Trail Cleaning 101
Teach your volunteers these simple techniques. Your trails will inevitably be cleaner and safer. What’s more, many Teammates (known as Cleaners or Gardeners) love to “clean up”, because it’s a less demanding task that quickly pays off:
Best Practices for Trail Safety and Site Stewardship :
- Encourage the presence of at least one Leader or Captain on each site. Experienced people should give advice and support to newcomers.
- Always prioritize water management. It’s the foundation on which all future decisions are built. Clean drains, canals and water outlets before doing anything else.
- Hide debris in areas not visible from the trail (behind a large boulder, in a hole, in a rock crack), transporting it with a bucket or small tarp. We like it clean !
- Take 20 or more steps away from the trail before dumping waste (branches / trunks / stumps / roots / loam). There’s nothing more unpleasant than having to move an old, tangled pile of branches.
- Group different types of debris together (trunks, branches, dead leaves, black earth or vegetation).
- Spread out piles of debris and avoid making large piles.
- Cut down all dead trees within one meter of the trail.
- Make sure there are no dead branches hanging over the trail. The safety of users depends on it.
- Carry a tree by holding the base of the trunk and walking 30 steps away from the trail (so that you don’t see the trunk, but the top of the tree).
- Hide the cut of a freshly trimmed branch or stomp (or an exposed root) by rubbing damp earth over the white wood. This will blacken the cut and hide the whole thing.
- Prune trees cleanly and close to the trunk (without damaging the bark) with a sharp reciprocating saw/saw/shears, so as not to leave any dangerous spikes. A clean, slightly bevelled cut will help the tree to heal (see this simple diagram).
- Clean branches as high as possible and all around the tree (on 360 degrees). This will create a much cleaner visual corridor.
- Cut trees as close to the ground as possible and at 90 degrees (avoid cutting at 45 degrees). These traps left near the trail are waiting to impale a user and are extremely dangerous. Use a reciprocating saw/saw all (your chainsaw is too valuable for this).
- Fill dug-out borrow pits (aka sand pits) with scraps (moss, dead leaves, black earth). These are potential traps for wildlife and humans.
- Cut and move moss/lichen with a trowel, to relocate it close to the trail. This will be less demanding than getting rid of it far away and it will continue to live in its new location).
- Make piles of rocks around the edges of the trail, instead of throwing them away : they will inevitably be used one day. These rocks also serve as visual markers. Take care to place them in places that are not likely to present a danger to users.
- Walk to the planned work site, without stopping at various points to fix something else (this syndrome delays the execution of targeted projects).
- Stepping away from a work site allows better solutions to emerge and prevents irreversible mistakes. For example, pausing before removing a tree might reveal a more creative layout (1 line on each side), that keeps the tree alive while giving an option for users.
