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OUTDOOR ETHICS
Leave No Trace!
We expect outdoor experiences to offer opportunities to seek solitude away from crowds, noise and daily pressures of urban life. This escape should be accompanied by a commitment to protect and preserve. Leave No Trace! practices are techniques that visitors can use to help reduce evidence of their presence in the out-of-doors.
Leave No Trace! guidelines help protect the land and lessen the sights and sounds of your visit. Practicing outdoor ethics is very simple: Make it hard for others to see or hear you and Leave No Trace of your visit!
Because most visitors do not live outdoors, they unknowingly violate the Leave No Trace! ethic by:
- Traveling and camping in large groups.
- Traveling off trails or roads, thereby causing scars and soil erosion, and trampling vegetation.
- Leaving campfire scars.
- Leaving human waste and garbage at a campsite or picnic site.
- Polluting lakes and streams.
- Making loud noises that disturb wildlife and other visitors.
- Wearing brightly colored gear and clothes that make them visible to others in the area (bright colors also attract insects, as do scented deodorants, perfumes and hair sprays).
REMEMBER:
- Know and observe local rules and regulations.
- Plan an off-season or non-holiday outing if you wish to avoid crowds.
- Know what weather conditions to expect.
- Observe fire warnings.
- Even a day hike requires some survival gear: water, whistle, snack, appropriate clothing.
- Federal law prohibits disturbing historical and archeological sites, AND, the removal of any objects (including plants, rocks, wildlife).
- Picnic, day hike or camping trip: Pack it in. Pack it out.
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