Trail Users Research Articles

Examination of Exercise Physiological Traits According to Usage Grade of National Forest Trails

Forest trail difficulty levels must be investigated to promote their safe usage. However, exercise-based physiological changes are difficult to estimate in a forest environment. Hence, studies comparing indoor and outdoor environmental activities are required. We aimed to investigate the physiological traits associated with different usage grades of national forest trails in the Republic of Korea. We conducted both field and indoor experiments to measure different variables of 20 healthy participants aged 40–50 years to evaluate the exercise intensity and physiological effects of hiking on these trails. Significant variations in physiological responses were observed based on trail difficulty, with the highest heart rate and energy expenditure recorded during the most challenging uphill segments. Specifically, the heart rate increased from 115.4 ± 13.7 bpm in easy segments to 140.3 ± 15.6 bpm in difficult segments, whereas energy expenditure ranged from 404.1 ± 112.2 kcal/h to 518.1 ± 131.0 kcal/h. This study highlights the importance of considering both objective trail difficulty and users’ physiological reactions, including perceived exertion, to enhance user safety and optimize the health benefits of national forest trails. These findings provide essential data for developing comprehensive exercise programs and improving the national forest trail usage grade system.

A Qualitative Case Study of Trail Visitors’ Experiences and COVID-19 Mitigation Decisions During the Pandemic

Although there have been numerous studies concerning COVID-19 and its impact on people’s recreational experience, most projects only documented observable behaviors or used cross-sectional surveys to ask respondents about their behavior. Few projects explored the participants thought processes and attitudes about how the pandemic affected their recreation during this period. This project consisted of 31 interviews that were designed to understand recreational users’ trail use during the pandemic and the motivations and decision making when they adopted (or not) guidelines given to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The interviews, structured around six main questions, revealed four key themes: changes in trail use, perceptions of risk and safety, adoption of COVID-19 mitigation behaviors, and influences on these decisions. This research provides valuable insights into the behaviors and attitudes of trail users during the pandemic.

Exploring Sentiment Analysis and Visitor Satisfaction along Urban Liner Trails: A Case of the Seoul Trail, South Korea

Increasing public health awareness has stressed the significance of the mental and physical benefits of outdoor activities. Government involvement and support for urban redevelopment projects in Korea, such as Seoul Dulle-gil, connected previously disconnected green spaces. Despite the ecological and cultural importance of urban spaces, their impact on residents and tourists and their role in exploring the city’s dynamic remains limited. This study aims to evaluate how green space activities engage in sustainable land management and offer insights into surrounding communities. A quantitative big data research method was employed, analyzing 3995 online blog post reviews using Python code, and sentiment analysis conducted with pandas and KoNLPy’s Okt library. The results indicated that sentiment scores were generally higher in sections located south of the Han River. Among the eight trail courses, courses 6, 3, 4, and 5, located south of the Han River, exhibited higher sentiment scores compared to courses 7, 8, 2, and 1, located north of the Han River, which showed lower satisfaction levels. Among the 16 characteristics influencing visitor satisfaction, the study emphasized the importance of potential space maintenance to enhance trail user safety and community well-being, contributing to sustainable land management.

Integrating importance- performance analysis into transboundary natural resource management of water trails: Case study at the Chattahoochee river national recreation area water trail in Atlanta, GA (USA)

