On the Trail: Taking care of our southern Illinois trails

A lot of work goes into maintaining the accessible nature spots in Carbondale and around the area.

I've been on a lot of trails in southern Illinois, and the vast majority of them have been well-maintained. Honestly, I pretty much take nice trails for granted.

But there is a lot of "behind-the-scenes" work that goes into maintaining those trails, and we hikers have a role to play, too.

I reached out to some folks in the area responsible for maintaining trails, and here is some of what they had to say.

"The biggest item I would emphasize is to stay on designated trails," said Calvin Beckman, site superintendent at Giant City State Park. "If the trail is laid out properly, the tread is designed to allow water to exit the trail and limit erosion. User-made trails often work against the slope and create paths for water to flow, creating paths of erosion which degrade the site. A properly-designed trail also keeps the user safe.

"All trails require maintenance to keep them functional, whether it be simple vegetation and fallen tree removal or in-depth tread rehabilitation. Water is the enemy of trails, and it is important to keep the drainage off of the tread."

The USDA's Trail Construction and Maintenance Notebook provides this guidance to it's trail crews:

"The trails crew's task is to keep water off the tread and keep users on it. The best trail maintainers are those with a trail eye, the ability to anticipate ... threats to trail integrity and to head off problems."

It goes on to say that "because there will always be more work to do than people or time to do it," practicing trail triage is the best approach to spending maintenance dollars wisely. First, correct truly unsafe trail conditions. Then, correct problems that are causing significant trail damage, such as erosion. Finally, restore the trail to its planned designed standard, which could include adding signage or trail clearing.

Stephanie Eichholz, the executive director of Green Earth in Carbondale, coordinates volunteers to help with land and trail management at the Green Earth preserves around Carbondale.

"We hold volunteer workdays on the third Saturday of each month," Eichholz said. "Our typical workday focuses on either trail maintenance or habitat management. We provide everything a volunteer needs regarding gear and equipment, and we hold a brief instructional meeting at the start of the workday to explain or demonstrate what we are doing and how to do it.

"Many people who attend for the first time are surprised to learn how much behind-the-scenes work it takes to maintain a simple 'dirt' trail. Most of our trails are engineered to some degree, and there are very few stretches of trail that do not contain some measure of improvements to the tread or the addition of water control features to prevent mud puddles or erosion."

Clearly, trails don't maintain themselves, and as hikers we can do our part by always staying on the designated trails - and maybe even volunteering to take care of the trails that we enjoy so much.

Mike Baltz has a PhD in biology from the University of Missouri and writes about changing the world from his home in Carbondale.