LEAVE NO TRACE!

 

email from the backwoods

 

by

Charlie Thorpe (a.k.a. "Charlie II")

charliethorpe@worldnet.att.net

Oct’98

 

Note:

These are a series of messages sent to the Scouts-L email list in October, 1998 by Charlie Thorpe introducing Scout leaders to the principles of Leave No Trace camping.   They are reproduced here with permission for your use.

     Steve

LNT 1- Why me?

Hello All -

This message should explain a little of why I am involved with LNT.

First, some acronym definitions:

I have had the great good fortune to be involved with an interagency team that presents the "Leave No Trace" (LNT) message to large Boy Scout gatherings. So far, we have talked our heads off at two national Jamborees ('93 and '97) and three National Order of the Arrow Conventions (NOAC'94,’96, and '98). Fifteen of us (BLM, USFS, NPS, and NOLS) did both static displays and active presentations at the '97 Jamboree that reached an estimated 22,000 Scouts and adult leaders. All told, we guesstimate that our team has presented the LNT message (at some level) to about 40,000 Scouts and Scouters.

All but the NOLS folks on this particular team are Scouting volunteers. We all have gone thru the NOLS "LNT Masters" course (a fun week of learning/practicing LNT in some beautiful backcountry locations around the country!). We all do a LOT of LNT training outside of Scouting (RV users, horsemen, Sierra Clubbers, etc.). I am a BLM volunteer as well as a Scouting volunteer...but sometimes I also put my thru-hiker hat on when I talk LNT <g>.

Is it enough? Not EVEN close! We all have a long way to go. My primary effort has been to help introduce LNT into Boy Scouting...an organization that I value highly and have been associated with for decades. Over the years I have talked to a LOT of managing agency folks - I always ask how Scout groups are doing in the backcountry under their care.

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) I talked to the feds in NH (White Mountains), VA (Shenandoah National Park and Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area) and in TN (Great Smokey Mountains National Park). When I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) I talked to quite a few folks from the 33 wilderness areas, 24 National Forests, and 7 National Parks we passed through. These "Great Trails" have offered plenty of chances to talk with state, county, and volunteer trail-club maintainers.

When I took my LNT Masters course, the large majority of participants were USFS types hailing from VA to TX (and almost all other states in the south). Lotsa talking to lotsa folks...and this doesn't even count the conversations on the trail or over the internet since my distance-hikes. Over and over, I asked how Scout groups were doing.

Unfortunately, the answer has been 100% uniform...not worth a hoot!

I get lotsa stuff like:

and...well, I think that you get the idea <f>.

Some of it stems from a complete misunderstanding of why we are in the woods in the first place (many think that we are just an "outing club").

Some of it comes from the belief that any group of kids is a Scout group (without the flags and uniforms it's often hard to tell which groups are Scouts...so it's often easiest to just assume that they all are).

A small part of it probably is Scout-bashing.

But...some of it we have earned.

Quite a few folks (in all facets of backcountry use) have decided that we "Scout types" no longer know what we are doing in the woods.

When asked if I agree, I have to fess up and say "yes and no" <f>.

Yes, we have MANY units that routinely commit one or more of the above listed "sins"; and yes, we have been goshawful slow in spreading modern minimum-impact programs like LNT completely into every nook and cranny of BSA.

No, not all of our units are "sinners" (some of our best units rival any outdoor group anywhere!); and no, we won't be dragging our feet forever (check out the new "Passport To High Adventure" and look for the good words about LNT in the new edition of the Boy Scout Handbook coming out late this year!).

The bad news is that damage IS constantly being done to our beautiful backcountry each and every day...and we ARE doing part of it!

The good news is that with just a little effort we can turn it completely around. The wonderfully sharp kids at the NOAC's understand and embrace LNT so fast that it sometimes scares you <g>. These highly idealistic Scouts prove (once again!) that an "ethics based" education program like LNT is made to order for an "ethics based" education movement like Scouting.

Some level of LNT training is appropriate for all of us in Scouting...from 6 to 106! It takes us Scouters to make it happen...all we have to do is start <g>.

See you at "LNT 2- Why now?"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 2- Why now?

Hello All -

One of the most common questions that I get is: "Why should I bother with LNT? What has happened that makes LNT more important than just doing my own thing? If my camping/hiking techniques were good enough when I was a Scout, why aren't they good enough now? Who am I hurting, anyway?"

Yeah, yeah, I know...that was more than one question...and they DON'T always ask them with those exact words <g>. I do get a LOT of these kinds of questions... it didn't take me long to realize that we might as well address these good questions before we get into techniques. To be honest, if I had not gotten what I consider to be good answers (when I did the asking) I wouldn't be messing with LNT now.

First, a few definitions. I use the term "backcountry" to mean those lands (public or private) that would be of interest to people who enjoy the human-powered "traditional" sports like: climbing, spelunking, hiking, x-country skiing, snow shoeing, backpacking, canoeing/kayaking/rafting and tent/tarp/bivy camping. These are just examples...there ARE others. I certainly don't mean to imply that other folks (or the same folks at other times!) might not also want to make other uses (recreation, commerce, etc.) of the same chunks of land.

Since this is a Scouter's forum, I plan to confine my comments mostly to those parts of the "backcountry" that might be of interest to the majority of the Scout units out there (hiking, backpacking, etc.). More and more units are getting into other wonderful backcountry uses (ski-touring, spelunking, etc.), perhaps we can get into the special LNT considerations for these sports in later discussions.

I guess I must also add that who gets to do what to which piece of land ultimately is a legal (and therefore political) issue in our country. What laws to make and how they should look IS an interesting subject for debate, but I don't mean to start such a discussion by simply defining what I mean by the word "backcountry" <g>.

I use the term "wildlands" to mean those parts (public or private) of the backcountry that are still relatively unchanged by man. I use the term "wilderness area" to define a chunk of wildland that has been specifically set aside (protected somehow) to remain as unchanged by man as is possible.

There are other definitions for the above terms (technical, legal, etc.)...but, I like the ones I gave and this IS my posting <VBG>.

So, all that out of the way, let's look at the question of "what is happening to make us want to move programs like LNT to the front burner?"

Simply put, we are beating parts of our backcountry to pieces. Not ALL parts ...and not COMPLETELY to pieces in most...but the trend is unmistakable...and it IS accelerating. A few numbers to think about:

94.5% of Americans recreate in the outdoors each year (somebody do the numbers, just how many HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of visits to the outdoors is that?)

Just in our public wildlands alone -

1965 - 4 million visitor-days per year 1997 - 20 million visitor-days per year   (Wow...I count a 400% increase!)

Some specific places have even more dramatic numbers:

mountain-bike rides on the Slickrock network of trails (Moab, UT)

1965 - Zero 1997 - 600,000+  (somebody figure up that % increase <g>)

Enough numbers...take my word that there are enough statistics out there to bury us all <g>.