Despite growth in National Water Trail designations year after year along with paddlesports popularity, there is little research on water trail users' experiences within transboundary managed water trail systems. Specifically, there is a lack of evidence regarding which experiential attributes paddlers' find important and how these transboundary zones perform on those attributes. This is problematic because the entities managing transboundary water trail zones do not know if there are common attributes that are important to all water trail users and if they are providing satisfactory water-based recreational experiences based on these expectations. With this gap in mind, this research integrates the domain of Transboundary Natural Resource Management for National Water Trail Systems with the analytical method of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to explicitly compare paddlers’ perceptions (n = 360) of 12 water trail attributes between two different management zones (city park vs. federal National Park Service) of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Water Trail in Atlanta, GA (USA). Results revealed that paddlers within both management zones place high importance on the biophysical attribute of water quality yet are equally dissatisfied with the performance of water quality, a reported decades long issue for the Chattahoochee River. Additionally, paddlers within the National Park Service zone expressed greater dissatisfaction with the lack opportunities available for quiet spaces and paddling in undeveloped areas. Results also indicated that water trail visitors had various levels of expectations and perceptions of river setting attributes that differed by management zones. A focused understanding of how physical, social, and managerial attributes of National Water Trails are perceived by recreational users (e.g., paddlers) aids transboundary natural resource efforts in collaborative decision making to better balance river conservation and recreation management for the future sustainability of National Water Trails. Management implications•The increasing popularity of river-based recreation and National Water Trail Systems spanning multiple jurisdictional zones justifies the need to proactively discuss transboundary visitor use management and collaboration across resource management entities (e.g., federal, municipal, private, state, etc.).•Importance-Performance Analyses (IPA) are a cost-effective and relatively intuitive method for managers across multiple jurisdictions to collaboratively manage the satisfactory performance of recreational setting attributes, while also allowing visitors to express their opinions and perspectives on current and future managerial elements.•Managers can gain a stronger understanding of the process to evaluate river setting indicators through analytical methods (e.g., IPA) that may save them time and money, as well as provide a logical decision-making pathway to prioritizing action within the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework (IVUMF) for parks, rivers, and other protected areas.

The Development of a Prototype Solution for Collecting Information on Cycling and Hiking Trail Users

Hiking and cycling have gained popularity as ways of promoting well-being and physical activity. This has not gone unnoticed by Portuguese authorities, who have invested in infrastructure to support these activities and to boost sustainable and nature-based tourism. However, the lack of reliable data on the use of these infrastructures prevents us from recording attendance rates and the most frequent types of users. This information is important for the authorities responsible for managing, maintaining, promoting and using these infrastructures. In this sense, this study builds on a previous study by the same authors which identified computer vision as a suitable technology to identify and count different types of users of cycling and hiking routes. The performance tests carried out led to the conclusion that the YOLOv3-Tiny convolutional neural network has great potential for solving this problem. Based on this result, this paper describes the proposal and implementation of a prototype demonstrator. It is based on a Raspberry Pi 4 platform with YOLOv3-Tiny, which is responsible for detecting and classifying user types. An application available on users’ smartphones implements the concept of opportunistic networks, allowing information to be collected over time, in scenarios where there is no end-to-end connectivity. This aggregated information can then be consulted on an online platform. The prototype was subjected to validation and functional tests and proved to be a viable low-cost solution.

Urban green space preferences for various health-related psychological benefits of adolescent pupils, university students and adults

Previous research has shown that biophysical and social characteristics of urban green spaces (UGS) and individual factors may play a role in preferences for restorative environments. However, little is known about the trade-offs between (bio)physical and social characteristics of UGS on different health-related psychological benefits between different population groups. This exploratory study used an image-based discrete choice experiment, in which 298 adolescent pupils, 159 university students, and 142 adults were asked which urban green spaces they would prefer for general recovery, stress reduction, and concentration improvement. Each of the 128 green space scenarios depicted different attributes of varying levels of recreational infrastructure, numbers of trail users, distances between forest vegetation and trail, traffic noise, background scenery, both in winter and in summer. The results indicate that visitor numbers and traffic noise strongly influenced green space preferences for all study groups, but groups differed in terms of their preferences and trade-offs for the psychological benefits. The biophysical environment was less important for adolescent pupils, while recreational infrastructure was less important for the adults. There were group differences in stated preferences for general recovery, stress reduction, and concentration enhancement. Implications for urban green space planning are presented.

