Video
Recreating Responsibly at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Transcript
Hey guys it is Ranger Jake Boling here with another awesome virtual program of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. I am standing near the trailhead of one of our most popular trails, the Mountain Trail and I'm standing in front of one of our kiosks that tells you where you are in the battlefield, the hours here, and our National Park Service logo, as well as a really informative map of the park, so that you know where you were going before you get started on the trail. It is a wonderful overcast day and we're getting some nice much needed shade on this June day. Today's program is going to be on recreating responsibly. As the weather heats up and schools are out of session people are going to start coming to the park more and believe it or not, this is the most visited national battlefield park in the country. Most of that visitation is through recreation and outdoor recreation; people coming to hike, people coming to jog, people coming to enjoy our almost 26 plus miles of trails, and we wanted to do this video to kind of get ahead of that to remind you of some really helpful tips. Not only to enjoy your stay more, but to be safe and to help others enjoy their visit here as well. One of the handiest ways I thought of to be able to present this information was by using a universal concept, or at least a fairly universal concept on Leave No Trace principles. Leave No Trace is a concept that was developed several years ago and it's based off of seven principles. Seven principles to help us enjoy the outdoors in a safe and responsible and respectable manner. So I'm going to kind of go through some of those seven principles and how they apply here and how they could be really useful tools to help you to remember to recreate responsibly. The first principle that I like to talk about first because it's kind of the thing you should do first and it also ties into where I'm standing, which is in front of these maps, and that is to plan ahead and prepare. So the the first thing to do that when coming to Kennesaw Mountain is to figure out where you're going to go. There are a lot of hikes here, a lot of very easy short hikes that you can do here and there are actually more difficult and strenuous hikes. So figure out what you want to do and where you want to go first, and that will tell you what kind of shoes you want to wear, how much water to bring, and to check the weather. All those are ideas and concepts that apply to planning ahead and preparing. Let's not forget our furry friends/our pets when we're going on these long hikes. Think about your pet's ability, how long can they be outside in the heat, how much water will you need to bring, are they active pets? Keep that in mind. The number two principle that we'll talk about when recreating here is to respect other visitors. So as I mentioned this is the most visited battlefield park in the country we saw 2.6 million people two years ago and just under that last year, even in the midst of the pandemic. So when you come to our trails you are going to see other people and it is important that you respect other visitors there is a lot of different ways to do that. One way is to keep your keep your music to a minimum. If you do like to listen to music while you hike, please use headphones. Move over if you are in a bigger party, you can move over and let other people pass. Basic elements of trail etiquette are very important. If we have pets and we know that maybe they get skittish around other people, maybe keep that in mind when thinking about how you're holding the leash when you're bringing your pets there and think about the crowd on the trail. The number three principle that we'll talk about is respecting wildlife. So we have almost 3,000 acres of green space and within that green space there are quite a bit of animals that make their home here in this place. Anything from various various species of birds, birds of prey. We have lots of mammals here, we have raccoons, coyote, deer, all sorts of things. Now a good way to respect the wildlife is when you see deer, squirrel, chipmunk, even raccoons, we ask that you enjoy them and view them from a distance. We have people showing us pictures of all these wonderful wildlife they see on the trail all the time and we love those pictures because that means that they kept their distance and recorded what they saw. We need to really appreciate that. It is disrespectful and downright dangerous to approach some of these animals and we absolutely do not want you to do that. These are wild animals and they are unpredictable in certain ways. And, again, going back to the pets; if you have pets one of the other great reasons to make sure your pets are on a leash and and maintain control of them is so that they do not chase or agitate the wildlife. The number four principle that we'll talk about is to stay on the trail. So in any place that has trails, they are cut very specifically and they are designed and maintained and put in very specific places to stop erosion and to get you to the designated spot the easiest and most efficient way. In a battlefield's case, it is to help preserve the surrounding area. You you can barely step foot off of our trails in some areas without stepping in the middle of earthworks or other historic structures, so it is very important, especially at Kennesaw Mountain, to stay on the trail. Speaking of historic earthworks and in the history that's here, principle number five is to leave what you find. Now in a lot of other parks and green spaces, a lot of folks take that to mean not pick too many flowers or to take other mementos, but another element that ties in with the history here is some of the artifacts. So believe it or not people are still finding remnants of the battle and of the history that happened here back in 1864. Minie balls or bullets are found, belt buckles, all sorts of things. And our policy is that if you see it, take a picture of it, document where you found it, please show one of the rangers so we know where it is but also please please please leave it there. We appreciate when people bring us these things and we know that they're trying to do the right thing but it's important to keep it in historic context, so that we can tie it into what we know happened there and to kind of just help preserve the history. To preserve it, we want to leave it alone. So leave what you find. The sixth principle is very important and that is trash your trash. All right so with all of these people, we can understand that if you drop an apple core or banana peel or something that you may think is biodegradable or some small piece of plastic that any one person drops, it may not seem that big of a deal. But think about if every person out of that 2.6 million dropped one thing how much the trash would start to stack up okay. And keep in mind with your food items not everything that you may think is biodegradable is 100% biodegradable, or at least for after a very long time in our environment. Bananas and some orange peels and things like that that might not naturally grow in this area would take longer to decompose and not only that but it looks bad on the trail and it takes away from the natural scenery. As far as trashing your trash, I will go back to the pets because a lot of folks bring their pets here. Please please please bag your pet's waste and dispose of it in a timely manner keep it with you or plan ahead. Know where the trash cans are, know how long you're gonna have to hold it, that kind of thing. One of the worst experiences people can have, and have reported having, is enjoying a nice time in the green space and seeing piles of dog waste in those little bags. So please keep that in mind. Now the seventh principle is very important but not super applicable to this site. But I need to talk about it because we're talking about leaving no trace and that is be responsible with fire. Now we of course do not allow camping on the grounds of Kennesaw Mountain so people don't typically have a lot of reason to introduce fire into this environment but we do have smokers and so in any case we ask you to be responsible for that and keep that in mind, especially considering the weather conditions. And watch where you flick your cigarette butts and so on and so forth. So when I make this post, I'm going to put a link to the Leave No Trace website so that you can see and have more resources. There are all sorts of really fun and interesting ways to remember these things and to teach others. Above all, the reason we're doing this program is for you to have a good time and to make sure that others also have a good time. If everyone can help to remember at least some of these principles and practice them as you can, then this place can stay around for much longer to come and we can all have a great time while we recreate here. Thank you for spending some time with me we hope to see you out at the mountain this summer and until then see you later!
Description
June is “Responsible Recreation” month. With the temps climbing, what better time to learn about trail etiquette and safety? Join Ranger Jake as he goes over these key tools to help you enjoy your hikes at Kennesaw Mountain, be a little safer, as well as considerate to others.
*Audio Description is embedded in this video.*
Duration
8 minutes, 49 seconds
Date Created
06/06/2021
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