All we Scouters have to consider, really, is the fact that our Scouting program seems to work best when there is a LOT of outdoor activity. One weekend a month and a week or two each year for hi-adventure is the MINIMUM backcountry usage for many units! Let's see...there are some 40,000 Troops and a BUNCH of Venturing Crews and Varsity Teams...how many backcountry visits is that <VBG>?

Let me suggest a couple of articles that look at the backcountry-overuse phenomenon:

"Going Wild" by David Seideman, TIME, 25jul94

"No Room, No Rest" by Jerry Adler & Daniel Glick, NEWSWEEK, 1aug94

Both are full of numbers and make their points without sensationalism. There are lots of other good articles, those two just happen to be sitting in front of me this minute (I use them as handouts when I do the longer indoor LNT sessions).

It is way too easy to dig up evidence that we are dramatically increasing our use of the backcountry <f>. The managing agencies can fill us in on the numbers of campsites, trails, and even entire areas that have been damaged to the point that they have been closed to public use. Even easier to see are the many restrictions that are being put into place in an (often vain) effort to stem the destruction (did grandpa have to put up with group size restrictions, day use limits, use permits, etc.?).

Of course, raw numbers alone don't tell the whole story.

Not only are we using the entire backcountry more and more, we are using some parts much more than others. We see the 90/10 phenomenon (10% of the land gets 90% of the use) all over the place...and, in places like Boundary Waters and many of our National Parks, it looks more like 95/5 <f>.

On top of it all, the resources to protect and maintain our backcountry are (way too often) not only failing to keep up with the increased usage, they are actually declining! We all know that many managing agencies are reducing their maintenance budgets as they try to cope with current funding limits.

I ate dinner with some managing agency friends (he/she both work in recreation management) not long after they had discovered that their organization had picked up 800 more MILES of a National Scenic Trail to maintain...with a ZERO increase in budget! Definitely an interesting table conversation <g>.

Why is all this increased use happening?

One reason is that there are a LOT more of us running around now than there was in great-great-grandpa's time <g>. A lot of public/private money has been spent building roads and other conveniences that open up previously inaccessible backcountry. Outdoor equipment has improved to the point that even relatively inexperienced users can push deeper and deeper into our wildlands. We "common men" probably have as much (or more!) discretionary income (to spend on expensive outdoor toys) and discretionary time available (to play with those toys in the outdoors) than we ever have in history. A whole bunch of folks now make a living by promoting and providing backcountry fun. Backpacking is "in"...just read the publications that cover this sport (Backpacker, Outside, etc.) and ask all those firms that make the outdoor gear <g>.

And...maybe more and more of us just simply NEED to get away from the rat-race and into the wilds more often...

To me, the evidence is overwhelming that backcountry use is going up and up...and I don't see any end in sight. In fact, I wonder if the use-rate curve might go up even steeper in the near future, as some of the "group-oriented" subcultures in our country finally start to make significant use of the public lands that belong to all of us.

Why is all this increased usage of our backcountry necessarily bad?

I will meet you at "LNT 3- What is it?"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 3- What is it?

Hello All -

So...what does it hurt if more and more folks are visiting the backcountry?

Lets take a semi-quick look at some of the ways that we humans can do damage while we are out there having fun:

Contamination -

This form of damage is both easy and hard to understand.

The easy part is the trash, garbage, human waste, and other highly visible (or highly smellable!) human byproducts that get left behind. Nobody wants to try to make camp in the middle of a trash dump or on top of some slob's toilet site.

A little harder are those contaminations that take longer to show up. Like the soap residue that finally turns sour in the hot sun or the dug-up grease pit that starts to stink even quicker. How about the half-burned and half-rotten garbage in the fire pit or even the toxic chemicals formed by burning some of our modern materials?

Even harder to spot are the contaminations that slowly build up over time. Like the ashes that never quite get properly disposed of or the fire stains on rock slabs, fire-ring rocks, etc.

For me, the hardest contaminations of all to understand were the ones that are the most fleeting. Like the boombox (campfire songs, loud games, etc.) that destroys the night quiet, or the bonfire light that keeps us from seeing the milky way, or the smoke that drifts over from a neighboring camp site to strangle us, or the very presence of too many people being in one place at one time for it to feel wild at all.

Compaction -

Compaction is pretty obvious when it gets bad enough. The soil is like a 3-dimensional city...with gazillions of little critters (bugs, worms, microbes, fungi, etc.) that make up its population. These critters do great when the soil is loose enough for all to go about their business. Too many footfalls in the same place slowly pound the soil tighter and tighter, until finally it is compacted into something approaching a block of cement. Fewer and fewer critters can thrive as the soil becomes more and more compact...until finally the soil becomes sterile and supports no growth of any kind.

I know that we have all come around a turn of our trail and spotted a camp site. How did we know it was a campsite? One immediate clue, of course, is that big bare spot that identifies the area used the most. That big bare spot is usually a prime example of compacted soil!

Campfires (sterilization) -

Easiest of all. Keep building a hot fire over and over in the same place and we wind up killing all the critters in the soil the fire heats up.

Changing -

Sometimes we humans make "brute-force" changes to our natural surroundings. We build things, take things, dig soil penetrations (that later become erosion locations), leave trail markings, hang hot lanterns near tree trunks, leave unnatural foods that disrupt local critter feeding habits, and on and on. We usually do these things for a reason (that is important to us for only a short time) and create results that often last WAY beyond our need.

A little less obvious is what happens when we keep stripping the organic materials from an area to use as fuel in our campfires. The organic materials are removed that would usually slowly decay (providing important above-ground critter habitat in the process) and finally turn into the organic soil that supports all those little critters in that subterranean 3-D city. Keep taking the organics away and we slowly change the area into a sterile desert.

I like to call the above destruction techniques the "4 C's":

Yeah, I know, it's a little corny...sometimes we have to stretch a bit to make a memory aid <VBG>. I like to use the "4 C's" for a name because it plays so well against a destruction device that even the youngest Scouts seem to know about nowadays..."C4"...

One of the hardest things for us to realize is that whatever we do is NOT the only time that it ever gets done. We are preceded and followed by LOTS of folks, many of whom are much like us. They are lazy the same way that we are lazy and are uneducated the same way that we are uneducated. If we start to dump our dishwater at the edge of the shelter, there is a pretty doggone good chance that tons of folks have done that on a bunch of yesterdays and will be doing just that on a bunch of tomorrows.

The real damage caused by the "4 C's" isn't in any single thing we do...it's in what we add to all the other incremental damages that we all are doing...time after time after time. Up to a certain point, an ecosystem can repair itself during the "off season." Once the accumulated damage goes beyond that, the damage becomes so permanent that often decades of rest are required to get back to normal (if ever!).

