Can Science Solve the Catskills’ Herd Path Problem?

Ugh, good science takes time

I’ve long believed the case for creating official trails to many of the Catskills’ trailless High Peaks was compelling. As visitation has exploded, we’ve all watched single herd paths become multiple herd paths, with hikers fanning out across increasingly fragile terrain. I’ve watched the summit of Rocky Mountain — one of the most remote mountains in the Catskills — become degraded beyond recognition. It has seemed obvious that concentrating that use onto thoughtfully designed routes would better protect the mountains.

But “it seems obvious” isn’t actually good enough.

We live in an age of instant opinions and instant solutions, where waiting for evidence feels frustrating. Yet this is exactly why careful scientific research matters. It tests our intuitions. Sometimes it confirms what we thought we knew. Other times it completely overturns our assumptions. History is full of management decisions that seemed obvious at the time but turned out to be harmful. Either outcome is valuable because it replaces confidence with knowledge.

So I really appreciate Kara Belinsky’s work. Rather than relying on anecdotes or assumptions, she and her students spent years collecting data across the High Peaks. Research like that is painstaking, expensive, and slow, but it gives land managers something much firmer than instinct to build policy on. (This kind of data will also be invaluable when making the case for future state funding.)

In this case, the evidence strengthens what many of us suspected: allowing an ever-expanding web of herd paths to spread across sensitive high-elevation habitat isn’t a sustainable long-term strategy. Thoughtfully planned official trails won’t eliminate our impact, but they can help concentrate it in places where it can be better managed.

Hiking isn’t causing bird declines, but our foot traffic still really matters

This is probably the most important point in the entire article.

Belinsky is careful to explain that hiking is not the reason these bird populations are declining. The biggest pressures come from habitat loss elsewhere in their range, especially in Central and South America where many of these species spend the winter. Window strikes and domestic cats also kill enormous numbers of birds every year.

But the Catskills are where many of these birds breed and raise their young.

That makes our behavior here disproportionately important. Disturbing nesting birds during late spring and early summer may not be the primary cause of population decline, but it’s one of the few pressures we can actually reduce.

The advice I took away is very straightforward:

• Stay on official trails during breeding season, especially from late May through mid-July
• Keep dogs leashed above 3,000 feet

These two simple steps allow hikers to enjoy these mountains while giving some of their rarest residents a better chance to succeed.