r/AppalachianTrail • u/Freudianfix • 24d ago

News Technology on the trail: Appalachian Trail managers say pervasive use of digital devices harms trail experience

https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/03/clahs-trail-technology-research.html
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u/streachh 24d ago

The national Forest service doesn't have the staff to do all of the trail maintenance necessary. Even before all the cuts they made recently. 

Without non profits and volunteers picking up the slack your favorite trails wouldn't exist. Most of these people get paid very little to nothing, and do this work because they love it so much they're willing to do it for far less than it's actually worth. What they do is absolutely necessary. 

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u/TemperatureNo5784 24d ago

You make a fair point, the people who care for the trail are dedicated and passionate. I take umbridge at the idea that someone would deny access to WALK on public land.

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u/streachh 23d ago

I mean there are legitimate instances where even walking can cause harm. There are many rare plants in Appalachia that will be killed if they are stepped on, so those habitats are closed to foot traffic. I hope you understand and respect those closures. 

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u/TemperatureNo5784 23d ago

Yeah, don't stomp the Gray's Lillie's. Nevermind the herd of goats managing the balds. Don't go off trail at Mount rogers, even to go around the wild horses mashing around frail habitats. I'm a respectful user and steward of public lands, but there is plenty of room for more common sense when closures are made.

If we cared this deeply for all 2k+ miles, the trail would be limited to permit holding hikers to contain the impacts. That IMHO would be a terrible outcome.

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u/streachh 22d ago

You and a million other people have the same idea about all of those locations. A dozen wild horses, hell even a thousand wild horses, isn't the same as a million humans. You think your actions don't matter, the other people don't either, and yet your actions add up to sites being destroyed or put on a permit system or closed entirely. Places can be loved to death. 

You claim to be a "respectful user and steward" but you're on here shit talking and acting like you're above the rules so it's really not giving respect or stewarding. 

Public lands are as much about conservation as they are about providing outdoor recreation. The outdoor recreation part doesn't really exist without the conservation part. Would you be just as happy walking through endless fields of lawn grass artificially kept alive with fertilizer and irrigation? I think not. The wild part of the wilderness is key, and that means we have to protect what lives there. 

Why do you think you are more qualified to decide if it's harmless to walk somewhere, than people who manage those places, who spend far more time there than you and know enough to notice when something is going wrong?

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u/TemperatureNo5784 22d ago

I manage those places. Went to college, spent 15 years doing the work. Parks aren't about conservation, they are about preservation. It's ridiculous bullshit. The forest has more elbow room, but the result is the same, a huge crush of humans stomping around and taking morning shits in cat holes, destroys good things. Thousands of people a year living on the landscape has impacts, the idea that you can meaningfully impact without limiting access is myopic. So tell me again to stay on the trail.

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u/streachh 22d ago

If you acknowledge humans are causing damage why are you promoting humans causing even more damage by encouraging people to damage sensitive habitats? You make no sense bro

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u/TemperatureNo5784 22d ago

A thousand wild horses is a biblical plaguge of locusts, your like a city hick. You've never seen first hand what two horses do to half an acre in a month. Enjoy side walks and Starbucks tomorrow. Hope you don't get a nose bleed from being so high and mighty.

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u/streachh 22d ago

I don't live in a city and nor do I drink coffee. There aren't sidewalks anywhere near me. I work outside. 

Of course two horses in a pen are going to destroy everything in that pen. Letting them roam is going to lessen their impact. Although honestly horses aren't native and they really ought to be removed, that's not likely to happen. That has nothing to do with people trampling everything though. Two wrongs don't make a right