Leave No Trace in the Outdoors

By Jeffrey Marion

The essential guide for enjoying the outdoors without harming the environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Release date: Jul 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9780811760515

Book preview

Acknowledgments

Preface

America’s parks, forests, and wildlife refuges preserve some of the most spectacular scenery and pristine natural environments in the world. The U.S. National Parks enjoy an international reputation as America’s best idea, and our legacy and professionalism in managing public lands have served as a role model to protected area managers everywhere. However, our public lands are not without significant threats, including external threats like air pollution, and internal threats like excessive visitation and livestock grazing. Recreational use of public and private lands can negatively affect the places we visit, the animals we observe, and the experiences of other visitors. Native vegetation is trampled, soil is eroded, animals are disturbed, and visitors experience crowding or conflicts with others. While the impacts of a single visitor may be inconsequential, consider the aggregate impacts associated with more than 930 million visitors reported by the federal land management agencies in recent years. Alternatively, consider the impacts from even greater numbers of visitors to state, county, and city parks; forests; and open spaces closer to our homes.

In response to concerns regarding visitor impacts, the national Leave No Trace program was created in 1994 by the federal land management agencies and the National Outdoor Leadership School to develop and promote low-impact outdoor skills and ethics. This program is guided by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, an educational nonprofit organization dedicated to the responsible enjoyment and active stewardship of the outdoors by all people, worldwide. The Center achieves its mission through education, research, partnerships, and volunteerism. The Center:

believes that education is the best means to protect natural lands from recreational impacts while helping maintain access for recreation and enjoyment;

is founded on outdoor ethics, whereby a sense of stewardship is gained through understanding and connecting with the natural world;

is science based and builds ethical, pragmatic approaches to resource protection for varying types of outdoor recreation and enjoyment;

strives to build key partnerships that support education programs, training and communities of volunteers, educators, land managers, organizations, and corporations committed to teaching and instilling the values of Leave No Trace.

Leave No Trace has expanded to become the most fully developed and widely used educational program for teaching low-impact ethics and practices for nonmotorized outdoor pursuits in the United States and in many other countries around the world. Leave No Trace practices have been fully adopted by the federal land management agencies and are commonly communicated by state and local public land managers, the outdoor recreation industry, and many private organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the American Camp Association.

Leave No Trace information is organized around seven core principles designed to communicate the best available low-impact guidance. These practices can be applied anywhere—from remote wilderness or backcountry to local parks or your backyard—and in any recreational endeavor. Leave No Trace principles and practices extend common courtesy and hospitality to other outdoor visitors and to the natural world of which we are all a part. They are based on an abiding respect for nature. This respect, coupled with good judgment and awareness, will allow you to apply the principles to your own unique circumstances. Act on behalf of your love for the places and wildlife that inspire you. Begin by educating yourself and adopting the skills and ethics that enable you to Leave No Trace; then teach others!

For more information about the national Leave No Trace program’s educational resources and courses, visit www.LNT.org.

Introduction

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. . . . In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such."

—Aldo Leopold

Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day in 1970 to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment. The oft-repeated question Are we loving our parks to death? reveals that even lands set aside for special protection are increasingly subject to the unintentional impacts of outdoor recreation. Every year, millions of outdoor enthusiasts venture out of their homes to walk their dogs, hike along creeks, run on trails, cycle along greenways, fish local ponds, paddle down rivers, and picnic. Our motives vary, but many seek to reconnect with nature, get exercise, view scenery, and see wildlife. However, while our experiences are personally satisfying, they can be costly to the places we visit and the wildlife we observe. Nature can be fragile—our visits sometimes disrupt the environment, even when we aren’t aware of it.

Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac, recognized that a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. Each of us can do the right thing if we accept a personal responsibility to learn about and adopt Leave No Trace outdoor ethics and practices. Make a personal commitment to avoid or minimize the associated impacts of your outdoor visits—to both our resources and the experiences of other visitors—by making a few simple changes in how you enjoy the outdoors.

Whether close to home or in deep wilderness, practicing Leave No Trace is the best way to ensure long-term protection of our shared lands enjoyed for recreation. BEN LAWHON

Leave No Trace Expands to Meet Frontcountry Needs

Leave No Trace is a code of conduct promoting stewardship practices necessary to protect the ecological and experiential health of outdoor environments. With its historic roots in wilderness and backcountry settings, this national educational program has expanded to include accessible frontcountry environments. Frontcountry includes outdoor areas that are easily accessible by vehicle and mostly visited by day users, such as protected areas close to home and the developed portions of large parks and forests. Common examples of frontcountry activities include walking on trails near home, visits to local or state parks, car camping in developed campgrounds, and large group events like your organization’s picnic, club hike, church group outing, or Scout camporee. Almost 90 percent of outdoor recreation activities and visitation occurs in these highly accessible natural settings, so the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has collaborated with public land managers and other organizations to expand its educational efforts to include these areas. Frontcountry practices may differ from those applied in more remote settings, primarily because of site developments and facilities and differences in recreation activities and equipment. This book was developed to provide a comprehensive review of Leave No Trace practices applicable to frontcountry, backcountry, and wilderness environments. Clear rationales and implications from research are also included to provide more compelling reasons for outdoor visitors to adopt recommended low-impact practices. A Further Reading section is included on page 103 for those who want to discover more, particularly about the science supporting these practices.

Leave No Trace practices apply to a wide range of outdoor activities, including both daytime and overnight activities occurring on public or private lands. Frontcountry settings often receive intensive visitation and unique types of use that require different low-impact practices than backcountry activities and settings. Examples include large group picnics and camping, dog walking and pet wastes, trespass on private lands, and the introduction and dispersal of non-native species. Experiential impacts, such as crowding and conflicts with other visitors, can be more prevalent in the frontcountry. Backcountry and wilderness settings may be more remote but are nonetheless popular destinations that sometimes accommodate intensive visitation with few to no facilities. As visitation continues to increase, we must learn how to maintain the integrity and character of the outdoors for all living things. Take the responsibility to improve your low-impact knowledge, and share it with others to avoid or reduce impacts during your outings.

Though the roots of Leave No Trace are in backcountry and wilderness, the skills and ethics are just as important in frontcountry since nearly 90 percent of all outdoor recreation occurs in these areas. BEN LAWHON

Leave No Trace practices and ethics are built around seven core principles, but remember that Leave No Trace is not about a fixed set of rules. Rather, it is about your awareness of recreational impacts to the environment and the experiences of other visitors and about developing your knowledge of practices to avoid or minimize those impacts. As your outdoor experience and environmental awareness grow, so will your respect for the environment and your concern for its protection. Leave No Trace is about an outdoor ethic that instills personal values that will compel you to care for