[trailcrew] First Principles of Flagging and explanations.

[John Radford]

Hopefully, all hikers will recognize flagging as a necessary evil at times, given that the USFS cannot or will not maintain even the most popular trails often enough. With that in mind, I have a couple more comments (obvious ones).

ROUTE INTEGRITY: flaggers better be sure where a trail SHOULD be (and/or historically has been) or else they may start false and unnecessary trails or degrade a tread.  With the correct route marked, use alone can go a long way towards maintaining a trail. 

RESTRAINT: flaggers should be restrained else they will generate disrespect for their efforts. I'd say maybe 50% of flags are superfluous (even in the first instance - when trails are at their worst) - like in places where it was impossible to miss the correct route. Such excess flagging sort of insults one's intelligence and induces some to start removing flags. 

REMOVAL: flags should be removed as quickly as possible. This implies they be placed by people who know and frequent an area. Such folks can recognize when a flag can be removed and visit the area often enough to do the removing expeditiously. Many flags, unfortunately, long outlive their usefulness. Obviously, there's no excuse not to pack out such flags, if removed.

John R.

----- Original Message ----
From: David Knapp <dknapp1 at gmail.com>
To: David Knapp <dknapp1 at gmail.com>
Cc: Trailcrew at ventanawild.net
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 10:35:42 PM
Subject: [trailcrew] First Principles of Flagging and explanations.

Great topic for our first real discussion - thanks Betsy!

Great post Dave - thanks for the flagging principles!

Cole, from discussions on the forums, my first thought is that there are people feel that flagging is an affront to their senses, and they may be the ones who are removing your flagging.  The trail crews have been able to remove a lot of flagging by rendering it unnecessary, and it's neat to see that after hacking away at the brush, you can sometimes find old - really old flagging.  However, I can't recall ever seeing flagging anywhere that wasn't tied to something - so if your flagging is disappearing, there may be other things going on.  I usually tie my flags in a granny knot or double knot.  For the record, mine are currently hot pink.  


There was a recent post on the forums that linked to biodegradable flagging, but I prefer to remove the flagging by hand after it has been rendered unnecessary,  rather than leaving it to rot in the sun when it still may be needed.


In any case, I think that it would be great if flagging wasn't needed, but I'd rather see flags than have people lost in the woods or to lose the trail itself.


dbk



On 11/22/06, Cole Thompson <cthompson at rlstevenson.org> wrote:

First hand experience tells me that a flag today is easy prey for a nasty
Ventana blow tomorrow.
In other words, we have flagged a trail (appropriately) and returned the
same season to find our efforts wiped out. It is no guarantee.

Certainly, the capricious nature of our wilderness dictates that flagging
is sometimes essential for finding the vanishing trails.
We carry the orange variety.

R. Cole Thompson
Ceramics/Photography


Sophomore Wilderness Expedition
cthompson at rlstevenson.org
831-625-8327


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-- 
dbk
David Knapp
805-471-9456

dknapp1 at gmail.com
-----

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