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Thread: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

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  1. #1
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Over the past few years, plastic ribbons have proliferated on tree branches in the PNW.

    Orange, pink, blue – they’re fluttering in the wind and I’m curious about your views.

    Maybe you use them, remove them, ignore them – or a combination?

    Drive down any FS road in the N. Cascade or Olympic forests, you can’t miss them. There they are, adorning roadside trees. Often, they tell someone (or told someone long ago): “Turn here, down this spur road!” Many times, the tree doesn’t wear just one ribbon, but several – it's garlanded in a rainbow of colors, decorated by many people over time, burdened by plastic never removed.

    More annoying, of course, are ribbons deep in the forest, next to hiking trails, serving a similar purpose.

    And not just next to the trail, but off trail too – even in designated wilderness areas – presumably tied to a branch by someone who wants to return the same way, marking a path in a pathless wood, like Hansel’s bread crumbs. But unlike crumbs, plastic ribbons have a special talent for hanging on branches or scattering across forest floors for years, decades, longer. A perennial eyesore. An ecological menace.

    Last autumn I came upon a group of USFS workers removing their own ribbons. Earlier in the season, they tied them to trees as a forest management tool. The ribbons had served their purpose. The workers were now collecting them “to be used again,” they said. Bravo, I thought, with a healthy dose skepticism.

    -----
    Please share your attitude about this ever-growing forest blemish. Have you seen more and more ribbons in your region too? Do you use them for LF work? If you see a ribbon, do you think “trash” and remove it? How do you determine if they should remain in place?

  2. #2
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    They're there for a reason, either trail maintenance supervisors telling workers what to trim, especially if a tree is considered hazardous, or pointing field biologists to a certain perimeter under study. I've never seen hikers per se doing this in order to leave a trail of breadcrumbs. But of course, up in the high country one encounters lots of little stone piles or "ducks" which can potentially lead you to the same lost spot as the person who first made them. Even what we term designated Wilderness in this country is formally managed to a degree, trying to keep trails maintained and safe. But FS and utility crews having marking techniques along roads per se is almost an industry of its own at this point in time, after all our extreme fires. People are finally beginning to wake up. Lots and lots of downfall removal and susceptible limbs being cut; it's almost like a post-war scenario in some place, like pre-war in others.

    But locally the various Park jurisdictions seem to keep plastic flagging usage conservative, and clean up after themselves. I paused and talked to a number of workers on a trail out at Pt Reyes just yesterday. They're outdoorsmen just like us, official NP employees making summer money for a degree or whatever, and care about the quality look of the land quite a bit. Not so with many of the fly-by-night subcontracted brush removal crews I've seen elsewhere in the State - sometimes they leave behind a worse fire hazard than the one they were supposed to mitigate.

  3. #3

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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Personally I have no patience for people putting ribbons on trees. Only exceptions I accept are for forestry use, surveyors, and the temporary marking of a proposed hiking route, and I'm sure that there are also other valid reasons for putting ribbons on trees. Rock climbers are purest, I have never seen a rock climber mark the start of a route with anything. Personally I ignore them because in most cases I don't know why they were put there in the first place. Many years ago I came across a "trail" of them at the bottom of a mountain. Later on I found out that they marked the route that rescuers used to find and then carry out an injured hiker. Of course now GPS replaces ribbons like those.

  4. #4

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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    Personally I have no patience for people putting ribbons on trees. Only exceptions I accept are for forestry use, surveyors, and the temporary marking of a proposed hiking route, and I'm sure that there are also other valid reasons for putting ribbons on trees. Rock climbers are purest, I have never seen a rock climber mark the start of a route with anything. Personally I ignore them because in most cases I don't know why they were put there in the first place. Many years ago I came across a "trail" of them at the bottom of a mountain. Later on I found out that they marked the route that rescuers used to find and then carry out an injured hiker. Of course now GPS replaces ribbons like those.

    You must not get out very much in the climbing world. ....