Future of E-Bikes on Public Lands: A Human Factors Field Study at Minute Man National Historical Park

Electric-assist bicycles (e-bikes) are growing in popularity, and their use has increased on public lands managed by federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. Evaluation of e-bike use on public lands is hindered by a dearth of scientific research, as noted in a prior literature review completed by the study team. This paper presents the results of a human factors field study that evaluated participant speed and behavior on an unpaved, multiuse trail to answer research questions about trail user safety and social interaction. The study concludes that e-bike riders travel approximately 1 to 2 mph faster than conventional bike riders on average, but that individuals’ speeds among conventional and e-bike riders are widely distributed and overwhelmingly overlap, including at the upper and lower extremes. The sex of the rider predicts a greater difference in speed than whether they are using a conventional or an e-bike. The study also found conventional and e-bike riders generally reduce speed in areas of potential conflict and exhibit similar precautionary behaviors when passing other trail users and when crossing trail junctions and vehicle paths. Public lands managers can use these results to inform their decisions about managing e-bike use on multiuse trails with similar characteristics.

Weather effects on natural surface trail use in an urban wilderness multi-use trail system

Previous research has concluded weather conditions can influence physical activity (PA) on trails. However, these studies focused primarily on mixed-use paved surface trails. Many recreational areas use natural surface trails for mountain biking, trail running, and walking. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between weather conditions and the use of natural surface trails for PA. In addition, this investigation sought to determine if the type of trail surface material, gravel vs. dirt, impacted PA differently by weather factors. Infrared trail counters were used to measure hourly trail use within Knoxville's Urban Wilderness in Knoxville, TN. An onsite weather station was used to obtain hourly weather variables. Negative binomial regression models were used to analyze the relationship between trail use and weather conditions. Both trail locations experienced bi-modal peaks in usage with Spring and Fall months showing the highest usage. As temperature increased, so did trail use (β = 0.115, p = 0.00); however, gravel trail use began to decrease at temperatures above 86 °F. Precipitation negatively impacted trail use on both gravel (β = −3.114, p = 0.00) and dirt (β = −2.281, p = 0.00) trails. Relative humidity and had a negative relationship with trail use on both trails. UVRI (β = −0.036) was only significantly associated with dirt trail use. The direction of the effect of weather measures on natural surface trail use is similar to previous studies on paved trails; however, the magnitude of the effect varies. Gravel trail use was more sensitive to temperature and precipitation, while relative humidity, absolute pressure, and UVRI had a greater impact on dirt trail use. The variations in the magnitude of the effect may be a function of the activity performed on the different trail surfaces. Trail surface material should be considered to fully understand the impact weather has on trail use. Management implicationsBy understanding the behaviors of natural surface trail users in response to various weather conditions, managers can adapt their trail planning (i.e., type of trail, surface material), maintenance, and funding for various projects. Managers could collect weather-related information in conjunction with trail surface conditions to inform users of more user-friendly trails during adverse weather events. This could decrease trail maintenance by shifting users to trails that can tolerate more use in poor weather. Additionally, this information would enable managers to develop programs more effectively (e.g., special events, learning clinics) and thus engage more people in outdoor recreation.

Partial trailside Japanese barberry (Ranunculales: Berberidaceae) removal did not reduce the abundance of questing blacklegged ticks (Acari: Ixodidae).

