A. Steward the land in accordance with methods that will ensure the least net carbon dioxide emissions possible including but not limited to the following:
2. Be aware of wildlife habitats and niches and do everything in our power to keep these intact. Not only does this wildlife have a right to exist, but in terms of climate change, a forest depends on a large diversity of life to optimize its health and lacking this becomes vulnerable to disease and invasive species potentially leading to tree loss which hampers its ability to sequester carbon.
3. Aim to keep as large as tracts of land as possible intact and free of significant fragmentation. This is vital to maintain the health and integrity of most species, but is especially vital for the so called keystone ones: the species that through their pronounced roles ensure a balance. Their absence can throw the system into perilous disbalance which further diminishes biodiversity.
4. Gather wood materials from already fallen trees instead of felling living ones unless logistics renders this impossible or extremely impractical.
5. Rely on our own ingenuity and upcycling before going to purchase supplies in a store by thinking in concentric circles: First browse the immediate area for what we need prior to looking on the property prior to searching in the town and only as a last resort go to a store favoring the local whenever feasible.
6. Avoid the use of toxic chemicals which could compromise the ecology and leech into the watershed. (any poison that compromises the ecology compromises the health of the whole system and thus its ability to sequester carbon.)
7. Use best building practices that would minimize erosion and introduction of excessive silt into the watershed. (see above.)
B Build, promote and maintain the highest quality of trails that we know how to build.
(*However, we would argue that any effort to keep humans out of the forest completely is shortsighted. We need to learn appropriate ways to connect to nature that foster love, understanding and caring and these are developed through intimacy and enjoyment, not at a distance. The number of people, and tragically children, who spend little time outdoors is currently at epidemic levels and, arguably, this is a major contributor to humanity allowing rapid destruction of the environment. Humans destroy the things they don’t understand or in this case often don’t even see. )
C. Facillitate connection to the land.
D. Promote rich human scaled and human powered experiences in “nature*.” (*Some have made the enlightened argument that this is a false dichotomy. I.e., everything is a part of nature and we should treat it as such.)
E. Work as a Community
- Favor and promote hand building and maintaining over machine building. Not only will this lower impacts through the use of human power, but the narrower tread that results will minimize the need for tree removal and other loss of vegetation that contributes to the health of a forest and all its benefits of biodiversity and carbon utilization as well as discourage any unauthorized motorized use of the trails.
2. Be aware of wildlife habitats and niches and do everything in our power to keep these intact. Not only does this wildlife have a right to exist, but in terms of climate change, a forest depends on a large diversity of life to optimize its health and lacking this becomes vulnerable to disease and invasive species potentially leading to tree loss which hampers its ability to sequester carbon.
3. Aim to keep as large as tracts of land as possible intact and free of significant fragmentation. This is vital to maintain the health and integrity of most species, but is especially vital for the so called keystone ones: the species that through their pronounced roles ensure a balance. Their absence can throw the system into perilous disbalance which further diminishes biodiversity.
4. Gather wood materials from already fallen trees instead of felling living ones unless logistics renders this impossible or extremely impractical.
5. Rely on our own ingenuity and upcycling before going to purchase supplies in a store by thinking in concentric circles: First browse the immediate area for what we need prior to looking on the property prior to searching in the town and only as a last resort go to a store favoring the local whenever feasible.
6. Avoid the use of toxic chemicals which could compromise the ecology and leech into the watershed. (any poison that compromises the ecology compromises the health of the whole system and thus its ability to sequester carbon.)
7. Use best building practices that would minimize erosion and introduction of excessive silt into the watershed. (see above.)
B Build, promote and maintain the highest quality of trails that we know how to build.
- Though as a community we are convinced of the intrinsic and unquantifiable value of a trail system, we live under the imperatives of an economic and political system that, at this time, doesn’t align with these values. Having an economic as well as a ecological raison d etre helps to ensure our viability at a time when economic and political values still trump ecological, scientific and spiritual ones.
- Offering people a rewarding experience outdoors oftens imbues them with a sense of meaning and provides an alternative to conspicuous consumption which is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.
