What could possibly be wrong with trails through the woods? Ad hoc, unsanctioned, illegal, illicit, unapproved…choose your adjective to precede the ‘trails through the woods’ phrase and then ask ‘what could possibly be wrong with unsanctioned trails through the woods?’ While we’re at it, let’s ask the question, ‘what type of person would build and maintain unsanctioned trails through the woods?’ Let’s hypothesize for a moment.

Law Abiding Citizen

There’s a lot going on in our nation with people’s attitudes about abiding by laws. Some people are as apt to decry a convicted felon in the White House as they are to cite the horrors of the justice system, saying it is utterly failing most of the poor souls who face the courts. How does that work, logically? I’m not sure it does. But, are we saying at the same time that we should question the laws, as well? Has ‘law abiding citizen’ become an anachronism or just plain laughable? Or, maybe our culture has become accepting of individual interpretation of laws, but not in all cases. For instance, who in their right minds would support widespread law breaking with hit and run drivers, armed robbery, or homicide? But, say how about the lesser offences of shoplifting, forgery, assault, or libel? Are we getting to your more acceptable level of crimes, yet? How about….driving 20 mph over the speed limit, selling alcohol to minors, extortion, or petty theft? And then, somewhere down the line you encounter the laws against damaging public property, trespass, entering closed areas of public land, visiting public parks when they are closed, and violating federal and state clean water laws or endangered species regulations. How are we feeling about the types of citizens who break those laws? Are we giving them a pass? Someone is. A lot of people are. Hundreds and hundreds of people in our community have decided that the criminals committing that last litany of crimes are ‘okay people’ undeserving of one iota of investigation that might result in at most a warning, and almost never prosecution.

Anarchists I know would scoff at the legal argument here. Many who know how broken the justice system is would also shrug off the legal arguments, as well, understanding that without justice there can be no reasonable pursuit of legal matters. So, perhaps we must turn to ethics to examine the truer nature of those who would participate in unsanctioned trail building and maintenance.

A Matter of Ethics

Should we consider the consequences of illegal trail building? Or, is it enough to ask if rogue trail building is good? Is building an unsanctioned trail in and of itself causing harm to other people? Is maintaining a rogue trail respectful of all people? These are the types of questions one must ask in seeking answers outside of legal context. As I have posed these questions over the years, the most common answer is “I don’t know.” So, we must ask another question of morality: is it unethical for an illicit trail builder to create new trails if they are ignorant of the consequences or context of their actions? 

Consequences, Respect

The consequences of constructing and/or maintaining rogue trails are well known, or at least readily available. The most glaring impact of rogue trails is on wildlife. Conservation lands managers have a difficult time providing for some trail access while also conserving wildlife: the two goals are mutually exclusive. Park users disturb wildlife, so one must plan around that to have healthy wildlife populations. Trails constructed outside of that planning process scuttle attempts at nature conservation. 

And so, rogue trail builders either have contempt for parks managers’ planning processes or do not care about wildlife or both.

The same sets of arguments also apply to conservation of flora, fungi, soil, and clean water. 

And again, it would stand to reason that those who construct illegal trails have contempt for park oversight personnel’s work/expertise and also do not care about conserving native plants or mushrooms and don’t care if soil erodes, that we have clean running streams, or that natural areas provide for drinking water.

Let’s extend these logical frameworks to the element of respect. Morals often refer to respecting others: their lives, their pursuits, safety, happiness, etc. All groups with which I have interacted in the past few decades readily recognize that humans need all species to continue existing for our own survival. And so, those who create and maintain unsanctioned trails score quite low on the ‘respect others’ morality scale with that first test. The majority of USA citizens support wildlife conservation; second test strikes against those who would build trails without the careful planning that parks managers use to weigh the pros and cons of new trails. We could go on…

In Sum

In kind words, how would you summarize the findings above to describe those people who make it a habit to create, or maintain, unsanctioned trails? Excluding nihilism, one would need to start with the term ‘criminal,’ but that would not be enough. The word ‘selfish’ sounds unkind, eh? And, even so, just ‘criminal, selfish…’ lacks something. 

Most of the social circles with which I have discourse include short hand lines of reference to describe types of people who love fun just a little too much. You know, when fun overrides respect for others? The term ‘fun-loving’ falls short of describing the types of people referenced in these conversations; the people being referenced generally have problems, which is why they are being discussed. Such conversations generally end in head shaking…no great solutions…sighs and ‘I hope they figure it out….’ or ‘maybe so-and-so (someone possibly close to them) can have a chat with them.’ I think we are getting closer to understanding the types of people we are dealing with. 

Next time you take a walk in nature, watch for the many trails veering from the signed, sanctioned one you are hiking. Ask yourself how much traffic that trail must get to be so well rutted and then think about how far that trail must travel, how much work it takes to chainsaw (at night) those trails open after trees fall. What a massive effort by _______ types of people (fill in the blank)! Think about the conversations they must have with one another and their networks… and how that is influencing the goodness of our community.

– this post originally published in the weekly e-news for the Monterey Bay, BrattonOnline – if you don’t already know it, now’s a good time to subscribe.