In a nature reserve in southern Maine, we removed invasive Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii de Candolle) along sections of forested recreational trails that ran through dense barberry infestations. Barberry thickets provide questing substrate and a protective microclimate for blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis Say), and trail users could brush up against encroaching barberry and acquire ticks. Trailside barberry removal will reduce or eliminate encroaching tick questing substrate and could reduce trailside questing tick abundance by creating a microclimate more hostile to ticks. The same-day cut-and-spray treatment comprised mechanical cutting of barberry clumps (individual plants with numerous ramets) followed immediately by targeted herbicide application to the resulting root crowns. The treatment created trail shoulders to a lateral width of 1-2 m on both sides of 100-m trail sections, with initial treatment in the fall of 2013 and one retreatment in the summer of 2014. Our aim was to remove 90% of barberry clumps to achieve a 50% or better reduction in questing tick abundance on trail shoulders. However, by the fall of 2015, there were only 41% fewer barberry clumps on treated vs. untreated trail sections and there was no reduction in either adults or nymphs. We concluded that our barberry treatment protocol was not sufficiently aggressive since the resulting ecotone habitat on trail shoulders proved suitable for questing I. scapularis. In principle, cutting back barberry along trails should reduce trail user contact with questing deer ticks, but we were unable to demonstrate a reduction in trailside tick abundance.

The Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism Operators, Trail Experience and Land Use Management in British Columbia’s Backcountry

Climate change, natural resource industries, and an expanding outdoor tourism sector have recently increased access to sensitive backcountry environments in Western Canada. Trail managers are struggling to manage trail conditions with the mounting effects of smoke, dust, fire, flood, area closures, and beetle outbreaks in their regions. Outdoor recreation trail managers are linking these events and are thinking critically about the history and interconnectedness of land use management decisions in the province of British Columbia (BC). As the effects of climate change continue to challenge both trail managers and sport recreationists, guides and trail associations have been identified as key education facilitators in the development and dissemination of environmental consciousness. Guided by a community-based participatory research approach, this study used personal interviews with trail managers across the province to highlight how a connection with local ecosystems can develop a more robust land ethic for recreational trail user communities in BC.

Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of Factors Affecting the Loyalty of Forest Trail Users

Background and objective: With the increasing public awareness of health due to COVID-19 and the quality of life, people have come to prefer natural spaces with fewer crowds. Public use of forest trails is increasing as a place that satisfies the demand for such natural spaces. As a result, the basic plans for trails and mountaineering support were established, and there has been government-level support such as the establishment of the Korea Mountaineering Support Center, which resulted in a quantitative and qualitative increase in the use of forest trails. Accordingly, efforts must be made to ensure satisfaction and loyalty in using forest trails.Methods: Therefore, this study identified the factors affecting the overall satisfaction and loyalty toward forest trails through structural equation modeling. As for the research data, we used data from the Fact-finding Survey on Forest Welfare Facility Users to analyze the use of forest trails.Results: As a result, safety and comfort, kindness, travel time, and program experience variety had a significant effect directly and indirectly on overall satisfaction and loyalty. Safety and comfort affected personal activity experience variety, while kindness affected program experience variety. For travel time, the direct effect on loyalty showed a positive correlation, but the indirect effect showed a negative correlation.Conclusion: These results showed that safety should be considered a top priority on forest trails, and that long travel time to forest trails could be a factor that increases loyalty by offering various programs. In addition, loyalty has a multifaceted correlation between several factors, suggesting that it is necessary to consider not only direct effects but also indirect effects.

Estimating encounter probabilities among recreational trail user groups.

We provide managers of recreational trail systems with a quantitative, objective, and noninvasive method to monitor activity among trail user groups. This method can be altered both spatially and temporally to fit any recreational trail system's research questions. These questions may involve congestion, trail carrying capacity, or user group and wildlife encounters. Our method advances current knowledge of trail use dynamics by quantifying the extent of activity overlap between different user groups that may be prone to conflict. Managers can use this information to incorporate relevant management strategies to mitigate congestion and conflict for their own recreational trail system.

