Planning a hike? A family camping trip? How about just taking your dog for a walk in the nearby park?
Before doing so, have you thought about what’s on your shoes? Yes, I’m asking you to actually check your shoes. Why? It’s simple: invasive species. I know it sounds crazy, but you would be surprised how much of an impact you can have on sustaining the environment just by checking the mud on your shoes.
Invasive species: we have all heard about them, but do you really know how much of our biodiversity is actually non-native species? At this point you have probably heard about the Asian Carp and Zebra Mussels. Both of these are great examples of how easy it is to spread invasive species if we aren’t aware. Even the cute little European rabbit is invasive, wreaking havoc in many of the countries they have been introduced to by damaging natural ecosystems.
Focusing on invasive animals gets more publicity than invasive vegetation does, and when I’m asking you to check your shoes, it’s not to see if you have a little critter hanging out on the side of your hiking boot. Rather, it’s a call to check and make sure you aren’t bringing a part of one ecosystem into another.
Without even knowing it, you undoubtedly pick up all kinds of weed seeds on your shoes when going for a stroll through the local park. It is easy for them to just stick to the mud on your shoes, the material of your socks, or anywhere they can attach. It doesn’t stop there; any kind of interaction with an ecosystem can spread pathogens, insects or pests. In fact, one of the main ways that species expand their range is through dispersal methods, such as being carried by animals (which includes us!)
Now, this may not seem like a big deal, and if you go to the same park every week, your impacts may be minimal. But think about that camping trip you may have taken to the U.P. or Yellowstone or the Ozarks. All those places have unique and distinct vegetation and animals living there. If you aren’t careful to make sure that your shoes are washed of any mud from your last trip, you could be bringing outside species to a new ecosystem.
This is an actual concern in many state and national parks and you may even see signs up advising you to clean off your equipment, boats and vehicles before visiting somewhere new. It’s not just disrupting the balance of an ecosystem that we should be concerned about either, but rather the impact these species have on the rest of the wildlife there. In fact, roughly 42% of our threatened and endangered native species are at risk because of invasive species.
Now, the impact of just your boots alone may not be much, but the concept still remains. All gear should be checked over before going somewhere new. This idea can even be seen in the carrying invasive species via un-washed boats or fishing equipment. The examples can go on, and so does the main idea I am trying to get across. Even if using a boot brush doesn’t stop as much as we would hope, you are still making yourself aware of the impact you can have on the environment when you go out and use it.
Making sure we do our part to protect our environment isn’t always about big picture actions and huge movements. It can also be about the little stuff that we can do on our own at home. All that matters is that we are doing our part to sustain our natural environment. So, is it an odd request to clean off the mud on your shoes before your next hike? Maybe. But will the environment be happy you did? Definitely.