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Leave No Trace…

The 7 Principles of Leave No Trace provide an easily understood framework of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors.

The Principles can be applied anywhere — from remote wilderness areas, to local parks and even in your backyard. Each Principle covers a specific topic and provides detailed information to empower you to minimize your impacts.

The 7 Principles are well-established and widely known but not static. They are continually examined, evaluated, and reshaped to be up to date with the latest insights from biologists, land managers, and other leaders in outdoor education.

Today more than ever, the concept of Leave No Trace is essential to have a positive impact on nature. We actively support its 7 principles and invite our readers to do the same in all their outdoor activities.

Planning and preparing ahead allows you to carry out planned activities safely, while minimising damage to the environment. Poor planning often results in less enjoyable or dangerous experiences and damages to natural and cultural resources.

In practice:
  • 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.
  • Repackage food to minimize waste.

When traveling to natural areas, avoid damaging soil, foliage or waterways. 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 through 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.

in practice:
  • Durable surfaces include established trails, campsites, rock, gravel, and dry grasses or snow.
  • Protect riparian areas by camping at least 50 m from lakes and streams.
  • Good campsites are found, not made. Altering a site is not necessary.
In popular areas and overcrowded areas:
  • Stay 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.

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.

In practice:
  • 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. Never burn your trash.
  • Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 15-20 cm deep at least 50 m 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, stay 50 m away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater.

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.

In practice:
  • 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.

The natural appearance of many regions has been degraded by the excessive and uncontrolled use of fire and the growing demand for firewood. Wildfires are an ongoing and growing threat to natural areas and are primarily caused by humans. We can minimise the impact of campfires by keeping a few key points in mind.

In practice:
  • Campfires can cause lasting impacts on the environment. Use a lightweight stove for cooking and enjoy a battery or candle lantern for light.
  • Use established fire rings, pans, or mound fires where fires are permitted.
  • Keep fires small. Use only dry leaves and 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.

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 even relocated or euthanised animals. All these impacts can be avoided if visitors respect wildlife on all outdoor trips.

In practIce:
  • 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 any contact with wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or during winter.

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.

In practice:
  • Respect others and protect the quality of their experience.
  • Be courteous. Yield to other users on the trail.
  • Greet the shepherds and ask them if you need to take any special precautions if you encounter their livestock.
  • Take breaks and camp away from trails and others.
  • Let nature’s sounds prevail. Avoid loud voices and noises.

For more information about Leave No Trace and their 7 principles, check their website: Leave No Trace…

So, here we are… Two people purposefully travelling in an expedition truck.
This blog is about our adventures, our feelings and anything we’d like to share as we wander in wonderland…

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