Updated 10/18/95
Trail design should be set by the needs and interests of your intended users. Their needs will vary with age, physical ability, and interests.
These needs will affect trail characteristics like length, difficulty, slope, and layout. For young and elderly visitors, ease of walking and frequent resting spots would be paramount. Conversely, active youth and adult audiences may prefer a trail having a greater degree of difficulty, with steeper slopes and access to high bluffs or cliffs.
With audience needs clearly defined, select a theme for the trail. A theme gives purpose to your trail by exploiting the natural richness of the area. Trails designed around a theme will maintain interest and provide continuity. There are many options for trail themes.
General nature or education trails focus attention on scenery, history,
geology, forest management and ecology, wildlife, wildflowers, flowering
shrubs, or landscape features such as bottomlands, uplands, swamps, bays,
pocosins, or wetlands.
Conservation trails highlight conservation and good management of soil, water,
and vegetation through the stewardship of existing natural resources on farm
and forestland. Points of interest could include seeded forest roads,
conservation tillage, grassed waterways, contour farming, forest management
sites, wildlife plantings, successional mowing and disking, and prescribed
burning.
Soil or geology trails identify unique or subtle changes in the landscape by taking hikers past soil pits or profiles, rock outcrops, vegetation changes, eroded areas, slope changes, and land uses that are affected by soil properties such as stoniness, drainage, slope, soil depth, and productivity.
Water or wetland trails explore the force and impact of water by following streams, brooks, creeks, and rivers. The water theme can be linked to soil erosion, water quality, watershed protection, wildlife habitat, fisheries, vegetation and productivity changes, sedimentation control, and Best Management Practices. Do not overlook other options around bays, pocosins, swamps, beaver ponds, and farm ponds.
Forest stewardship or ecology trails exhibit the history of forest management and succession, the differences between natural and planted stands, differences in site productivity, impact of fire control and fire use, past cutting history, species diversity, tree or plant identification, stand maturity, seedling development, differences between hardwood and softwood stands, wildlife use of various forest types, lightning strikes, and fire scares.
Historical trails highlight points of interest that can include evidence of old
homesteads; Native American settlements; tenant homes; ornamental and exotic
plantings within the forest such as daffodils, fruit trees, and shrubs;
drainage ditches that are hand or mechanically dug; turpentine pits and old
"catfaces"; gold prospecting pits; burrow pits; sites that evidence farm
erosion and row-crop production; liquor still sites; fish weirs; old mill
sites; sawmill sites; bark and sawdust piles; old dams; roads; railroad spurs;
cemeteries; mines; wells; springs; fencerows; rock piles; and chimneys.
Wildlife management or wildlife observation trails explore animal tracts, dens,
nests, artificial nest boxes and nesting structures, signs of use, beaver dams
and lodges, deer scrapes, den trees, red-cockaded woodpecker colonies, bird
nests, brush and cover piles, forest and field edges, owl or eagle nests,
wildlife plantings, prescribed burning areas, unique and critical habitat
areas, and wildlife trails and travel ways. Simple observation decks and blinds
can be erected to increase the enjoyment of the trail, especially around
concentrated feeding areas.
To return to the Introduction!