Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists
The Case Against Nails ... August 30, 2008 ... view of Barry Bridgeford.
Anyone who's gone on a few backcountry trips has come across nails sticking out of trees around campsites' firepits and tent sites. Ranging from small rusty nails from years gone by to giant galvanized spiral nails, they serve as hangers for pots and pans, as tie-downs for tarp ropes and as a means to secure "camp furniture" to trees.
However, nails have no place in campsite trees. At first glance, that sounds like a pretty officious statement. But let's examine the various repercussions that result from nails being driven into campsite trees.
Nails driven into trees actually penetrate the trees' life-giving sapwood. That in itself is bad, but the nails' very presence invites people to extract them and re-insert them in preferred locations. The presence of the nails also gives people the impression that its OK to continue the use of nails and to even bring along their own supply of nails on subsequent trips.
Unfortunately, every time a nail is removed an open wound is produced which leaks life-giving sap and which allows the entry of destructive insects and fungus spores. These destructive entries into the trees' sapwood combine to shorten the trees' lives. The result is campsites that are overshadowed by prematurely damaged and dangerous trees, eventually loosing their protective canopies.
Even an individual nail, driven into a tree and remaining in its original location, has doubly destructive potential.
Every camper that uses a nail-adorned campsite can be injured by such a nail's protruding head. Whether in the poor light of dusk or of night-time, or in momentary distraction, one can easily assume one is safe to slide close by a tree .. only to be snagged by a protruding nail.
And, if a tree should succeed in living past the impaling of nails, it will eventually grow around the nails, taking them within its wood. However, all trees eventually succumb to something. Such leaning or fallen campsite trees will eventually have to be removed by park staff for safety reasons. This will mean the use of a chain saw on what is now effectively a "spiked" tree. No one deserves to be on the receiving end of a flailing broken chain of blades.
view001.htm