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the more people we have out there doing the destructive behaviors...the more destruction we get. We can force a reduction in the number of folks who would be doing destructive things (group size restrictions, daily use limits, Rangers behind every tree, etc.)...or we can voluntarily reduce the destructive behaviors that we all just naturally tend to do (LNT is simply the art doing just this)

...or we can slowly destroy our backcountry.

Our choice!

See you at "LNT 4- How?"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

LNT 4- How?

Hello All -

Hmmmm...so we are beating up the backcountry...and LNT is the art of minimizing the damage we do.

First, we each need to settle something with ourselves. How BAD do we want to have the best backcountry possible? Said a little differently: to what lengths are we willing to go to make SURE that the generations to come have a worthwhile backcountry to go to?

A few considerations:

There are a LOT of reasons to want to take care of our backcountry that go beyond simple selfish personal pleasure.

Our wildlands can offer us examples of a healthy ecology at work (not a bad thing when we are trying to decide what to do with the broken ecosystems closer to home). Our wild backcountry is a very important symbol to mankind of the natural world...and to our place in it. We don't have to be a biology or zoology or any other 'ology major to appreciate the importance of biodiversity...now and way on down the road. Backcountry use can be an important commercial asset to areas with little else going to put food on local tables. Many organizations depend on access to the backcountry to accomplish their mission (Scouting is just one!). And on, and on...

Don't let me give the idea, either, that there is anything wrong with "simple selfish personal pleasure" <g>! There are a LOT of very personal reasons why getting into the backcountry is important to all of us on this list.

The following quote says it all for me:

A thing is right
when it tends to preserve
the integrity, stability, and beauty
of the biotic community.
It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949)

I did my own internal math and came up with the results that I DO care a great deal about what is happening to our wild lands. I found in LNT a way that I could do something valuable by just NOT doing dumb things. The fact that I also get to be proactive and do some LNT training is just icing on the cake <g>.

LNT turns out to be really (really, Really, REALLY!) simple:

learn how our actions can harm the backcountry;
become committed to doing as little harm as possible;
go do it (or don't do it, as the case may be <g>); and,
don't be a wuss about getting fellow backcountry users to join in!

For most of us, the 1st and 3rd lines are the hardest <g>.

To help out, the good folks who invented, mothered, fathered, nurtured, and finally kicked LNT out of the nest came up with a few guiding principles. These are intended to be thought-joggers that help us develop our personal wilderness ethic...NOT some kind of iron-clad rule that we should slavishly follow (and quickly rationalize away the first time our internal lawyer rears its ugly head <g>).

For every "what to do" decision point, there almost always is a range of choices available to follow. Our personal challenge is to have the guts to pick the optimum solution for that particular situation at that particular place at that particular time given the particular individuals involved. "Optimum" is highly relative...we just always strive to do the best that we can do.

The principles have been grouped differently over the years as we try to find ways to make for easier understanding...lately they have been listed as follows:

Minimize Use and Impact of Fire

I like to save "Plan Ahead and Prepare" for last (so we all know what we are planning and preparing for <g>). I will take the rest in order and will do at least one posting for each principle.

First up will be "Camp and Travel on Durable surfaces"

...see you at "LNT 5- Hiking HARD!"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 5- Hiking HARD!

Hello All -

Nope...I ain't gonna talk about those "hardbodies" that we thru-hikers get to enjoy after a month or so on the trail <g>.

Commercial break: Remember that we ALL do damage every time we visit the backcountry...and LNT is simply the art of minimizing that damage.

Camp and Travel On Durable Surfaces

This LNT "principle" (guideline, whatever...) doesn't seem to generate too much controversy (darn!). It turns out that there are some very simple and obvious ways that we can easily minimize a lot of the damage that we hordes of humans do when we crowd thru the backcountry.

On The Trail -

The trail is just a long skinny piece of highly compacted soil! We have killed it deader than a doornail. If it starts to sprout veggies, maintainers whomp it til it's dead again. In fact, we have made the conscious decision to sacrifice that long skinny piece of land for the utility of having a trail in that particular location.

Most times, that decision didn't come any too easy. Lots of thought went into things like: land rights, permissions, cost tradeoffs, optimum design, support infrastructure, etc. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to build it (or to upgrade it to modern standards). Somebody puts a LOT of sweat and personal time into taking care of that trail. All told, "we" have paid a significant price for the utility of having that trail available for our use.

Even if we only use the measure of "cost" (when we judge the value of our trails), the value would come out quite high. If we get real and add in the measure of "worth to each individual," it becomes obvious that most of our trails are truly valuable enough to become national treasures. We PAID for that trail...let's don't waste it!

If there is a trail heading our way, we need to get on it and stay on it. The trail is already dead...the incremental damage caused by our passage will be quite low. Widening the trail at mud puddles, cutting switchbacks, and stepping off the trail to walk side by side are all pretty obvious examples of common ways that we tend to wander off the compacted trail tread. Once we step off that tread, we start compacting the fresh soil where we are walking. Before long, we have killed us a new trail...which has NONE of the value of the old one. In fact, the widening mud bogs, erosion (especially at the switchbacks!), and general eyesore from multiple trails often serves to greatly decrease the value of the main trail we came to use!

Hey...sometimes the trail just doesn't go where we want to! No problemo...there IS a way to minimize our impact. We need to spread out ("meadow walk"!) so that everybody doesn't keep stepping in the same place (helps keep the compaction down to levels that have a chance to self-repair in the "off season"). Look for the most durable surfaces to walk on (rocks, bare mineral soil, snow, dry grass clumps, thick pine duff, etc.).

All but the most durable surfaces have times when they are unusually vulnerable to damage...perhaps we all need to think twice before going out into a backcountry softened by prolonged heavy rains, spring thaw, etc.

Developing the skills needed to use a map and compass for land nav keeps us from having to mess with a lot of signs, blazes, cairns, engineers tape, and other intrusive trail markings.

If we meet horses on the trail we need to go into a "self-protection" mode. Horses spook easily...they are a LOT bigger than us, and their feet are HARD <g>. I am told by horse packers that, by far, the easiest thing for everyone is for the hiker (the smaller and most mobile of the bunch <g>) to step a pace or two off the trail on the downhill side. As we do, we need to check to see if we have any bandannas or shirttails that might be fluttering in the breeze (hold them still if we do).

Talk to the horse's rider in a normal tone of voice ("Nice day," "Do they kick?," "Got any Snickers bars?"...). Apparently the horses are not able to tell where a hiker leaves off and a backpack starts. We look like a large strangely shaped lump to them (kinda like a bear...smell funny, too...<g>). Stepping to the downhill side makes us look smaller/lower to the horses (allows us to appear much less threatening) and doing the calm talking helps them realize that it is just a human somewhere inside that lump.

Hmmmm...this is getting longer than I had planned. I will split off the "At Camp" part into another message.