Behaviour change interventions to facilitate forest trail users’ biosecurity compliance

Natural resource management can struggle with increased visitation that inadvertently deteriorates the environment. In Aotearoa New Zealand, visitors to kauri forests are spreading a lethal soil pathogen resulting in cultural and conservation risk. While public awareness of kauri dieback disease is growing, compliance at hygiene stations has not similarly increased. To overcome this apparent knowledge-behaviour gap, five interventions (ambassadors, normative messaging, watching eye effect, hazard perception, and pledge board) were evaluated for their impact on visitor compliance with footwear/equipment cleaning behaviour. Behavioural observations (n = 10,536) and intercept surveys (n = 3,061) were collected. Ambassadors resulted in increased compliance for both visitors and local trail users. The pledge board resulted in increased compliance for local trail users only and normative message increased compliance at one visitor site. Hazard perception and watching eye resulted in a decrease in compliance behaviour. This research demonstrates the need for careful assessment of interventions designed to mitigate the impacts of visitors to conservation areas. The success of the ambassador intervention, the pledge board for locals and, to a lesser extent, the normative message at one location, offer field-based empirical evidence supporting the use of social norms in communication approaches aimed at influencing visitor behaviour in natural resource settings.

Impacts of Leaf Removal from Trails on Trail Condition and Erosion

Deciduous tree leaves on recreational trails alter user experience generally making for less enjoyable and possibly more dangerous conditions. Web searches reveal extensive debate regarding the management of leaves on trails with some trail users adamant leaves should be removed and others equally adamant they should not. Despite this debate, there is a dearth of published guidance and empirical research for decisions regarding leaf management on recreational trails. In this study, we experimentally removed leaves from treatment trail segments at Carvins Cove near Roanoke, Virginia, during late fall in 2019 and 2020 and did not remove leaves from control segments. Physical characteristics of treatment and control segments were statistically indistinguishable. Over the following 2-year period, leaf cover on trails, qualitative trail conditions, compressive soil strength, and soil moisture content were measured in winter, spring, and fall. In fall 2021, erosion of trail was also measured. All measured variables were compared between treatment and control segments. Differences in leaf cover of treatment and control segments were detectable through spring, but were undetectable by early fall. During winter, compressive soil strength was lower in leafless segments. Analyses of qualitative data revealed leafless segments as softer and muddier than leaf-covered segments during winter likely due to increased freeze-thaw cycles on trails lacking the insulating layer of leaves. During spring, soil moisture content was lower in leafless segments likely due to the evaporative barrier provided by the leaves on control segments. During spring, compressive soil strength and qualitative condition did not vary among treatment and control segments. No differences in trail conditions were detectable among treatment and control segments during fall. After 2 years, erosion did not vary among treatment and control segments suggesting there is little impact of widespread leaf removal on long-term sustainability of trails. Thus, we recommend decisions regarding leaf removal focus not on efforts to make trails more sustainable, but rather to maximize maintenance resources for desired user experiences. Specifically, trails regularly plagued with mud during freeze-thaw cycles likely benefit from not removing leaves prior to winter as mud is generally among the least desirable of conditions for trail users.

COVID-19 compliance among urban trail users: Behavioral insights and environmental implications.

As both trail width and visitor density impacted physical distancing, a combination of trail design that accommodates distancing requirements and density management practices that provide sufficient trail user spacing is essential to retain safe and active trail use.Off-trail movement was influenced by both trail width and density, so ensuring safe off-trail spaces exist and using durable off-trail materials can minimize disturbance and protect visitors.Signage is inconsistently significant to influence trail-compliant distancing behavior, but optimizing its placement and content may improve effectiveness.Compliant trail behavior varied by trail width, visitor density, and trail location; therefore, site-specific information is necessary to understand possible visitor behavior and design/implement mitigation strategies.

Projected decrease in trail access in the Arctic

Transportation systems in northern Canada are highly sensitive to climate change. We project how access to semi-permanent trails on land, water, and sea ice might change this century in Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland in northern Canada), using CMIP6 projections coupled with trail access models developed with community members. Overall trail access is projected to diminish, with large declines in access for sea ice trails which play a central role for Inuit livelihoods and culture; limits to adaptation in southern regions of Inuit Nunangat within the next 40 years; a lengthening of the period when no trails are accessible; and an unequal distribution of impacts according to the knowledge, skills, equipment, and risk tolerance of trail users. There are opportunities for adaptation through efforts to develop skillsets and confidence in travelling in more marginal environmental conditions, which can considerably extend the envelope of days when trails are accessible and months when this is possible. Such actions could reduce impacts across emissions scenarios but their potential effectiveness declines at higher levels of global warming, and in southern regions only delays when sea ice trails become unusable.

