Leave No Trace Camping and Hiking

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by Adobestock/Jens Ottoson
You must be prepared and clean up after yourself to minimize the impact that you have on the areas you visit.

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has, since 1994, educated people about their recreational impacts on nature. Use their seven guiding principles to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

  1. Plan Ahead and Prepare: Give yourself enough time to hike in and reach proper campsites. If you don’t plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to find a good spot, you can run out of daylight and have to set up a camp in a spot that’s less sustainable (and less comfortable).
  2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces: In high-use areas, use already existing sites; in remote areas, spread out to minimize impact. If everyone who visited an alpine lake, for example, used a brand-new campsite, the lake would eventually be surrounded in barren spots with fire rings next to them. Use a spot that’s already been camped in.
  3. Dispose of Waste Properly (Pack It In, Pack It Out): Pack out all trash, scatter dishwater far from water sources, and bury human waste.
  4. Leave What You Find: Leave the things you find for others to enjoy–don’t pocket rocks, wildflowers, or archaeological artifacts. Stealing a potsherd from an ancient site alters the site, making it less enjoyable for future visitors.
  5. Minimize Campfire Impacts: Minimize campfires, and when you do build one make it no bigger than necessary; use existing fire rings when possible.
  6. Respect Wildlife: Give animals proper space; don’t leave food where animals can get into it. If animals become accustomed to finding food that campers leave out, they’ll continue to revisit certain areas, becoming a danger to humans and to themselves.
  7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors: Travel and camp quietly; give other users enough space when camping. Yelling and shouting may seem natural in the outdoors, but you’re infringing on other hikers’ experiences when you create unnecessary noise. 

More from The Great Outdoors: 

Tips for Driving on Bumpy Roads


Excerpted from The Great Outdoors by Brendan Leonard (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2017. Illustrations by Seth Neilson.

  • Published on Jul 14, 2020
Tagged with: camping, outdoor skills
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