See you at "LNT 6- Camping HARD!"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 6- Camping HARD!

Hello All -

This is the rest of "Camp and Travel On Durable Surfaces"...

Commercial break: Remember that we all do damage every time we visit the backcountry...and LNT is simply the art of minimizing that damage.

At Camp -

We need to always (always, Always, ALWAYS!) choose a legal established campsite if we can find one that even comes close to meeting our needs. The bare (already compacted) areas are usually already set up very well for camping...the incremental damage that we will do by camping there is minimal. Our LNT challenge becomes simply to stay in the areas that are already heavily damaged and to not make them any bigger.

Most managing agencies make a point of establishing "sacrificial" campsites at the most durable and convenient locations for their visitors. These campsites are often subtly altered to make them even more "bombproof" without taking away too much of the "backwoodsy" feel. If we all make good use of these sites, we can do a LOT to minimize our impact in other, more fragile, locations.

The legal established campsites are always impacted to some degree. Some are well cared for and are quite pleasant...others are stinking polluted dumps. They all started out being well cared for...

The LNT equivalent of finding a legal trail (and staying on it) is finding a legal established campsite (and staying in it). Most times, either isn't too hard...but, sometimes, there just ain't one where we want to go <g>.

**** TIME OUT ****

Another couple of definitions: "impacted" and "pristine" backcountry.

Pristine is the easiest. A chunk of backcountry is completely "pristine" if we can't tell that man has ever come near. An alpine meadow with beautiful flowers and no indication AT ALL of visits from humans is pristine. An area burned over by a forest fire, scoured by an avalanche, or flooded by the nearby wild creek...with no indication that man has ever visited...is just as pristine.

Impacted is at the other extreme. It does NOT mean "beat up"...it means "beat up by man!" Impacts can be obvious (later stages of any of the 4 C's) or they can be very subtle (it takes a trained eye to spot the very early signs of most of the 4 C's). Impacts are good to keep track of...since we make them, we can STOP making them! It's one of the few things that we truly have control over in the backcountry <g>.

**** TIME IN ****

Choosing to camp in a pristine area means a lot more than just getting away from the crowds. The very fact that an area is pristine all too often means that we can very easily do a tremendous amount of damage with very little effort...virtually every thing we do can cause some amount of impact!

To me, camping in a pristine site is at the high end of the camping scale. I always tell my Scouts that I hope that every one of them gets a chance to enjoy this type of camping...but, they have to earn it. We spend a lot of time learning to recognize and avoid the 4 C's. We practice in the impacted sites until they have their basic camping/hiking skills down tight. We then practice these skills in pristine sites that aren't likely to be used much by others (private lands, Scout camps, etc.). When they feel that they are ready, we schedule a trip to one of the truly delightful public wild areas.

We almost always hike in groups of 6-8 Scouts (patrol) and 2-3 adults. The Scouts tent in groups of 4 and the adults usually easily fit together under a trail tarp. Sometimes the older Scouts will choose to use a tarp of their own (getting as lazy as the adults <g>). If group size restrictions allow, we might camp two or more patrols within the same general area.

We look for a site that is at least 200' away from the water source (creek, pond, etc.)...pulling back from the water allows local critters to come get their water and reduces our potential impact on the almost always fragile land/water interface (using a big bulk water container minimizes the number of visits needed to the water source). Using tents/tarps with quiet colors that blend into the surroundings and staying well away from the trail and water also helps lessen the "crowd" feeling that impacts everyone passing thru the area.

We look carefully for a site that has at least a few durable areas. My favorite is always high ground with a rock slab or large reasonably flat rock nearby. The first part of our camp to select is the kitchen area...we pick the most bombproof spot (that rock slab, perhaps) and everybody plans to hang around that durable kitchen area until they hit the hay (minimizes compaction opportunities and maximizes eating opportunities <VBG>).

The next site selected is the first tent area. We try to place it well away from the kitchen site and try to find a site that allows tent pitching with a minimum amount of disturbance to the ground cover and veggies (on pine duff, under a rhododendron bush, etc.). The tent partners drop their sleeping gear into the tent and store their packs in another location that is well away from both the kitchen and tent sites. Travel between the 3 points on the triangle is kept to a bare minimum and we always pick a different route each time we carefully move around (keeps the compaction down and helps us not crunch up the fragile veggies).

The second tent crew finds their own tent and pack sites. Sometimes the location allows us to share a single bombproof kitchen area (BIG slab of rock <g>), but they put the other two points on their triangle well away from the first tent bunch.

The adults do the same with their trail tarp...but we always let the boys pick first (our site selection job is a LOT easier!). The tarp can be pitched almost anywhere...we never have to hunt hard for a big flat spot or have to move obstructions (I have slept many a night under my tarp curled around that little bush I didn't want to destroy or with a log between me and my tarp partner).

Breaking camp in a pristine area always takes a little longer. After packing up and stashing our packs on down the trail, everyone comes back and "fluffs" up their camp site. If any of the veggies were tied back or mashed flat, they are gently put back into place. If anything (rocks, sticks, pine cones, etc.) was moved to make a tent area, it is carefully replaced (into its original divot, if possible <g>).

The whole object is to put the highly used part of the site (cooking, eating, socializing area) on the most durable ground and to spread everything else out so that none of the fragile places get beat up much at all. Our goal is to literally "leave no trace." The kids (and grown men/women also!) can really get into the challenge of using a campsite so lightly that a passerby couldn't tell the next morning that anyone had ever camped there.

Honest to goodness, I have seen middle-aged adults get so completely carried away with "leaving no trace" that they sprinkled scarce water from their canteens on their dry tent footprint...to make it look just like the rain-damp ground along side! Extreme? Maybe...they were having huge fun and they SURE had internalized the LNT message <VBG>.

First choice in any heavily used backcountry area is always the many impacted camping sites. Almost zero backcountry ecosystems are robust enough to recover if every visitor tried to camp in the pristine areas (especially groups who are busy introducing newcomers to the sport!).

The next LNT principle is "Pack it in, Pack it out"

See you at "LNT 7- PiiPio"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 7- PiiPio

Hello All -

Finally...we get to one of the most intuitively obvious principles of all!

Pack It In, Pack It Out

I am going to start out with a flat statement and, for the sake of brevity, I am not going to spend much time supporting it. I have been involved in (listened to, started, participated in, got mad and walked out of, learned from, etc.) a LOT of debate surrounding this statement...and it has always held up in the long run. Let's see how it does on this list. The statement goes as follows:

****************************************************************

There is nothing...absolutely nothing...that we can bring
into and leave in the backcountry that is good for the backcountry.
Everything...absolutely everything...always somehow winds up
violating Aldo Leopold's credo ("LNT 4- How?") in some way.

Period.

