Picnic table
While the original and most common material for picnic tables is wooden boards, they may be made anything from split logs to concrete to recycled HDPE plastic.
The typically simple and informal design of picnic tables makes them popular amenities in parks and other public places.
Their popularity has various impacts on the flora, fauna and soil around picnic table sites, where they often attract various species interested in feeding on human food.
[1] This early approach to picnicking suffered the drawback that indoor dining furniture could not be carried far from the home and was often unsuited to outdoor use.
In many cases picnic tables were used specifically to restrict human impacts on the surrounding natural area, and were accordingly designed to be as heavy and immovable as possible.
In urbanized environments, picnic tables are often used as street furniture, and provide a convivial setting that can make it easier for neighborhood residents to interact with one another.
[7] Picnic tables are also used to provide informal outdoor dining for food trucks and other small restaurants that lack indoor seating.
[8] Picnic tables are widely used in outdoor learning because they provide convenient combination of seating and a flat work surface.
[10] The picnic table dialogue subsequently spurred a broader conversation and greater visibility to these issues in outdoor education.
Circular and octagonal picnic tables first became popular in California in the early 20th century because of their superior properties for playing card games.
[3] Most picnic tables are fixed or foldable structures, free standing or mounted to the floor, and are found at landmarks, scenic views or public places, for people to rest and gather.
A common source for plastic "lumber" in picnic tables is recycled HDPE, which may be mixed with other materials such as wood flour for improved strength.
In the United States, federal recreational facilities are required to provide picnic tables that are accessible for disabled users.
[3] Early US Forest Service picnic tables often integrated shelving and cupboards for user convenience, but these proved to be impossible to maintain and were not built after 1941.
[26] Placing graffiti on picnic tables, either by carving or tagging, is a common form of recreational area vandalism.
[18] Because flat wooden surfaces are vulnerable to decomposition in wet environments, picnic tables have historically often used wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA).
In one instance, a worker suffered extreme arsenic poisoning from sawing CCA-treated boards to construct a picnic table.
[33] However, in rainy areas the damage caused by trampling may in turn give rise to sheet erosion of the picnic site.
Nymphs of the Western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus, have been found on picnic tables at roughly the same frequency as in leaf litter.
[35] Hornets and other wasps may similarly nest under picnic table platforms or benches, which provide a sheltered location convenient to a food source.
Sometimes referred to as "portable wooden decks", pyeongsang have a picnic-table-like ability to foster communal interaction when used as street furniture.
