Researching trail use in Blacksburg

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research 1:24 Researching trail use in Blacksburg

By:

Luke Hayes

30 Sep 2025 497

Undergraduates in the College of Natural Resources and Environment's environmental data science program are working with the town of Blacksburg to conduct research on trail use in the McDonald Hollow trail system.

I'm a senior in environmental data science. We do a lot of forestry work and field measurement, but we also get a lot into the weeds of database management and design. Behind us is Brush Mountain Park. We're trying to build a model of the network usage. We're looking at how many people are coming into our different entrances here, and also we'll be looking at how many people are going to the top, how many people are going through. The data is collected with little infrared receivers. We post them along access points in the trails. It tells a landowner if what they're investing is working. None of this is free. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money to come out here and build trails for people to recreate on. Getting those metrics and knowing that people are coming into the network and using it, and seeing the patterns that they use them to. Those sorts of things are valuable to somebody who has to maintain all the stuff out here. One of the cool things is that it's a partnership with Blacksburg Parks and Rec. It makes it a lot more accessible for undergrads to do research to not have to drive two hours or ten hours every time they need to do field work. We've got a lot of recreation, a lot of natural resources really close to campus. It's very easy to get a hands-on learning experience out here because you can roll down here in ten minutes and you're out in the woods with thousands of acres to explore and work.

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