Abstract
Vegetation trampling that arises from off-trail excursions by people walking for recreation can negatively impact the structure of understory plants in natural spaces that are an essential element of urban green infrastructure in a modern city. In addition to reducing the esthetic quality and environmental values of urban remnant and replanted native vegetation, such trampling reduces the habitat that supports wildlife populations within the urban fabric. This case study draws upon several disparate methods for measuring vegetation structure and trampling impacts to produce a hybrid method that community-based citizen scientists (and land managers and other researchers) could use to simply, rapidly, and reproducibly monitor how trampling associated with urban recreation trails impacts the structure of understory vegetation. Applying the novel hybrid method provided evidence that trampling had reduced the vegetation structure adjacent to a recreational walking trail in an urban woodland remnant in Perth, Western Australia. The hybrid method also detected ecological variability at the local ecosystem-scale at a second similar woodland remnant in Perth. The hybrid sampling method utilized in this case study provides an effective, efficient, and reproducible data collection method that can be applied to recreation ecology research into aspects of trampling associated with trail infrastructure.
Highlights
The global phenomena of people seeking recreational opportunities to reconnect with nature are resulting in negative impacts from vegetation trampling by those in pursuit of natural area experiences [1,2,3,4]
Relevant for the case study reported in this article, Phillips and Newsome [14] found that changes in the structure of the drought-tolerant sclerophyllous shrub-dominated vegetation of southwestern Australia (SWA) could be detected more rapidly than changes in cover and composition
One reason for choosing the Murdoch site was the proximity to our research base, but that site was chosen because the remnant native vegetation was known to be in good to very good condition where a conservation fence separates native vegetation from a recreation trail and another sampling location where the trail infrastructure is unfenced
Summary
The global phenomena of people seeking recreational opportunities to reconnect with nature are resulting in negative impacts from vegetation trampling by those in pursuit of natural area experiences [1,2,3,4]. This is especially true both for recently created remnants and for remnant vegetation long fragmented within the urban fabric that have been engulfed as cities grow to accommodate increasingly urbanized human populations [5,6,7,8,9]. The second site was chosen to support the Friends of Lake Claremont (FOLC) community action group that was proposing to implement a longitudinal ecological citizen science program in remnant Banksia and eucalypt woodland and Banksia woodland ecosystems at Lake
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