Mt. Jang Needs Rest
The ecosystem around Mountain Jang in Haeundae, Busan is suffering from a serious ache since the number of mountain hikers has rapidly increased.
Jang is the main mountain in Haeundae district with up to 10,000 hikers daily. Currently, some nineteen major paths stretch out in this area and shortcuts are continuously formed, like spider webs. As a result, damages to the ecosystem gets worse day by day. Particularly, an area of pampas grass and mountainous swamp land is about to lose its fame since mountaineers' unconscious damage and invasion of foreign vegetation lessen the area.
Checks conducted by the Haeundae district and newspaper reporters on February 12 show that the pampas area, which is located on a ridge 500 meters above sea level, already has bare tracks all over it. The major tracks crossing the pampas grass reach six to seven meters wide and have changed it into an environment that is unacceptable for pampas grass to live.
Shortcuts everywhere along the main mountain tracks are created and are wrinkled like spider webs all over. Moreover, people sit, eat and leave traces like they have enjoyed themselves so much around the pampas area they have left a huge wound reaching ten meters in diameter.
Active interference with natural regeneration, based on the tracks, is causing the upper part of the region to compete against the pampas grass in the lower areas with pine trees and thistles.
At one time the pampas reached to 9,600 square meters, but the area of the grass on the wet area on Mt. Jang is reduced. An investigation by the Busan Development Institute reports that the area has been reduced to thirty percent from the original figures, now covering approximately 2,800 square meters.
Conditions are the same at Mt. Jang's other wet areas. Passing over the training ground of the 53 Military Base in Jang San town, the damp zone that is located in the middle of the tracks after the pampas region, could lose its functions since it faces drought. Mountaineers storming around the region causing compacted soil and long-term drought are causing some terrible circumstances.
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 02.13. 10:20
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