The Bruce Trail Conservancy has hired six Trail Ambassadors to educate visitors about how to decrease their impact on the environment.
The ambassadors will perform visitor outreach and litter clean-ups at popular places in the Bruce Peninsula, the Beaver Valley, and the Hamilton-Halton region.
A media release from the conservancy says as more people seek the physical and mental benefits a nature, some areas of the Niagara Escarpment have become hotspots, and are seeing more human-caused impact than the environment can handle.
The high volumes of trail users include those who may not be familiar with trail etiquette. Litter, trespassing, and other poor behaviours are impacting the trail, the environment, other trail users, and landowners whose property the Bruce Trail crosses.
So together with Bruce Trail Club volunteers, these summer staff will visit busy trail destinations to promote leave no trace practices and safe trail use. They’ll even be distributing “Hike it. Love it. Keep it Clean.” badges to those who join them in picking up litter or who are demonstrating low impact hiking.
"More people using the Bruce Trail is not a bad thing, in itself. It is wonderful that people have discovered the Bruce Trail as a way to connect with nature” explains Adam Brylowski, Manager of Conservation and Trail. “For these trails and protected areas to continue to thrive, the Bruce Trail Conservancy, its partners, and all its supporters must work together to ensure that the cumulative impact of all our visits is minimized”.
To encourage safe and responsible hiking, the Bruce Trail Conservancy has also created some helpful online tips: https://brucetrail.org/pages/hiking-safely-responsibly
Bruce Trail Conservancy reports that they are one of Ontario’s largest land trusts that acquires, protects and restores the vulnerable habitat and biodiversity of the UNESCO Niagara Escarpment Biosphere.
It's a volunteer-based, charitable organization, governed by a 19-member Board of Directors, with nine Bruce Trail Clubs, committed to caring for the Bruce Trail and to preserving land along its route.