Springtail colony

While I was hiking I across this springtail colony (this pile is probably 100's of thousand of individuals if not more) spilled out of an old rotten log onto the trail. I was changing my lens to take a picture when a couple with a young teenager came down. I stopped the mom from stepping on them and they asked what they were - it was kind of fun to play amateur naturalist and explain what they were and why they were there. The mom and teen had a closer look to see them hopping around and mom even took some cell phone photos. Having seen them almost stomped, I found a small piece of wood and leaned it over the colony hoping that it would prompt people to step around. Unfortunately this is a well travelled trail. By the time I'd gone up to the lake and come back, someone had just as carefully removed the piece of wood and tossed it off of the other side of the trail and the poor colony had been pretty thoroughly trampled. I put the wood back and scribed a line in the dirt this time to try to protect the ones that were left, but sadly I don't think people are very observant and likely most never even noticed what they were stepping on.

Here's what the individual insects look like - they are very, very tiny