  5. #5

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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Well, in days past I regularly carried a roll of flagging tape (that's what we called it, not "ribbon") with me to mark my trail into the woods so I could easily find my way out after dark. I flagged tree branches in a "line-of-sight" pattern so that one flag was always visible from the position of another. That way, I could wander aimlessly with my camera looking for photos and not have to worry about where I was, what was the way out or getting lost. Getting back out after sunset was then simply a matter of finding a flag in my flashlight beam, walking over to it and then finding the next.

    Of course, I collected my flags on the way out.

    I don't know who's doing all the flagging that you're talking about, Heroique, but unless I was certain that the flags left behind were superfluous and not there for a good reason, I would leave them. I might remove one for a shot and then re-attach it afterward, but I don't think I'd want to un-mark a trail or conceal the boundary of a study area or un-mark a hazard tree, etc.

    Most of those flags are there for good reasons, so unless I knew for certain that the flag had outlived its purpose (or was there for a purpose I wanted to protest - intentionally throwing a wrench into the works), I'd leave it be.

    Best,

    Doremus

  6. #6
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Logical!

    Quote Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder View Post
    Well, in days past I regularly carried a roll of flagging tape (that's what we called it, not "ribbon") with me to mark my trail into the woods so I could easily find my way out after dark. I flagged tree branches in a "line-of-sight" pattern so that one flag was always visible from the position of another. That way, I could wander aimlessly with my camera looking for photos and not have to worry about where I was, what was the way out or getting lost. Getting back out after sunset was then simply a matter of finding a flag in my flashlight beam, walking over to it and then finding the next.

    Of course, I collected my flags on the way out.

    I don't know who's doing all the flagging that you're talking about, Heroique, but unless I was certain that the flags left behind were superfluous and not there for a good reason, I would leave them. I might remove one for a shot and then re-attach it afterward, but I don't think I'd want to un-mark a trail or conceal the boundary of a study area or un-mark a hazard tree, etc.

    Most of those flags are there for good reasons, so unless I knew for certain that the flag had outlived its purpose (or was there for a purpose I wanted to protest - intentionally throwing a wrench into the works), I'd leave it be.

    Best,

    Doremus
    Tin Can

  7. #7
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Quote Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder View Post
    ...unless I was certain that the flags left behind were superfluous and not there for a good reason, I would leave them...
    There are many uses of ribbon that can expand one’s enjoyment of the forest while making it safer to do so. But after ribbons serve their purpose, if the people who use ribbons don’t remove them (or arrange for others to do so), the ribbons will naturally accumulate in the forest everywhere over the years, robbing others of their own enjoyment – and polluting the landscape too. This is what I’m seeing in my PNW region.

    What helps keep abandoned ribbons where they are, of course, is not knowing their purpose:

    As Doremus correctly suggests, no one wants to remove a ribbon that will, say, help an off-trail hiker get back to the trail that evening: better to leave it alone if you’re unsure. But it may have been tied to that branch during someone’s day hike two years ago. So the conscientious hiker who might have removed it – and left the forest better than he found it – keeps the old ribbon in place. The problem isn’t addressed; to be sure, it keeps getting worse.

    If only tree ribbons were like a deflated mylar balloon caught on a branch – everyone could immediately recognize it as a threat to the forest and remove it without hesitation. Clear problem, clear solution.

  8. #8
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    I just eat the breadcrumbs, the flags are not edible

    Discover The Truly Grim History Behind The Fairy Tale Of Hansel And Gretel

    https://allthatsinteresting.com/hans...tel-true-story
    Tin Can

  9. #9
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Tree ribbon.jpg 
Views:	152 
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ID:	216408

    Here's a typical trailside ribbon ... with no clear purpose.

    When I see a ribbon like this, my patience runs thin like Greg's.

    And my inclination is to remove it.

  10. #10
    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: LF hikers, do you remove plastic tree ribbons?

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Tree ribbon.jpg 
Views:	152 
Size:	170.4 KB 
ID:	216408

    Here's a typical trailside ribbon ... with no clear purpose.

    When I see a ribbon like this, my patience runs thin like Greg's.

    And my inclination is to remove it.
    The ribbon is nothing (and easily removed) but look at that rut in the earth. That might take a decade to recover.

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