****************************************************************

Hooboy...how's that for letting you know where I stand <g>. If you can step up to accepting this statement, it certainly makes our choices obvious...if we bring it in, we either remove it or we WILL do some level of damage to the backcountry.

Remember the context...nothing we do is unique...whatever we do has probably been done MANY times in the past and will most likely be done MANY times in the future. We are not talking about me bringing in and leaving one teabag here...we are talking about me, and you, and you, and you (and on and on...) each leaving a teabag (or two...or ten). How many orphan teabags does it take for it to become obvious (to even the most obtuse of us <g>) that all these teabags ARE somehow damaging the ecosystem they were dumped in?

And...teabags are one of the nicer things that get left behind <g>.

I like to tell my Scouts:

If we are big enough, strong enough, tough enough, mean enough, and had room enough to pack it in...then we dadgum sure are big enough, strong enough, tough enough, mean enough, and have room enough to pack it back out!

It didn't take the kids long to add "and dumb enough" to the left side of the above equation <VBG>. We do a LOT of planning in an effort to keep that particular brand of dumbness down to reasonable levels. If "Pack It In, Pack It Out" doesn't do anything else for us, it certainly rubs our noses in the useless stuff that we don't need to be hauling around in the first place <g>.

If we try to burn it, the fire itself becomes a significant ecological problem (more on this later). If we try to bury it, a shallow hole is quickly dug up by critters and a big deep hole becomes a significant ecological problem in itself. If we toss it into the water, we wind up polluting our water supply (happens a lot faster than on land!). If we try to scatter trash (pollution by dilution!), the downside is obvious. If we try to scatter garbage, we either wind up with a lot of chunks of stinking rotten garbage in the woods or we disrupt the local critters feeding patterns (doing them no favors...they become habituated to coming to humans for food, resulting in critters that can't forage for themselves when humans leave and/or nuisance-critters that too often have to be trapped or killed by the managing agency folks <f>).

There ARE some things that are really obnoxious to pack back out (human waste, dish/bath water, dead horse, etc.). There ARE some ways to at least help minimize the damage caused by leaving them behind (see the next message).

But...let there be no doubt...we WILL be doing SOME level of damage if we don't pack everything, including even this most obnoxious stuff, out to the more robust disposal facilities we have at home!

The next message covers the LNT principle: "Properly Dispose of What You Can't Pack Out"

Meet you at "LNT 8- Wimp-out!

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 8- Wimp-out!

Hello All -

Let's see...where were we? Ahhh yes, this message is about

Properly Dispose of What You Can't Pack Out

(a.k.a. the "Wuss Principle" <VBG>) This one (and fires!) always gets a LOT of discussion!

As I said in "Pack It In, Pack It Out," I firmly believe that NOTHING we take into the backcountry is good for the backcountry. Virtually everything brought in by humans does some level of damage to one or more of the various backcountry ecosystems. At some point the many many small damages add up to a major damage that goes way beyond the ability of the ecosystem to self-repair. Our LNT goal should always be to keep all backcountry ecosystems from getting damaged past that point of no (self-repair) return. Not an easy task...we rarely have sufficient data to be able to accurately predict the "straw that breaks the ecosystems back." For me, the safest course of action (by far!) is to always be as gentle to the backcountry as possible...trying hard to NOT add that critical straw!

But...I gotta fess up...sometimes I too am a wuss <g>. There just doesn't seem to be ANY really good way to take care of all those obnoxious wastes that we humans find so easy to generate. What DO we do if we can't find a backcountry disposal method that does no damage...and removal looks to be as bad or worse?

I agree with Popeye... "I yam what I yam...I does what I can!"

Dish/bath water -

No soaps are good for the backcountry...some are just "less bad" than others <g>. At best, they add unnatural levels of fertilizer (distorting natural growth patterns) and at worst they poison critters or veggies they come into contact with (our water supply seems especially vulnerable). Soap residue sours (stinks) when we allow it to concentrate over time. As far as I have been able to find out, detergents are MUCH worse than soap in all areas of impact!

One way to minimize the impact of our clean-up is to use as little as possible of as benign a soap as possible...and then to widely distribute the gray water over a "safe" area (sloshes from the cleanup activity and the disposal area should be WELL away from an active watershed...at least 200' from any water source). The object is to introduce as little soap into the ecosystem as possible and to distribute that little bit as widely and safely as possible (more "pollution by dilution" <g>).

I always have to remind myself...when I finally find that perfectly safe place to wash up and to dispose of the gray water - I have quite probably found the exact same place that a LOT of other folks have used (and a LOT of other folks will be using in the future!). I just can't get away from that "incremental damage" clause in my Thru-hiker Contract <VBG>.

Dishwater has an additional impact that (most <g>) bath water doesn't...bits of garbage. Wet soapy garbage is at least as bad for the backcountry as any other kind <g>. I teach my Scouts to strain their dishwater (bandanna, little piece of screen, some of that fine-mesh nylon net, etc.) and to put the food scraps into their "yum-yum" bag along with all other garbage...and then to pack it out.

When I am backpacking with adults (or solo), I choose to leave the soap at home (or in my bounce box). I do a LOT of rinsing (my bod and my clothing) and clean my pot/spoon with spoon-scraping, licking, and boiling water <g>. I also rarely carry toothpaste...that way I don't have to bother with finding a good way to dispose of mouthfulls of toothpaste glop. If I do carry Crest, I use just a match-head sized dab and then I swallow the foam (very easy disposal...and it makes for minty smelling poots <g>).

Grease -

I have never heard of any good way to dispose of it in the backcountry. Grease pits ALWAYS get dug up and we wind up with a sour stinking mess left for the next folks who come to camp in that area. A small fire rarely burns it all and a big fire has its own LNT problems (more later!). I suppose we could carry a leak-proof container and pack it out (I will let YOU sleep with it in bear country...WAY away from me <g>). I opt out on this one...I never pack in any type of food that might produce grease.

Garbage (leftover or ruined foodstuffs) -

I only know of three good options: don't make any, pack it out, or let a thru-hiker yogi it away from you <VBG>.

Items soaked with blood (tampons, pads, bandages, etc.) -

Triple bagging in plastic bags and packing it out is one choice (I am told that crushed aspirin or used teabags will help keep the odor down). If there is ANY chance that critters (bears, feral dogs, etc.) might be a bigger problem than bear-bagging (or bear canisters) can handle, we might want to consider burning the bloody items. It takes a pretty big fire and a lot of attention (stirring, flipping, etc.) to completely burn any moist object...but sometimes the downside of that fire impact (more later!) is outweighed by very immediate safety considerations.

We don't want to attract really bad critters to our camp and we certainly don't want to habituate them to human blood... I am told that careful bear-protection (hanging, canisters, separation from camp area, etc.) will work for black bears. If we are going into griz or polar bear country, it certainly pays to keep up with the most current research on this subject!

