Respecting our Public Lands

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Stepping outside my front door for a run on any given day, a couple of things are often immediately observable. First, I live on a block of tightly packed duplexes, in a neighborhood full of duplexes. There is a large apartment complex that adjoins our local metro station, housing hundreds of neighbors. You can hear the trains going back and forth from our front porch, including metro, Marc commuter trains, and CSX freight. Across the rail tracks is a bulk trash transfer station, and up the road is a cement company. Down the street is a massive hospital complex that recently tore down several acres of trees for no apparent reason. And near the hospital, a huge swath of green space is being developed for dozens of townhomes.

Despite the challenges of the built environment, my neighborhood also has beautiful swaths of green space, protected by the National Park Service. A narrow strip of green land runs through the community, protecting historical resources vital to the defenses of Washington in a time long past. This land, while not developed for formal recreation, does provide for great green space for touch football games, dog runs, and the occasional picnic. They provide tree canopy and rainwater absorption capacity. They pump out oxygen into our atmosphere, and pull down carbon dioxide. These lands are part of the broad Rock Creek Park complex, which houses hundreds of acres of public lands throughout our beautiful city.

Rock Creek Park itself was established in 1890 as one of the earliest National Parks in our nation. Bounding the Rock Creek stream valley, the Park boasts hiking trails, paved paths, a roadway, visitors center, horse center, community gardens, an old historic mill, a golf course, an historic amphitheater, and more.

On any given weekend, you can find hundreds, if not thousands of people recreating throughout the park system. Hiking, running, horseback riding, picnicking and the like. The park provides so many benefits for the present-day humans in our community, while simultaneously protecting the environment and preserving some key historical feature.

For the most part, visitors seem to take care of the park as best I can tell. But last weekend, while out on a trail run, I ran into some folks who were not abiding by park rules and got nasty with me when I flagged them for it.

Understanding our Trails

The National Park Service mission is to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generation. Trails crisscross many national park units and are often the best way to immerse yourself in nature, culture, and stunning beauty.

By and large, however, there are restrictions on the types of activities you can do while on trail. Walking and hiking are pretty much universally allowed on designated trails throughout the system. Activities that deviate from the human powered to the mechanical is where consideration must be paid. In many cases, this includes restrictions on human powered bicycles and certainly means restrictions on motorized vehicles.

Restrictions on types of use exist because of the fragile nature of ecosystems that the parks themselves are striving to protect. Even human feet can cause grave damage to these systems, especially in parks where visitation is sky high and the ground is delicate, fragile or otherwise sensitive to disturbance.

Here in the Rock Creek Park complex, foot traffic over time tends to expand the core established trail, creating erosion problems and trail creep which jeopardizes the immediate surrounding habitat. This can happen for many reasons – people seeking to avoid roots step sideways on the trail into leaf covered area. Over time, more and more people do the same, and eventually that leads to an expanded path. Debris on the trail can result in the same thing – a downed tree, branches on the trail, or other obstructions may result in people stepping beyond the bounds of the trail, thus creating expansion.

Climate change is also causing issues – especially when it comes to increased rainfall – in both amount of precipitation annually, and also the severity of specific rain events at a single moment in time. Erosion of our trails is significant here in DC. I’ve watched certain parts of the Rock Creek Park trail system continuously erode away, only to be backfilled with dirt and rock, to wash away again in the next big storm. Water bars help somewhat, but with major rain events, they are not match for the torrents of water that cut through hillsides and carve out valleys in our trails.

Respecting Our Trails

In Rock Creek Park, our trails are restricted to human foot traffic, and in certain areas, the occasional horse. Bikes are prohibited from dirt trails, and only allowed on the paved surfaces that are abundant throughout the system.

I was thus appalled last weekend when I was out on a trail run, and saw a pair of mountain bikers barreling towards me down the Western Ridge Trail near Picnic Area 16.

I shouted out to the bikers ‘no bikes on trail’ and kept running. It’s not my job to police the park, but it is my job, as a responsible steward of our public lands, to remind public land users of what is and is not allowed on trails.

After I shouted out the trial rules, I was then verbally berated by one of the riders. ‘Where do you get your information from? AllTrails says we can ride these trails. You just don’t want us here!’

I didn’t engage. Maybe I should have, and talked with them about responsible park stewardship and checking what uses are an are not allowed on public lands. But it’s a global pandemic and I was 8 miles in to a trail run, and just didn’t have the mental capacity to jeopardize getting close to them, risking having the group of hikers I had just passed who were not wearing masks catch up to us, and frankly, I was tired.

Leave No Trace

I’m writing this blog today though, because personal stewardship is vitally important if we want our public lands to be intact long into the future. Checking the park guidance documents, and the types of uses allowed and not allowed, before you are out on trail, is vitally important. Reading the signs on the trailheads, reading park manuals, talking with a park ranger. These are all ways to learn what you can and can’t do on our public lands and should be done if you have any questions at all, and frankly if you plan to do anything beyond walk. And this planning is just step one to being a responsible steward.

I’m blessed to live in a city that has such incredible access to green space and hiking and running trails. The escape it provides from the hustle and bustle of crowded city living is a beautiful reminder of the importance it is to protect those places. Please, join me in stewarding our lands, and being responsible consumers of nature.

Here are some resources if you want to learn more: