Looking for tips on trail maintenance without freaking out the local wildlife?
Trail work is a paradox. You strive to maintain an orderly, safe, enjoyable trail. At the same time you have wildlife neighbors right alongside your trail. These creatures don’t like the noise and vibrations caused by pounding stakes into the ground.
Here’s the thing:
You definitely can do both. Trail maintenance can be done conscientiously with proper equipment and a little forethought to minimize impact on wildlife and please your fellow hikers.
Learn how to best preserve hiking trails with refurbished tractor attachments while keeping deer away in this article.
Let’s jump in!
Inside this guide:
- Why Trail Maintenance Matters For Wildlife
- The Best Pre-Owned Tractor Attachments For Trail Work
- 5x Tips To Maintain Trails Without Disrupting Animals
- Timing Your Trail Work The Right Way
Why Trail Maintenance Matters For Wildlife
People believe hiking trails don’t affect animals. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Researchers with Washington State University conducted research in Glacier National Park that showed 16 of 22 mammal species studied altered their space and time use when humans hiked through an area. Black bears, elk and deer gave up using their preferred spaces or were more nocturnal to avoid humans.
So why does maintenance matter?
Ill maintained trails don’t help. Overgrown trails force hikers to make new “social trails” around down logs and muddy spots. These additional trails widen our impact further into animal habitat.
Keeping trails maintained keeps folks on one defined predictable path. The wildlife learn where the danger area lays and flow around it.
Pretty important, right?
However, trail maintenance can also be detrimental to wildlife if done incorrectly. Try to work fast, quietly, and in the proper season.
The Best Pre-Owned Tractor Attachments For Trail Work
Used tractor accessories are trail crew budget heroes. They work just as well as new accessories for a fraction of the cost and usually have years of life remaining.
For clearing brush along a trail corridor your best bet is a rotary cutter (AKA bush hog). You can find an incredible selection of bush hog for sale on the used market that are capable of clearing dense growth in one pass. Less time in the trail equals less noise and less stress for the surrounding wildlife.
Other pre-owned tractor attachments that do the heavy lifting on trail work include:
- Brush cutters — for overgrown grasses, briars and saplings along trail edges.
- Rotary cutters — great for wider trail corridors and fire breaks.
- Box blades — for grading and smoothing out the trail tread.
- Landscape rakes — for clearing rocks and debris.
- Post hole diggers — for installing trail signs and fence posts.
Another advantage to purchasing used pre-owned tractor attachments is that you can afford to buy the proper tool for the job. Rather than making one attachment do multiple jobs, you can buy the ideal attachment for each task.
5x Tips To Maintain Trails Without Disrupting Animals
Okay, on to the maintenance work itself. These are tips used by trail crews to minimize wildlife disruption.
Keep The Trail Corridor Narrow
This is the single most important rule for wildlife-friendly trail maintenance.
Keep trails narrow and defined. A slender human hoofprint keeps our impact to one well-defined trail corridor. Animals can maneuver around it. A broad eroded trail with weeds scuffed 10 feet in both directions is much more difficult for wildlife to bypass.
While brush cutting only cut what you need to cut. 2-3 feet on either side of the trail is enough room for walking.
Use The Right Attachment For The Job
Don’t show up with a giant rotary cutter for a small grass clearing job.
Heavy equipment is louder and has more vibration than smaller attachments. Where possible use a smaller brush cutter. The difference in decibels is enormous and animals can hear it.
Work In Short Sessions
Long, all-day maintenance sessions are tough on wildlife.
Animals can handle being disturbed for a few hours because they know it will stop. When machines come and they’re going from dawn to dusk animals will flee the area.
Split your maintenance out into sessions of 3-4 hours. Work on another section of trail the following day and rotate around.
Avoid Sensitive Habitat Zones
Some parts of any trail system are more sensitive than others.
Areas such as wetlands, thick brush, and mature forest typically support higher levels of wildlife than more open areas. Schedule your maintenance activities when you can minimize the amount of time spent near these areas.
The American Trails primer suggests avoiding wildlife breeding areas during sensitive times.
Pack Out Everything
This one seems obvious but it gets missed all the time.
Cut brush, broken branches, and other debris should be carried out of the trail corridor. Please do not stack it next to the trail or brush it into the woods. That just creates new habitat edges and encourages unwanted wildlife.
Timing Your Trail Work The Right Way
When you do the work matters just as much as how you do it.
Spring/early summer is NEVER a good time for trail maintenance. That’s when most wildlife are breeding/nesting/raising young. Heavy equipment movement will destroy nests and encourage abandonment of young, devastating whole populations.
The best windows for trail maintenance are:
- Late summer — after most young have left the nest
- Early autumn — before winter sets in but after breeding season
- Late winter — when many animals are in lower activity periods
Steer clear of dawn and dusk as much as possible. This is when most animals are most active. Typically the hours from mid-morning to early afternoon see the least animal movement, so your gear will disrupt less wildlife.
Final Thoughts
Hiking trails don’t have to negatively impact the creatures living adjacent to them. By being smart and using the proper used tractor accessories, you can maintain your trails while keeping those precious creatures safe.
Quick recap:
- Keep the trail corridor narrow
- Match the attachment to the task
- Work in short sessions
- Avoid sensitive habitat zones
- Time your work outside of breeding seasons
Used tractor attachments are the economical choice when implementing a trail maintenance program. The proper attachments allow you to work quicker, quieter, and much less disruptive to your trail-side habitats.
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