POST FALLS — Post Falls is stopping people from making their own trails in local parks.
These unofficial paths are called “social trails.” They form when people walk the same route repeatedly outside the official trail system. The trails damage the environment and can be unsafe.
Black Bay Park has several social trails that are causing problems. People create them to get from one place to another without using established trails.
“This trail is a user defined trail that’s been here since the 90’s. But with increased traffic in the park, we’re starting to see that trail beginning to erode down a little bit more,” said Bryan Myers, parks manager for the City of Post Falls.
The trails wear down soil over time and become steep and dangerous. At Black Bay Park, one social trail down a slope toward the water eroded so badly that part of it almost fell into the lake. The city put up fencing and used sandbags to fix the problem.
The parks department may build stone or log stairs for popular routes that people keep using.
“If there’s something is showing up as a repeated destination that people are trying to get access to, we may look at how do we help sustain this trail in the long term. It may result in installing stone stairs or log stairs,” Myers said.
Social trails also hurt plants and animals. Some hikers think about this when they choose where to walk.
“You can do some hiking up there, but I don’t particularly like to do that because there’s deer and other animals that live here and it’s their home so I like to respect their private areas,” said Terry Caul, a hiker.
The city puts fallen trees across social trails to stop people from using them. They also plant vegetation to help fix damaged areas.
More people are using parks as the weather gets warmer. The city wants visitors to stay on official trails.
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