Photos by N.S. Nokkentved/ The Olympian
Unauthorized trails across subalpine meadows can kill fragile plants and lead to erosion of thin volcanic soils.

Meadow restoration is ongoing effort

Scars left from hiking off trails take many years to heal

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published August 7, 2001

PARADISE -- If you go to Mount Rainier National Park to see the wildflowers, stay on the trail.

Step off the trails through the alpine meadows in Mount Rainier National Park and you get a prompt, firm, but cordial reminder from park rangers to stay on the trail. They take the issue seriously.

"You can kill a patch of heather with just two footsteps," ranger Maureen McGee-Ballinger said.

Heather forms a seal that holds the meager soil to the underlying rock; human footsteps can break that seal, leading to the loss of soil and death of the heather. Like other fragile subalpine vegetation, once the heather has been trampled and killed, the area is at risk of eroding.

About 2 million people visit the park annually, and more than half of them visit the meadows at Paradise.

Because it can take many years for nature to heal a scar naturally, park officials lend a hand. In eroded areas, wood or rock bars are placed across a slope to stop further erosion. Soil is replaced. It is sterilized to avoid introducing non-native plants and acidity.

Seeds are gathered from native plants along the trails, and they are raised in the park greenhouse over the winter. The following summer the new plants are planted in the bare areas, McGee-Ballinger said.

Much of the existing damage is a legacy of past widespread, unregulated recreational activities. But park officials also want to prevent new problems.

It happens not just at Paradise or Sunrise, but anywhere alpine meadows are easily accessible, park spokeswoman Maria Gillett said. Illicit paths appear where people have cut across a meadow to get a better look or where they cut across to another trail or to get to a snow field, Gillett said.

In backcountry, the park limits the number of permits, size of groups and in some places requires backpackers to camp in established sites.

The park can fix all the problem areas. Some remote, less visible areas are left to heal themselves, but efforts are directed at the most visible and highest use areas, she said.

The effort includes public education -- telling visitors to stay on the trails.

And the program relies on the help of hundreds of volunteers, including students from the Columbia Crest Elementary School in Ashford, just outside the park, Gillett said.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Outdoors: Hiking index