Urine -

Not too big a deal. I am told that it isn't much of a medical problem because urine is almost sterile when it comes out of our bodies. I do know that urine is a big social problem...it stinks big time! Allowing it to concentrate attracts critters who are after the salt deposits...they will chew up any veggies we urinate on and we might not want them hanging around camp (porkies, skunks, etc.). We can pee on the rocks (no problem getting them chewed up, but it often makes a concentrated stink) or we can distribute our urine widely (avoiding all but the smallest chew-tolerant veggies). In some river canyons we are taught to pee into the river, instead of anywhere in the very scarce (confined) beach camping areas. The only time I usually pack urine out is on caving trips. Remember to respect everybody's privacy needs.

I teach my Scouts to get well off the trail or well out of camp (no fair going into the next guy's camp site!)...and then to write their name as they take a whiz. If they have a long name, they need to drink a LOT of water <VBG>.

Dead horse -

One suggested solution is...no kidding...dynamite!

Feces -

This one is so important that I think it deserves its own posting.

I will meet you at "LNT 9- Shinola"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 9- Shinola

Hello All -

This is the second message dealing with the LNT principle:

Properly Dispose of What You Can't Pack Out

The previous message covered some of the miscellaneous "minor" obnoxious wastes we humans leave behind us...this posting (and the next) covers what many consider to be the most obnoxious waste of all - human feces.

I find it very useful to grab a certain factoid and keep it in the back of my mind when I get into this particular discussion: our feces IS a very real biohazard - it can kill us! We don't want to get ANY into our food or water, we don't want to leave ANY on our bodies, and we certainly don't want to share it with other folks.

In short...we don't want to just hide it - we want to make it GO AWAY!

One obvious option, of course, is to take it home and let whatever sewage "system" we have there take care of it. More and more heavily-used and very fragile backcountry ecosystems are demanding such a solution.

Some good caver friends of mine have been doing just this for years. They have long had the ethical courage to do "poop-in-a-baggie" or "ammo-box latrine" when they are on extended exploration/survey caving trips. Removing ALL human waste has long been a way that these good folks protect the VERY fragile ecosystems in their (our!) beloved caves.

We worked with the local NSS Grotto and developed a "honey bucket" (5 gal "pickle" bucket, tight snap lid, multiple garbage bags, and a few drops of odor mask) that allows our Scouts to do cave camping. We use the honey buckets to bring out ALL human wastes (ours and the other cavers, too <g>) and the kids pride themselves on leaving the cave squeaky-clean (even to picking up the drops of candle wax and spent carbide left by others). We have found that the honey buckets also work well for canoe camping in swamps or on crowded rivers. When we get home, the whole bucket goes into the city garbage for incineration.

Climbers, mountaineers, and river rafters are just some of the other backcountry users that have been wrestling with the ethical (and legal!) need to "pack it out" from some of their favorite areas.

Guess what...hikers, too!

Ever had to "go" when you were hiking the AT near the Zealand Falls hut in the White Mountains (NH)? My son and I were "drafted" for an interesting job one evening when staying at that hut (thru-hiker rules). We removed the toilet (floor and all) from a stall, put a lid on the 55 gal drum full of crap we found below, used a chain hoist to get it up to floor level, and then attached a handle contraption that allowed a bunch of us to lift it. We walked it thru the busy dining room, down the porch, and around back...where we put it with all the other drums waiting for the chopper to take them out!

We discovered that all the AMC alpine huts either have very elaborate sewage systems (leaching beds, etc.) designed to be friendly to the very fragile alpine ecosystems...or they fly the crap out by chopper. Only a small % of the feces in the drums comes from the registered guests or croo at the huts (the rest comes from all the other folks who come by as they enjoy the AT and other trails thru the Whites)...but the guest's fees pay for getting rid of it all! I have the "potty break" numbers for the huts in my files back at home...I do remember that the total number each season is staggering <f>.

Many of our most popular backcountry locations are now served by toilet systems that are actually cess pools (holding tanks)...periodically someone drives up (over roads that might not be TOO intrusive!) and pumps them out. This extra expense is needed, unfortunately, because it doesn't take long before the "poop-pressure" on some high-use areas completely overwhelms the ability of the local ecosystems to absorb any more pit latrines.

Individuals packing out their own feces -

"Poop-in-a-baggie" can work. Triple bagging, a drop of odor mask, and VERY careful handling can add up to a very ethical solution to "making the crap GO AWAY" from the backcountry (at least).

Some problems:

The solutions listed above at least have a pretty good chance of "making it GO AWAY" - they do allow us to dispose of the feces in the more robust treatment plants at home. The following solutions try hard...but, it is all too easy for something to happen which keeps the feces biohazard around for a long, LONG time (years!).

Pit latrines -

Good for being able to "absorb" the wastes of a LOT of folks when they tend to concentrate in one place. Provides a (usually <g>) acceptable solution for the most squeamish or unskilled backcountry user.

Some problems:

Many locations that backcountry folks like to concentrate in have a limited amount of space available for new latrines (and, therefore, limited ability to stay away from the old latrine sites!).

One interesting solution to some of the above problems is to have a human take the crap and compost it (LOTS of work...turns it into a fertilizer used to revegetate over-used areas and removes the biohazard in the process!). It amazed me to discover that the AMC has no problem finding caretakers who are so committed to our backwoods that they will run these composting systems all season for VERY meager pay! Don't get TOO mad at those camp-fees in AMCland...that's how the caretakers get paid <g>.

The "smear" technique -

Some areas have no biologically active soil to deposit the feces in (snow cover, solid rock, desert, etc.). In some very remote areas our crap can be disposed of by smearing it in a thin layer widely over rocks or other hard surfaces which are exposed to the sun (and are well away from local water...200' or more). Ultraviolet light will kill many of the pathogens (in a matter of hours) and the wind will scatter the dried remains. Usually, little smell or visual evidence is left.

Some problems:

Can you imagine turning a bunch of young boys loose with handfuls of crap <g>? I do NOT teach this technique to my younger Scouts!

*** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *** * * * * * *

Ta daaaa...

TOILET PAPER

The "official" LNT position on TP is:

Natural TP -

There are many natural objects which can be made to serve the purpose of removing the feces from our body (soft veggies, smooth sticks or stones, snow, etc.). Since these objects have not been packed in, they don't damage the ecosystem if they are not packed out.

Pack it out -

TP is an unnatural item...it becomes pathogen-laden litter if left on the surface. If dropped in a hole and buried, it often gets dug up (either because a critter is digging up the crap under it for food or because it is scented and the scent is smelled by the critter). Once dug up, it becomes pathogen-laden litter. Packing it out solves this problem.

Burn the TP in the cathole -

Please do NOT do this! The managing agency folks have asked us to spread the word that they are tired of putting out the forest fires caused by burning TP. It is HARD to catch and extinguish a flaming piece of wind-blown TP when your pants are down around your ankles <VBG>!

