What are we up to?

TS Crew has been hiking the Swiftcurrent trail to Piegan Pass in Many Glacier, in order to do a reroute of a popular horse trail. The horse trail has been eroded and rutted out throughout the years and is now being revegged and a new switchback will replace part of the old trail.

Creating the new path while closing down the old one involves a number of jobs!!!! First is to return the old trail to a natural state by preventing its use in the future. In order to collect sediments in the eroded trail, logs are peeled and placed perpendicularly into the old trail to act as dams, known as checks. These checks collect sediment and fill the trail.
Areas between the checks are filled with pine needle branches, rocks, duff, and vegetation in order to prevent people from using the old trail. Some checks, called "natural checks" are left unpeeled and at an angles in the old pathway to appear as if they were a natural occurrence.

Then, of course, NEW trail is cut!!! The retread on our trail is a large switch back which criss crosses the old trail for a distance of about 100 yards. The new trail will be manicured and branches will be removed from around it so that hikers and horseback riders can enjoy it again!




So now we face the question. What does our job closing an old trail and cutting a new one mean for conservation? We found ourselves asking this question as we cut down and peeled trees, removed roots, and sawed limbs in this majestic and fairly untouched national park. By opening up new trail we are actually preserving vegetation surrounding the old trail. As trails become less usable, people take the next easiest route, which is typically to the left and right of the rutted out trail. The trail becomes larger as it becomes more and more damaged in the center. The species around the trail become damaged and diversity diminishes from 20 species at 100 meters from the trail to just 7 next to the trail. Reducing the potential for this damage is certainly a measure of conservation! Cutting a new trail will reduce this impact on surrounding species and hopefully enable the conservation of the plant species of this park!!!

TS Crew is happy to make a contribution :)