Yushan National Park Headquarters of National Park Service, MOI works with Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, conservation narrator, and Taiwanese aboriginals in Dongpu conducted the “Linzhi Mountain eco-craft trail event” in Tataka on August 12 and 13 this year. 37 people who love this ecosystem joined us to spend efforts in protecting the mountain and forest.
Tataka means a broad, flat field in Taiwanese aboriginal language. In Tataka, one can see the main and multi peaks of Yushan on the east. On the west, Tataka faces Zhushan and Tashan, with Shenmu River in the middle. There are often a sea of clouds and clouds and mists in the mountains in the early morning and at night, which make Tataka Trail more stunning and beautiful.
Tataka is 2,600 meters high. Lots of visitors are attracted by the beautiful views and convenient transportation. However, lots of visitors stop by and the ground is eroded by typhoons and heavy rains. Therefore, the road is muddy and slippery and the sub-grade along the trail is damaged and inconvenient for walking. Therefore, considering the onsite climate and various terrains, Yushan National Park Headquarters uses local materials to build an eco-craft trail manually to improve the road conditions. People who joined us said that, “It’s hard work and tiring all day, but it’s worth it because we can provide a safer, easier to walk on the trail and protect the mountain and forest at the same time.”
Eco-craft trail protects nature and provides an environmental education area.
Eco-craft trail is a green movement for nature conservation concept, focusing on adapting to local conditions and using local materials. Adequate, simple tools are used to prevent large machines and artificial materials from affecting the environment. While maintaining the trail, environmental education is promoted. We expect that the eco-craft trail will be easier to walk on. The more important thing is to convey the idea of mountain and forest protection. With a natural ecological engineering method, the trail will adapt more to the local ecosystem. Meanwhile, we hope that more visitors can experience ecological protection and understand the meaning of ecological protection.
The number of construction workers for the trail is divided into three groups. Hsu Ming Chien, the deputy CEO of Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, Wu Yu Lung, a Bunun senior honorary trail repairer who’s known as “Taiwan Sherpa” and Wu Ching Ti, a trail repairer, performed the eco-craft trail maintenance for two days at Linzhi Mountain, the most popular trail in this area. Improvement items include repairing the current stairs, improving the transverse diversion ditch, and removing no longer functioning sleepers. These sleepers are used to improve，road surface drainage and gully energy dissipation at multiple areas. After completion, not many artificial materials have been used to integrate the trail into the wild landscape. The eco-craft trail meets the goal of ecological conservation of the national park. This construction work is highly recognized by hikers passed by.
Yushan National Park Headquarters encourages users to take action to protect the trail together. Linzhi Mountain is a convenient hiking trail, hence it bears lots of recreational pressure. Yushan National Park welcomes visitors to experience nature and invites everyone to protect the mountain and forest. We can start from following the principle of Leave No Trace, not taking shortcuts, not stepping on the vegetation, and walking only on the existing trail.
In the future, Yushan National Park Headquarters will continue to promote the eco-craft trail with NGOs such as Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association to achieve the goal of “no more new concrete pavements” and create a better natural environment. Yushan National Park Headquarters announced that it will entrust the nearby tribe members or indigenous people's cooperatives with maintaining the trail manually except for the roads that must be contracted out for safety. This helps reduce the impact of trail construction on the eco-environment and facilitates the economy of the aboriginal tribe and community.