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@gbj_tester
Google "soil disturbance large herbivores"; ecosystems have developed with large herbivores as part of them, and some species have come to rely on the soil churn caused by browsing and trampling to survive and propagate. From an ecological view, I think I'd be more concerned about the concrete-hard motorways of highly structured synthetic trails (e.g. Swinley*) than about some random squishing of plants and ploughing of dirt on open land.
*I'm using it to illustrate a type of trail construction; ecologically, Swinley is a great swathe of industrial monoculture, so I'm not going to shed any tears over it's partial conversion to organised leisure use.