Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers

Read the passage and select ALL correct options. Wrong selections lose points.

Long-distance walking paths, often stitched together from old drovers' roads, disused railway lines, and coastal cliff tracks, have seen a steady rise in through-hikers attempting the entire route in one continuous trip rather than short day walks. Local economies along these corridors increasingly depend on hikers for guesthouse bookings and small cafe trade, particularly in villages that lost other industries decades ago. Path maintenance, however, is chronically underfunded, and volunteer groups now do much of the erosion repair and signage work that was once handled by paid rangers. Some sections have been rerouted away from fragile peatland after ecologists found that concentrated foot traffic was compacting soil and damaging rare plant species, a change that lengthened the official route by several kilometres.