Other hiking.org pages: Read more here about hiking and:

Thrive – Climate Change – Storytelling – Environment – Place-making – Innovation – Resources

Environmental benefits of hiking

Nature benefits when people create trails and recreational areas, because many animals and plant species can use these places too and because hiking trails can help connect the last standing islands of nature, into a survival web for biodiversity

Drawings and text by Frits Ahlefeldt, Hiking.org

Community building hiking trail drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

Climate Trails

Drawing up how hiking trails can help us face climate change and global warming

Drawing of a hiker camping between to trees, watching the sunset

Hiking and the Common Good

Drawings and thoughts about how hiking and the Common Good might benefit us and each other in a digital future

Hiker girl helping huge stranded sea turtle. Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt, Hiking.org

Coastal hiking can help cold stunned sea turtles

Project about how coastal hiking, trails and hikers can help the rescue of cold stunned sea turtles

Teaching kids outdoors

Teaching kids outdoors helps them understand, move and be more happy. Connecting to nature, instead of screens.

Floating biodiversity wind turbiine. off shore. Atoll version. Concept sketch watercolor and pencil. By Frits Ahlefeldt

Atoll wind turbine biodiversity concept

Idea sketch of an atoll sustainable wind power turbine, with a structure that can support biodiversity

Concept and sketch: Bow off shore wind turbine generating power for remote areas and supporting biodiversity Concept sketch watercolor and pencil. By Frits Ahlefeldt

Bow wind turbine biodiversity concept

Idea sketch of an bow shaped sustainable wind power turbine, with a structure that can support biodiversity

Concept for a wind generating island by hikers shelter in remote area Concept sketch watercolor and pencil. By Frits Ahlefeldt

Seal island wind turbine

Idea sketch of a vertical, floating sustainable wind power turbine, with a structure that can support biodiversity

Drawing of a beaver sitting by a flooded trail. Traildesign hiking Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

When biodiversity and trails face each other

Hikers like to be close to wildlife and walking through landscapes where nature is set free. But it can be a challenge to balance the needs of nature, of habitats and of hikers.

Hiker looking at trail damage by invasive species along trail ( japanese knotweed) Hiking Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Trails to help biodiversity

Hiking can help us face invasive species in new and better ways

Drawing of a hiker with a binoculars, taking notes of birds. Citizen Science illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Helping monitor birds while hiking

The birds of our planet are endangered – we’ve lost more than 1.5 billion birds in resent times – Hikers can help monitor both where the birds are and how well they are thriving in habitats and along migration routes

Hikers taking samples

Drawing of hikers taking samples and doing scientific work while hiking

Drawing of two hikers watching a stream where pollution has killed birds and fish. documenting it. Citizen Science illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Hikers documenting pollution

Hikers can help monitor and create map about how well the environment is doing

Drawing of people working with wild birds, ringing and monitoring them. drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

Where to report a ringed bird

Hikers sometimes come across dead birds that has been ring marked. Here hikers can help the mapping of local and global bird populations by documenting their findings on Ringbase.org

Illustration of hands holding a phone with a biodiversity game app on it. Citizen Science drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

Biodiversity game app

Inspired by games like Pokemon Go, new apps are entering the world, where the real magical creatures of the planet are the main characters

Drawing of hiker documenting deforestation and sending data to people who organize new forest planting. Biodiversity drawing by Frits Ahlefeldt

hikers helping reforestation

Hikers can help document deforestation and planting new trees and forests

Drawing of a tractor and factories making a mouth of black smoke, farmer thinking "what can I do?" Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Helping farmers help the environment

Hikers can help support and document ways and knowledge of how farmers can help the environment

Drawing of a girl and a dead bird. first she is feeling sad, second she is sharing on social media, third image she is engaged in collecting, sharing and saving the species. Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

From sad smiley to engagement

Using new technology hikers can move from not only being concerned about the environment to actually help innovate new solutions and knowledge of how our planet is doing

Drawing of a hiker with a phone, collecting data about whales along the coast. Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Whale watching while hiking

Hikers walking coast trails can sometimes not only see whales but also help science, by documenting where they see them

Drawing of a car with a net attached to catch and research insects. Citizen Science illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Citizen science insect projects

Cars driving around with huge nets on their roofs help document and collect new knowledge about local insects

Drawing of people taking test along the shore and in sea. Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Walkers and volunteers collecting water samples

Walking along the coastline can be combined with collecting important data and samples and sharing it with scientists

Drawing of a scientist thinking in data, a citizen thinking empathy to a flooded person and planet Earth thinking a heart. Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt

Science, citizen and planet mindset

New knowledge focus on how there are huge differences between how scientists, engaged citizens and maybe even the planet thinks

Hiking trails can be designed to work as green corridors

If designed well the hiking trails can have many very positive environmental effects on all the eco-systems they run through and bind together, as the trails and paths can and will be used by a lot of different species, many of them often more or less endangered and lost without the trails to make it possible for these species to thrive and move between different natural areas.

One of the fastest growing branches of ecology is landscape ecology. A new field of knowledge about how the eternal flow and web of life connects to and make the best use of the incredible diverse landscapes on Earth. The not so coincidental thing here is that  almost all of the most essential elements that make a landscape and the different animals and plants in it thrive – are the same elements that help create good hiking experiences.

And this is why hiking trails can work as green corridors for endangered species in a way that have a great effect on supporting the flow of biodiversity and ecological well-being between the still existing islands of nature, especially in countries where most of the land has been cleared and used for industrial production, roads, farming or urban development.

Connecting the locals, the hikers and the landscapes

Green heart illustration
Connecting

Connecting people to nature to create bonds and understanding

Hiking trails also have another effect on nature: Trails make the landscapes more accessible, not only to the animals but also to the locals. The classic conservationist view on nature is that we should leave it alone – as much as possible, fence it in and keep the lost, industrialized, city dwelling majority of our human kind, in a no-damage-possible distance to the delicate ecological systems and endangered species out there and leave the care-taking of nature to a few highly trained specialists.

But in the last few years this “no-touch” separation culture has given away to a very different kind of culture, one that is based on the simple fact that if we have no idea about what nature is or how our lifestyles and blind consumer cultures influence it, we are not likely to respect it or live in the more sustainable ways, that more and more of the highly trained experts say we need to.

Instead we need school kids, elders, dads and moms, computer programmers and key account managers to get in touch with nature, explore, experience and feel it – to understand it. And one of the best way to make that possible, is to create hiking trails that connect the cities, the suburbs and the landscapes.

Because then something strange can happen: Local caring angels suddenly can start to appear out of nowhere, to heal and help the landscapes, clean the streams, plant new trees and repair the old stone wells.  And when locals starts to interact and feel much more at home by walking and relating to the landscapes around where they live then any run-down, no-where location can change into a green, thriving cared for place, much faster and better than any yet known, tried top-down strategy .

So it is not only the ecology, endangered species and biodiversity that benefit from hiking trails. But local communities and villages can be revitalized in amazing ways, that only get even better when new streams of long-distance hikers from afar, starts to come by and give new life and income to small towns and places.