***************************************************************

I have saved what is often the most practical solution for feces-disposal for the end of the "Properly Dispose..." discussion.

I am talking (as everybody knows!) about the "cathole."

In fact, for no extra charge, I will even throw in a little of my own brand of LNT heresy <VBG>.

See you at "LNT 10- Poop Soup"

 

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 10- Poop soup

Hello All -

This is the last message (whew!) dealing with the LNT Principle:

Properly Dispose of What You Can't Pack Out

The last two messages listed some of the solutions that we might want to consider when dealing with that obnoxious human waste that we humans tend to leave laying around our wonderful backcountry.

Once again (again, Again, AGAIN! <g>)...we ALL do damage when we visit and leave anything behind in the backcountry. We can no more avoid this than we can levitate and hike in a space suit <g>. Our LNT goal is always to eliminate or minimize as many of our damages as is humanly possible...so the little ones don't get to add up to big ones that mess everything up!

All the obnoxious wastes CAN be a pain to deal with. The additive nature of the damage done by the 4 C's is insidious...a minor damage quickly becomes a major damage when it is done over and over by one camper after another. All we can do is try to get a BUNCH of help and chip away at it as best we can!

Our crap is a good case in point <g>. There is a HUGE difference between what a self-actuated idealistic hiker and Joe six-pack is willing to do with their feces. We (all!) need to be willing to teach whatever it takes to reduce the impact as much as we can. If we can convince a Yale-yuppie to pack his waste out, then let's have at it. If the best that we can do is to get Joe S. to not take his dump in the middle of the trail, then so be it. We MUST find ways to dispose of our wastes that folks WILL use in the backcountry. We ain't got no Poop Police!

I find that I tend to hold a minority opinion among the LNT'ers I work with. A very VOCAL minority opinion...but still a minority opinion none the less (I am working on them...<g>). If you can't handle a little LNT subversion, you might as well stop here and go visit the LNT foundation (LNT, Inc.) web site <g>. They ARE good folks.

I must admit that I think that focusing too much on just the TP is silly. It's the crap that kills. I worry a LOT about what happens as the little bags of used TP (or feces!) start to get mixed with our food as they get bear bagged, jostled in the pack, packed/repacked, etc. I absolutely without a doubt know that natural TP does NOT work for everybody (sounds a little like personal experience, doesn't it <VBG>)...and I have serious doubts that it is a more environmentally benign choice than the option given below. I am horrified at the thought of armies of sub-teen boys smearing their crap over every available surface. And, I ain't any too thrilled with the idea of creating all over our backcountry thousands of concentrated "Ft. Knox" (keep it forever!) deposits of our precious poop...all those pit latrines.

I find that there is an "elegant" solution to the whole problem that does not force anyone to do anything that is truly repugnant...especially not so repugnant that they will refuse to do it! I have taught this method to thousands of kids and adults alike...and am AMAZED at how receptive 99.99% of them are. I have had a very few refuse to even consider looking at their own crap, much less get near it. I have also had some folks embrace the idea so completely that they consider it a life-changing experience! Thank heaven that most folks fall somewhere in between these two extremes <g>.

I guess the first decision to make is whether or not our crap should be packed out. There ARE some situations that demand this solution , but most Scout units don't have to go that far...yet. The preferred choice ALWAYS is to make use of any potty-system that the managing agencies have put in (ranging from simple latrines to the elaborate systems at the huts in the White Mountains along the AT). I didn't have much trouble finding a potty on the AT at all...I would have quickly exploded if I had waited for one on the PCT <g>.

If we decide not to pack it out and we don't have a potty handy, then the next decision is whether or not there is enough soil available to allow us to use a cathole. If soil is nonexistent, the area is remote, the weather is right (lots of UV!), and we can keep the crap out of the water supply, then the smear technique might be appropriate. I must admit that I seriously doubt that most of us will ever use this technique <g>.

At this point on our decision tree...the very large majority of the time for the very huge majority of us...the "cathole" will now be the method of choice.

As soon as I get the first little twinge, I start looking for a good spot to dig a cathole (thru-hikers are known for having slick innards!). I check the lay of the land...is there a spot where the cathole contents won't be washed into the water source by the next heavy downpour? 200 feet (70-75 long paces) from the nearest obvious channel to the water is usually safe. I like to hunt for a good view, nice shade, no bugs, good breeze, no rocks in the dirt, and a good backrest <g>. I always look around for a sturdy little stick (about as thick as my thumb and a foot or so long) while I am meandering around. I take it with me as I find a place for the cathole.

When I finally find the perfect spot, I dig the cathole. Ahhhh...what with? I like to use those little plastic orange cathole trowels (used the same one for 1 3/4 thru-hikes <g>). NOLS likes to use the much tougher metal garden trowels. I have used a sharp stick more than once. Whatever we use, the cathole needs to be a true hole in the soil and not just a scuff in the duff.

How deep?

I clear off all the duff (recognizable as twigs, leaves, etc....I save it for later) down to bare soil. Our cathole needs to be dug deep enough to contain our dump completely (won't wash into the water!). We want the feces to stay up in the biologically active layer of the soil (remember the "3-D city"...that dark layer that is chock-full of gazillions of itty-bitty critters who change crap into dirt for a living <g>). Too deep and in many ecosystems I would get down into the sterile mineral soil below the active layer. We want the crap to get transformed into soil, NOT to just sit there waiting for our next visit.

The hole does need to be deep enough so that the contents can be covered sufficiently (couple of inches) to protect them from insects and small animals (the big ones will dig it up no matter what we do!). The relative depth of the various soil layers can be highly dependent on the local ecosystem. The local managing agency folks have a pretty good idea of how deep catholes should be in their area of responsibility...ask them! The most common depth is the six-inch depth of the blade of the little orange trowel (amazing how that works out <g>).

How big around?

Depends...how good a shot am I? How much did I eat yesterday? The most common size I have seen is about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. I always try hard to save the top plug intact if I have to dig thru a root mass to start the hole. I set all the dirt aside so that it doesn't get lost or slide back down into the cathole (I will definitely need it later <g>). In an area with lotsa veggies, many very careful LNT'ers lay down a small piece of plastic (old zip-loc, or something) to store the dirt on (allows them to easily COMPLETELY remove any trace of the dirt, later!).

I take my dump....I will let you figure out how to do yours <g>.

If I miss the cathole, no big deal...I just take that little stick I found earlier and push my pile into the hole (I DON'T use my trowel - that will spread the contamination into my pack! <VBF>).

What about TP?

Believe me, leaving feces on our body is no option. If you have the skills to use natural TP, then have at it (just remember that you are leaving highly contaminated biohazards laying around that are cleverly disguised as natural objects...!). I choose to use the white stuff, myself. 3 or 4 squares of UNSCENTED TP (critters will dig up scented TP to find out what it is!) is almost always more than enough to completely clean myself without getting any on my hands. I drop it into the hole.

