You may have heard about CFI’s Sustainable Trails Project, but see how using Google Earth Pro allows us to bring our field work to life through the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZuDIgsjTE. For this first video, we have selected Mount Bierstadt, among the most climbed Fourteeners in the state, which can see up to 800 climbers per day during the peak summer/fall hiking season.

The Sustainable Trails Project is conducting detailed GPS inventories of all constructed Fourteener summit trails and emerging social trails. Inventories were started on 12 peaks last summer, with analyses completed for nine of these mountains. The detailed inventories ensure that CFI has an accurate baseline inventory of all constructed trail features, identified natural resource concerns, and needed new structures. Follow-up inventories in subsequent years can show how these constructed features and natural resource problems are changing over time.

In the video you will see that the Mount Bierstadt summit route has been broken into three constructed sections and one summit section that was not constructed. These sections tie together areas with similar topography and biological resources. Within each section constructed features (retaining walls, check steps, rock staircases, etc.) designed to channel hikers and protect the trail tread are shown in color-coded icons depicting their current condition: green=OK, yellow=maintain, orange=near fail, red=fail. Blue icons indicate new features that need to be constructed in the future.

The inventory also shows identified natural resource protection issues, such as braided trails, overly wide trails in need of narrowing, and erosion. GPS-enabled photos tie to these issues so that crews know what the problems look like before they ever deploy to the field to fix them.ย  The photos also allow crews to see how the problems have changed since they were last inventoried.

Near the end the video shows the “report card” for the peak. A rating of 10 indicates good condition, while a rating of 1 indicates total failure.ย  Mount Bierstadt’s rating of 5.25 indicates it is a summit route in desperate need of lots of work. This is backed up by the supporting details: 26 percent of the trail is eroded, 13 percent is braided, and 13.5 percent is in need of narrowing.

Through detailed inventories, assigning condition value scores, and a lot of data crunching, CFI will be able to better quantify the condition of constructed Fourteener summit trails, how much work is required, how many person-hours will be required, and how much it will cost to remedy these problems. Given limited financial and human resources, the condition scores will allow CFI to target resources to the peaks (and segments) most in need of work. Considering that a constructed Fourteener trail can cost up to $400,000 to build, this tool will help CFI protect the millions of dollars and countless volunteer hours that have gone into building these popular hiking trails that protect the rare and fragile ecosystems found on Colorado’s iconic Fourteeners.

Give credit to Ben Hanus, CFI’s Sustainable Trails Program Coordinator, for his work collecting the data last summer, crunching it over the winter, and learning the ins and outs of Google Earth Pro to create the video. Expect to see more of Ben’s handiwork over the coming months.

Colorado Fourteeners Initiative

Colorado Fourteeners Initiative protects and preserves the natural integrity of Colorado’s 54 14,000 foot peaks – the Fourteeners – through active stewardship and public education.

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