Yongin City to Establish Development and Management Plan for 'Walkable Forest Trails'

327.5km Hiking Trails, 38.7km Perimeter Paths Targeted
'Basic Plan' Service to be Conducted by May Next Year

Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 10th that it plans to establish an annual maintenance plan for forest trails throughout the city to create walking paths that citizens want to use.

The city explained that this is to create themed forest trails that meet citizen demand as the number of people hiking and trekking increases.

To this end, the city will conduct a service project to establish the "Basic Plan for the Creation and Management of Yongin City Forest Trails" by May next year.

Contractors are conducting an on-site inspection for the "Basic Plan for the Creation and Management of Forest Trails in Yongin City."
[Photo by Yongin City]

The project will conduct a full survey and classification of the current status of forest trails throughout the city, including 327.5 km of hiking trails and 38.7 km of perimeter trails. It will review project sites based on route names, access methods, usage, difficulty, convenience, installation of facilities, surrounding vegetation, and degree of damage.

Additionally, to expand barefoot walking trails (earthing trails), the project will analyze visitor status and trends and propose ideas to discover barrier-free forest trail sites.

Based on a comprehensive review of hiker usage status by forest trail routes, frequency of complaints, and accident occurrences, the project will analyze the validity of vehicle access restriction routes based on the "Act on Forest Culture and Recreation."

Based on the review results, the city plans to establish a basic plan to create forest trails that meet demand and conditions, such as forest leisure sports trails, exploration paths, and recreational and healing forest trails.

Earlier, on the 30th of last month, the city held a mid-term briefing at the Yongin Forest Education Center, received reports on the current status of forest trail surveys conducted so far, and reviewed forest trail management directions and plans for creating specialized forest trails.

A city official said, "We will steadily promote the project to create healthy forest trails and provide citizens with high-quality forest welfare services."