Practicing Leave No Trace [1] is a collective effort, meaning that its
success or failure at minimizing impacts to nature depends on millions of
individuals making responsible choices each time they recreate outdoors. Each
of us is ultimately responsible for our own actions outdoors, and hopefully
we will each take it upon ourselves to become properly educated in Leave No
Trace.
In the fall of 2005, I found myself in the backcountry wilderness of Chilean
Patagonia, trudging across wetlands covered by foot-high moss like sponges to
the touch, where we sometimes pitched a tent in standing water and the rain
fell in unrelenting and steady monotony.
Despite the seemingly indefatigable march of progress, there are still parts
of this world that remain largely untrammeled
Outdoor Project was created with a community in mind, and one that we hope
will become an integral part in collectively inspiring everyone to spend more
time outdoors.
Most outdoor enthusiasts would agree that outdoor adventures should always
strive to have a limiting impact on a place. Practicing the Seven Principles
of Leave No Trace [1] is an excellent start to minimizing our corporeal
footprint left on a place. However, leaving your mark on a place doesn’t
necessarily mean you’ve left a physical footprint, or one that is evident
via our senses.
I teach at a high school on Hawai'i's Big Island, and every week we have an
assembly in which students and teachers make announcements. As the leader of
our school’s budding outdoor program, it isn't uncommon for me to get up
and announce upcoming trips.
Winter in the backcountry is all about having fun while staying warm and dry.
It also means experiencing the best of the outdoors in a different way, when
established trails give way to snow-covered paths and campsites are rarely
located on dry ground. Do you know the Leave No Trace principles for winter
adventure?
How often do you wake up and think to yourself that it's a great day to do
something stupid?
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Of all the questions which can come before
this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great
war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task
of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for
us.” While this statement makes a case for the urgency of being
conservation minded and practici
As more and more people recreate outdoors each year, it becomes absolutely
essential for us to practice Leave No Trace [1] individually - and in this
day in age, we need Leave No Trace now more than ever! By making more
responsible choices about what we do in the outdoors we make sure that the
places we love stay beautiful, clean, and open. However, practicing Leave No
Trace is not easy.
