Leave No Trace

The Leave No Trace Seven Principles

The 7 Simple Principals of Leave No Trace

As a proud partner of Leave No Trace, the Trail Conference promotes the 7 Principles—a simple, effective guide for minimizing your impact on nature, whether you’re in a remote wilderness, local park, or your own backyard.

Principle 1: Plan Ahead and Prepare

When outdoor visitors plan ahead and prepare, it helps to accomplish trip goals safely and enjoyably while simultaneously minimizing damage to the land. Poor planning often results in a less enjoyable experience and damage to natural and cultural resources.

The Basics:

  • Repackage food to minimize waste.
  • Use a map and compass to eliminate the use of rock cairns, flagging, or marking paint.
  • Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you’ll visit.
  • Prepare for extreme weather, hazards, and emergencies.
  • Schedule your trip to avoid times of high use.
  • Visit in small groups. Split larger parties into smaller groups.

Principle 2: Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces

The goal of travel outdoors is to move through natural areas while avoiding damage to the land, foliage, or waterways. Understanding how travel causes impacts is necessary to accomplish this goal. Travel damage occurs when surface vegetation or communities of organisms are trampled beyond recovery. After traveling to an area, we can have a significant effect on where we decide to camp. The resulting barren area leads to soil erosion and the development of undesirable trails or trampled areas. By understanding the best practices to travel and camp on durable surfaces responsibly, we can minimize human impact on outdoor spaces.

The Basics:

  • Durable surfaces include established trails, campsites, rock, gravel, and dry grasses or snow.
  • Protect riparian areas by camping at least 200 feet from lakes and streams.
  • Good campsites are found, not made. Altering a site is not necessary.

In popular areas

  • Concentrate use on existing trails and campsites.
  • Walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when wet or muddy.
  • Keep campsites small. Focus activity in areas where vegetation is absent.

In undisturbed areas

  • Disperse use to prevent the creation of campsites and trails.
  • Avoid places where impacts are just beginning.

Principle 3: Dispose of Waste Properly

The waste humans create while enjoying outdoor spaces can have severe impacts if not disposed of properly. It is crucial to anticipate the types of waste you will need to dispose of and know the proper techniques for disposing of each type of waste in the area you are visiting. Leave No Trace encourages outdoor enthusiasts to consider the impacts they leave behind, which will undoubtedly affect other people, water, and wildlife.

The Basics:

  • Pack it in, pack it out. Inspect your campsite and rest areas for trash or spilled food. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter. Burning trash is never recommended.
  • Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6-8 inches deep at least 200 feet from water, camp, and trails. Cover and disguise the cathole when finished.
  • Bury toilet paper deep in a cathole or pack the toilet paper out along with hygiene products.
  • To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater.

Principle 4: Leave What You Find

The items we find in nature have a role to play, either in the ecosystem or the story of the landscape. Leaving what we find in place helps to preserve both. Allow others a sense of discovery by leaving rocks, plants, archaeological artifacts, and other objects of interest as you find them.

The Basics:

  • Preserve the past: observe cultural or historic structures and artifacts, but do not touch them.
  • Leave rocks, plants, and other natural objects as you find them.
  • Avoid introducing or transporting non-native species.
  • Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.

Principle 5: Minimize Campfire Impacts

Once necessary for cooking and warmth, campfires are steeped in history and tradition. Some people would not think of camping without a campfire. Campfire building is also an essential skill for every camper. Yet, the natural appearance of many areas has been degraded by the overuse of fires and increasing demand for firewood. Moreover, wildfires continue to threaten outdoor spaces and are primarily caused by humans. We can minimize campfire impacts by keeping a few key things in mind.

The Basics:

  • Campfires can cause lasting impacts on the environment. Use a lightweight stove for cooking and enjoy a candle lantern for light.
  • Use established fire rings, pans, or mound fires where fires are permitted.
  • Keep fires small. Use only sticks from the ground that can be broken by hand.
  • Burn all wood and coals to ash, put out campfires completely, then scatter cool ashes.

Principle 6: Respect Wildlife

Whenever you are in an outdoor space, you are in the natural habitat of many wild animals and should work to minimize your impact on them.  Human impacts on wildlife can result in negative human-wildlife interactions, aggressive animals, a decline in the ecosystem’s health, and relocated or euthanized animals. All these impacts can be avoided if visitors respect wildlife on all outdoor trips.

The Basics:

  • Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow or approach them.
  • Never feed animals. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers.
  • Control pets at all times, or leave them at home.
  • Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

Principle 7: Be Considerate Of Others

One of the most important components of outdoor ethics is to maintain courtesy toward others. It helps everyone enjoy their outdoor experience. Excessive noise, uncontrolled pets, and damaged surroundings detract from the natural appeal of the outdoors. Being considerate of others ensures everyone can enjoy nature no matter how they interact with it.

The Basics:

  • Respect others and protect the quality of their experience.
  • Be courteous. Yield to other users on the trail.
  • Greet riders and ask which side of the trail to move to when encountering pack stock.
  • Take breaks and camp away from trails and others.
  • Let nature’s sounds prevail. Avoid loud voices and noises.

The Trail Conference is a proud Leave No Trace partner.

(c) Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics: www.LNT.org.