- Presenting an excellent example of trails models and potentially spawns other viable trail systems which will as a matter of course protect their associated forests as well as reduce the number of miles trail users need to drive* (if they need to drive at all) to enjoy trails thereby reducing carbon emissions both passively and actively.
(*However, we would argue that any effort to keep humans out of the forest completely is shortsighted. We need to learn appropriate ways to connect to nature that foster love, understanding and caring and these are developed through intimacy and enjoyment, not at a distance. The number of people, and tragically children, who spend little time outdoors is currently at epidemic levels and, arguably, this is a major contributor to humanity allowing rapid destruction of the environment. Humans destroy the things they don’t understand or in this case often don’t even see. )
C. Facillitate connection to the land.
- A feeling of love and connection to a specific place, that is a common consequence of frequenting a trail system, naturally nurtures the responsibility to care for and protect it. Not only will this help protect the ecology associated with the trails, but could very well, if taken to its logical conclusion, promote a love and caring for the entirety of nature and a desire to protect it as well.
- Deep knowledge of place and the associated ecology fosters understanding which will help prevent any inadvertent destruction, by simple ignorance, of the life it contains.
- Despite the trajectory of civilization that may suggest otherwise, ineffable experiences have a much more potent effect than mundane ones and if one is open to it, nature is the source for boundless spiritual experiences (spiritual, in this sense, is defined roughly as “peak experiences” and has no religious association as such). This creates a nearly unbreakable bond with place and helps ensure, as long as this bond isn’t taken for granted, its survival.
D. Promote rich human scaled and human powered experiences in “nature*.” (*Some have made the enlightened argument that this is a false dichotomy. I.e., everything is a part of nature and we should treat it as such.)
- Such experiences facillitate and promote mental and physical health. In cultivating your own health, one recognizes the importance and often promotes the health of the people and environment around them, especially via modelling, since these are also integral to one’s own health.
- Consumer products are often the consolation prize we’re offered for an impoverished life. The rich experiences a trail system provides often mitigate this (perhaps with the exception of equipment required to support the experience!).
- The adventure a comprehensive trail system offers satisfies a human desire for risk taking and thrill not found too readily in modern western civilization. This directs that desire into a healthy and controllable channel as opposed to the risk that the repressed desire will be expressed in unhealthy and dangerous ways (eg, recreational drug use and other addictions, reckless driving, casual sex, etc.) This is another way to encourage and recognize interdependence with nature and an excellent reason to preserve it.
- The satisfying sense of self efficacy one learns from human powered adventures and experiences in nature often gets extended to and replicated in daily activity. The more one learns to do for oneself or with the help of a community, the less reliance on energy intensive services, the less impact on the environment at large.
- The practice of human powered recreation, insomuch as it is a substitute for motorized recreation, mitigates carbon emissions.
- In terms of human needs, these experiences are often multifunctional: they can fulfill the need for movement, community, connection to nature, self expression, adventure and fun, etc. all in one package. This efficiency alone can potentially simplify one’s life thereby cutting carbon emissions in the process. (Less things to buy and fewer places to go to fulfill a constellation of human needs.)
- When they take multiday trips, mountain bikers are less likely to use high energy amenities and accommodations than other tourists. E.g., they camp and cook their own meals, typically, and since the trails are thrilling in themselves rarely require malls and amusement parks.
E. Work as a Community
- Working as a trail community posits a possible model for revitalizing other larger communities. Thriving communities, by their nature, foster interdependence and greater responsibility towards one another and, by extension, their environment.
- The services of a community not only promote good will and reciprocation, but they eliminate the need for outside, for profit, services which are more energy intensive, with a larger carbon footprint and are not obligated to feel an intrinsic need to care for the environment and community they serve (though they may be compelled to by law or in the name of public relations, but authentic caring is mostly a mirage and beside the point).
- Communities act as a built in advocacy group fostering a political strength varying with their size, passion,organization and charisma and in this way act to safeguard their existence, the land, each member and their values as a whole.
- Communities, ideally, bring in a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds and skillsets making the whole, through its synergy, add up to more than just a collection of individuals. This resilience lends itself to the environment as well insofar as the community is committed to protecting the environment.