텍스트마이닝을 활용한 코로나19 전후 제주올레 게시글 분석

The purpose of this study is to collect posts about Jeju Olle Trail uploaded to blogs and cafes (Naver, Daum) and to understand the perception and the behavior of Jeju Olle Trail users. After collecting posts with the keyword

Research Note: A Multi-Method Approach to Monitor Recreational Trail Usage in Complex Spatial Settings

Trail use by pedestrians has become more popular in the United States over the last decade although few studies explore the use of technology to monitor high use trails. Monitoring trail users is an important part of trail management and an optimal monitoring system usually depends on site-specific characteristics. The objective of this study was to demonstrate how using a multi-methods system to monitor backcountry trail usage in complex spatial settings can be a useful approach for collecting the information that trail managers need. Given the national growth in recreational hiking, we were particularly interested in exploring these issues for highly visited trails close to urban areas and selected a portion of the Larch Trail leading to the top of Multnomah Falls for the study. The multi-methods approach that we used included a combination of automated infrared sensor counts, manual counts, parking lot data from an inductive loop, and travel time estimates collected with low-energy Bluetooth sensors. We found that using multiple methods allowed for a cost-effective and rich data set that considered the site characteristics and the specific need of the trail managers. We expect that many backcountry trail settings have complex landscape and physical design without robust pre-existing baseline data and hope that our insights will aid trail managers as they strive for a sustainable balance between human use and landscape impact.

Avaliação e Proposta de Rotas ideais para trilhas no Setor de Manguito, Parque Nacional do Pico Bayamesa, Cuba

Based on the evaluation of accesses to the attractions in the “El Manguito” sector of Pico Bayamesa National Park, a methodology is proposed to determine the optimal hiking routes based on the analysis of the existing ones in the Management Plan 2017-2021. Considering quantitative and qualitative criteria related to environmental conditions, management, socio-cultural aspects and hiking trail users, a new tourist hiking route was proposed along with the fusion of three previously existing ones. The proposal was approved and will be incorporated into the Public Use Program in the new version of the Pico Bayamesa National Park Management Plan.

Multilevel correlates of domain-specific physical activity among rural adults – a cross-sectional study

BackgroundIncreasing physical activity (PA) in rural communities is a vital prevention tactic in multiple chronic diseases; however, little is known on the multilevel correlates of PA rural areas. A better understanding of domain-specific PA adds context for promoting PA in rural communities. The current study sought to determine factors associated with domain-specific and overall moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in rural communities.MethodsSurveys were conducted across 14 rural mid-Western communities, with the final analytical sample including 1241 adults (ages 19–96, M = 57.0 [SD = 16.7], 67.8% female, 83.8% white). Generalized linear models with negative binomial distributions examined the relation between demographics, trail use, and perceptions of the neighborhood environment, with domain-specific and overall MVPA, measured via the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire.ResultsRural residents reported an average of 617 total minutes of weekly MVPA (SD = 1141), with 58.5% meeting MVPA guidelines. Higher age, female gender, and higher educated individuals had lower levels of overall and occupational MVPA. Females, higher education, and perceived indoor recreational access were associated with lower levels of transportation-related MVPA, while trail use was associated with increased transportation MVPA. Higher age and female gender respondents had lower levels of recreational MVPA, while trail users and those who perceived favorable indoor recreational access had higher levels of recreational MVPA.ConclusionsPA primarily occurred in the occupational domain among this sample of rural mid-Western adults. Findings highlight the need for multilevel interventions to address PA across multiple domains in rural communities, especially among females and older adults.