Animal tracks

Grass deterioration, also known as animal tracks or desire lines, is one of the new features implemented in. The game is able to keep track of your movements throughout town, and will wear down the grass in certain areas. This feature was originally intended to create paths in frequently-traversed areas, which would add to the town’s own unique character. In some instances, the feature has run amok, nearly completely obliterating all of the grass in the entire town. This process has been dubbed "desertification" by some in the Animal Crossing community. Many players seek to prevent desertification in their towns, not only for aesthetic reasons, but because the lack of grass can become a game-breaking issue, causing some insects, such as the Dung Beetle, or furniture, such as the Snowman Series, to be impossible to collect.

Prevention
While there is no way to play the game without wearing down any grass, players who wish to prevent grass deterioration in their towns can take certain steps to stem desertification. Since the game calculates grass wear at each game load, players can reduce the number of times each day they reload the game. Players can also walk along designated paths to limit wear to only these areas. Placing designs on the ground as paths is one way to accomplish this. Patterns will not protect the ground, but will establish a path that can be consistently followed. Walking along a path of flowers also negates the deterioration, as a plot of land with a flower will not lose its grass if it is only stepped on once daily.

'' *NOTE: Running wears grass more quickly than walking. (a.k.a. Jogging) ''

Repair
Grass regrowth in the game can take up to six months. There are a few ways in which a player can aid this process. Planting trees and flowers all over the trampled area will speed up regrowth. Flowers cause grass to regrow at about five times the normal rate. A flower takes about 14 to 30 days to convert dirt to grass on the plot of land on which it is planted, depending on the time of year. Regrowth rates are fastest during the Spring through the Summer months. Slowest during the Autumn and Winter months. Grass being regrown must never be walked on, even to water flowers. To get around this, you can use gold roses which never wilt, or ordinary flowers that must be replaced when wilted or watering only the wilted flowers. Fortunately, flowers wilt at random rates so you can easily go several days or more without a single wilted flower around your restoring bed. This is a useful method provided the area being restored is avoided but checked on occasionally. Therefore, it's best to regrow near paths and to use gold roses or regular flowers, but not hybrids. They do not affect regrowth any more than other flowers, are more valuable, and harder to come by.

Trees also cause grass to regrow at three times the normal rate, as well as providing a physical barrier to prevent that particular plot from being trampled. Trees will also regrow a larger plot than flowers, and do not need to be watered so is a good option for regrowing large plots of dirt. Once these trees and flowers are planted, the player must avoid walking in the affected area other than to replace wilted flowers.

Since running is slightly more devastating to grass than walking, a player should be sure to walk through an area if travel there cannot be avoided altogether.

For players who are willing to time-travel within the game, the regrowth process can be further accelerated by advancing the game clock forward one day at a time. Setting the game clock backward in time or moving forward more than one day does not result in additional grass regrowth. The time of the year also affects grass regrowth, with spring and summer months being the best time for recovery. The wear rate is at its slowest in June. In December, the opposite is true: grass wears the fastest and regrows the slowest.

Once you've restored your grass, you can maintain it by keeping mainly to paths. If you go off path, do so in moderation. You can even run on occasion, but limit how often you run and keep an eye out for signs of wear. If you notice signs of wear, like dark spots on the ground, or dirt beginning to show, you can avoid the area or plant flowers. If you use regular flowers, then make sure you check for wilted ones and replace them with fresh ones.

Petition
Currently there is an online petition requesting that Nintendo release a patch over the Wi-Fi connection that will fix the grass growth issue. It should be noted that due to the software and hardware designs of the Wii, it may be impossible for Nintendo to fix the issue through a patch alone.

The Differences between Running, Walking, and Jogging
Running wears grass faster then walking, in fact, jogging, as it is called, wears more grass then walking. Jogging is when you pull the Wii remote as far away from your character as possible to move, but with out pressing B. Walking is keeping the Wii remote close to your character, so your arms move back and forth. While jogging, your arms do not move back and forth. If you use a Nunchuk, it is when you pull the Nunchuk's analog stick the farthest it will go while not pressing B. If you press B while walking you will jog, and if you press B while jogging you will run. Walking is better for grass, but it is harder to control your walking while using a Nunchuk.

Visible Wear and Slow Wear
There are two types of wear. One is a sudden, visible wear that occurred when passing over a spot of grass, the other type is a much slower wear which could not be observed immediately but that accumulated over time. You may have witnessed the first type of wear, which is called “visible wear” firsthand in your town. If you have an area of grass that has started to wear and you pass over it once, you will see the grass wearing down immediately.

Saving and Quitting Effects
Saving and quitting affects grass deterioration more then you would think. If you walk over an area, save, quit, then come back and walk over it again, then repeat, every time you will see that area wear once, going through a level of grass deterioration every time, until eventually being dirt. This is useful while trying to create paths.

Grass Regrowth
If you don't step on an area of complete dirt at all, it will take approximately 6 months for the grass to grow back completely. Trees and Flowers affect grass regrowth immensely. A flower will take approximately 30 days for the grass to regrow without being stepped on or dying. Stepping on grass affects the grass regrowth and actually decreases the grass that has regrown so it makes it take longer to regrow. Golden roses are recommended when trying to regrow grass because you may have to step on regrowing grass in order to water them. Trees take a little more time then flowers, for example, if a flower took 5 days a tree would take 7 to regrow the same amount of grass. And you can't step on an area with a tree, so you could plant a tree, wait for the grass to grow, and then chop the tree down and dig up the stump so the grass would be there. You can time travel the 6 months to regrow grass, but it is only effective if you get on every day of those six months. For example, you go to Rover and tell him to forward 1 day, then get on, then save, then repeat, until all the grass has regrown. Villagers may move away and flowers may die during this process, unless you have gold roses, then flowers will not die. If you time travel to recover a certain area that isn't very big then you should just plant gold roses in that area and only time travel 30 days.

Pathways/Roads
Pathways/Roads are very useful to help maintain grass deterioration. You can lay out patterns as a guideline for your path and then run on the path until it is complete dirt, then remove the patterns. I would recommend when your path is complete dirt to stop running, because the path may spread to about 5 spaces wide in severe cases. Many people line their path with flowers to stop this from happening. If you line your path with flowers and stay inside the road it will not spread. Gold roses are recommended for this purpose because normal flowers wilt and die. However, people may prefer watering every day to avoid the gaudy look of gold roses. Patterns do not stop the spread of grass deterioration.