Animal tracks
Grass Deterioration, also known as Animal Tracks or Desire Lines, is one of the new features implemented in Animal Crossing: City Folk. 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.
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 30 days to convert dirt to grass on the plot of land on which it is planted, providing the ground there is not walked on more than once a day. Trees 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. Once these trees and flowers are planted, the player must avoid walking in the affected area other than to keep the flowers watered. 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, being certain that all flowers are kept watered each day. 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 regrowth rate is at its maximum in June. In December, the opposite is true: grass wears the fastest and regrows the slowest.
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.
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Grass that has been severely damaged. Note how grass surrounds the palm trees.
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Grass that has been damaged.
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These players have created paths by repeatedly running over the same spot every day.
