Detailed Soil Survey of the Mount Revelstoke Summit Area.

61ecosystem .While the activities involved in camping, picnicking,hiking, sight-seeing and related land uses are many and varied, onecommon activity of consequence to vegetation and soils is tramplingby foot traffic . Trampling has therefore been selected as the typeof use on which quantification of our rating is based .The purpose of the rating system isdegree of change which is expected to occur .to describe the type andThe vegetation changesare primarily loss of plant cover and change in species composition .The changes to soils include erosion and the production of puddled,quagmire conditions .The vegetation communities and soil units have been arrangedin order of their susceptibility to damage . It is not possible to definethe precise carrying capacity of each segment of the landscape .However,data from experimental trampling studies provide a quantitativeguide to the relative amount of stress each unit can withstand .DerivationVegetation and soils are interdependent in rating environmentalfragility :soils will not erode unless the protective vegetation cover isremovedBecauseand damaged vegetation will not recover if soils are eroding .the fragility of vegetation may not coincide with the fragilityof soils,the two had to be rated separately and the ratings combined togive a dual index of fragility for each unit .In this way, excessivegeneralization was avoided and a more specific description of thefragility of each unit could be given .A map of the distribution of thefragility classes isincluded in the map pocket,