use
trails. Register your support for single-use trails
with the DNR by e-mailing ekress@dnr.state.in.us
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Hardened
multiple-use rail-trails provide valuable exercise
and transportation functions. Old rail beds were
very well graded, of necessity, and almost permanently
hardened with gravel. Rail-trails do connect all users
with the natural world, on a valuable if not always
very intimate level. As they are developed in this
century, criss-crossing the countryside, their value
will continue to grow as a means for non-motorized
users to traverse the landscape.
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