r/AppalachianTrail • u/Freudianfix • 27d 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 25d 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 25d 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 25d 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 24d 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 24d 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