Managing Routes and Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 217

preclude many segments of society (Timothy & Boyd, 2003), although this
has been highly criticized as an elitist approach to managing visitors. As
most trails and routes are accessible without entrance fees, such a policy is
only feasible on very short pathways in parks, museums and archaeological
sites. Limiting certain activities completely or seasonally may be an option,
as is allowing certain activities only under the supervision of qualified per-
sonnel (e.g. rangers) (Beeton, 2006).
Another way of controlling visitor flows and contact with resources in
heritage site management has been the development of replicas that beckon
the focus of visitors rather than the originals themselves (Timothy & Boyd,
2003). This is harder to do in the context of routes and trails, but it has been
done where parallel trails were built to bypass sensitive trail features that
would have been damaged by direct hiking, cycling and horseback riding. For
example, on the Santa Fe Trail, where many of the original wagon ruts are
still visible in the landscape, the United States (US) Forest Service created a
Santa Fe Trail 'companion trail' adjacent to the original trail to avoid contact
with and encroachment on the original tracks (Gaines, 1997).
Regulating access
Another common approach that resource managers have used is zoning,
popular within area-type spaces such as national parks and other protected
lands. A tiered approach to regulating access is often followed where regions
can be zoned from special preservation to high levels of access. This tiered
system in situ differs by country. In Canada, the most protected zones are
called special preservation areas, followed by wilderness, natural environ-
ments, recreation areas and finally parks. Nature trails traverse wilderness
and human landscapes but predominantly natural environments, and these
managers are able to control access by area or zone. An interesting example
of trails within a national park with zonal alignments is the Lower Saxon
Wadden Sea on the north coast of Germany. Established as a National Park
in 1986, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site (WHS) in 2009 because of
its valuable mudflats and estuarine features. It has a unique zoning system
that determines where trails and guided walks can occur. The national park
has three zones: a quiet zone that comprises 69% of the park and where only
guided walks take place on the mudflats and an intermediate zone (31% of
the park) where access is by way of a marked trail that can be entered year
round, with the exception of the bird sanctuary where admission is restricted
to certain times of the year. The third zone is the recreation zone used for
recreation only; it comprises less than 1% of the park.
Access to trails can also be imposed by way of direct legislation and/or
wider government policies that stipulate what types of users or activities are
permitted. These are often used to combat conflicts that may arise between
quiet and noisy visitors, or between walkers and motorized users. For exam-
ple, mountain bikes are typically not permitted on walking trails within