When planning your trail system, do the environmental constraints and permitting challenges bog you down?

When planning and designing for backcountry trails there are many constraints that one can encounter. These include unstable soils, stream and spring crossings, steep slopes, and critical areas, just to name a few. While being burdensome, there is always a solution and we should lean on our Federal Agencies to make your life easier and provide a solution.  

Long term maintenance needs and costs are often overlooked when designing recreation facilities. Prior to starting design work, you should evaluate maintenance budgets and capabilities. We see facilities that require labor intensive maintenance (extensive mowing, watering) and  the use of harmful chemicals to keep the landscape healthy. This approach costs money and has detrimental environmental impacts that can and should be avoided.