I take that little stick and flick some of that biologically active dirt onto the top of the TP. I stir crap, dirt, and TP together completely. As I stir, I rub more and more of that good dirt off of the side of the hole...we want to get PLENTY of those crap-eating critters distributed all through the whole mess <g>. Honest...as soon as the first dirt is mixed into our feces, the smell almost completely goes away! If we have cast-iron bladder control, now might be a good time to add a puddle to wet it all down <g>.

I mix everything up until the TP is so well dissolved that I can't tell that any was ever dropped into the hole and the good dirt is evenly mixed throughout (takes a minute or two to do a really good job). I stick the working end of the little stick into the hole at the side. I put the rest of the dirt that I had set aside back into the hole (with the plug back on top) and tamp it down just a little to seal it good (leaving it loose enough to give the little crap-critters a fighting chance <g>). I smoosh the duff back around the area so that nobody walking by could ever tell that a cathole had ever been dug.

Except for that little stick sticking up!

It makes a great signal to the next person in our group that...if they dig near it...they will be in for a BIG surprise! <VBG>

OK...your homework assignment is to take your cathole trowel out into your back yard and...

See you at "LNT 11- Stop! Thief!"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 11- Stop! Thief!

Hello All -

This message looks at the LNT Principle:

Leave What You Find

This Principle is a piece of cake <g>.

In my previous LNT messages we have done a lot of exploration of the simple backcountry truth: nothing we humans bring in can be truly good for the backcountry.

This is just the flip side of that simple truth: nothing we humans TAKE from the backcountry can be truly good for the backcountry!

Sometimes we talk about the "big" stuff (timber, mineral ore, game animals, etc.) and sometimes we talk about the "small" stuff (bird feathers, arrowheads, flowers, etc.)...but, the "incremental damage" clause IS still in our personal backcountry-use "contract" <g>.

Our nation's laws (and the political process that creates them) obviously control how we remove the "big" stuff from our backcountry. More and more, these same legal systems are controlling the "small" stuff as well.

It is a federal crime to remove raptor feathers (and the rest of the raptor, BTW <g>) from our public lands. Our fish and game laws make it illegal to remove (without the appropriate license, tags, stamps, etc.) the feathers of a WIDE range of "game" birds. In some states, songbird body parts get the same legal protections.

It is a federal crime to remove items (arrowheads, pottery shards, etc.) that may have archaeological significance. Many states have supplemented these restrictions with laws of their own.

It is a federal crime to remove plants (and critters) that fall under the protections of the various "endangered species" laws. The various states have been active here, too (watch out for those State Flowers <g>).

There are a bewildering array of laws (federal, state, county, municipal, etc.) on the various "books" around our nation that relate to removing MANY specific items from our backcountry.

Some of these laws are not enforced with any particular vigor (when was the last time you were nabbed by the "Sparrow-feather Police" <g>), but they do help us understand what our society (us!), at various times, has felt was important enough to protect with the strength of our legal system.

At least as important to me as all the above laws, though, are the ethical considerations of using the backcountry as a "grab bag" for our personal pleasure. We CAN alter the ecological balance with intensive removal of even common items (flowers, nuts, critters, etc.). We CAN make it impossible for detective-archaeologists to ever piece together the real story behind the artifacts we moved out of place.

Remember how neat if felt when you looked over and first saw that particular item that will forever mean "wild" to you? For some of us it might be a beautiful alpine flower, an interesting twig with a burl built in, or a piece of natural honeycomb. Others might marvel at a beautiful arrowhead, a piece of blood-shot quartz, or a magnificent flutterby. We all have different things that we look for in the woods that seem to make all the effort it takes to get there MORE than worthwhile <g>.

Remember how neat it felt...because if we put that wonderful piece of "wild" in our pocket...we will have denied that SAME discovery thrill to ALL the folks who will be coming behind us on the trail!

One of my fellow students in my "LNT Masters" course was a Wilderness Area Ranger from Mt. Rogers NRA (VA). He is a serious birder with a VERY impressive life-list (he was to the point that he had to fly TO a rare storm-blown "foreign" bird to be able to add to his list!). We would wake up each morning before dawn and listen for the first bird calls. He would identify each species of bird as they greeted the day...and often could "call" them up close enough for us to see! This good man was SERIOUS about his birds!

We sere hiking thru the beautiful NC forests and he found a bird feather on the trail ("Flicker", I think). He stuck it in his hat and we went on. Later, our instructors found a good spot for our morning "instructional break" and we spent a couple of hours going over "Leave What You Find"...and then broke for lunch. The birder was in my tent/food group and we noticed that he missed lunch (extra food ALWAYS stands out <g>). He rejoined us after we had a short "siesta" and were ready to move on down the trail.

We later discovered that he had walked a mile or two back down the trail to replace the bird feather where he had found it. We were curious why he felt that it was important that he do that (this is a guy that makes his living out in the wilds and who KNOWS how many gazillion bird feathers get shed each year). He admitted that the "Leave What You Find" session hit him hard...and he felt that he just had to start somewhere!

Me too.

We can take pictures of, make sketches of, compose a poem about, and even cover up (until an archaeologist gets there <g>) those neat "wild" things we find...AND we (and everybody else) STILL get to take the thrill home with us!

Hmmmm...let's stretch just a little bit...couldn't an entire backcountry ecosystem also be one of those neat "wild" things that are well worth leaving in place...?

See you at "LNT 12- Smokey's revenge!"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 12- Smokey's revenge

Hello All -

This posting is about the LNT Principle:

Minimize Use and Impact of Fire

This discussion always seems to get folks "where they live" <g>. There are a lot of ways to approach this subject, but I would like to try a "backwoodsy" story this time thru. Let's suspend sanity for a while and join a bear cub as it takes on the job of becoming a "spokesbear" for a major government "marketing" campaign.

Imagine a little bear cub left clinging to a burned-over tree after a big forest fire had zapped thousands of acres of his wild home. This cub is taken to a vet to treat his burns and then to a zoo to recuperate. This cub has a LOT of time to think about recent events, is sore all over, smells like a barbecue, is covered in soot, and is completely hacked off!

He is a VERY sharp little bear and proves it by quickly memorizing his lines when they audition him for the marketing spokesbear role: "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!" He is SO clever, in fact, that he hatches a nefarious plot while he waits to grow into his campaign hat and blue jeans.

He becomes a jovial and stern "Prevent Forest Fires" spokesbear by day...and starts to exact his terrible revenge by night! He cleverly makes use of the "after hours" fax machines, phones, copiers, and networked computers to manipulate his many media contacts, plant suggestions with movie/TV screen writers, and whisper in the ears of LOTS of popular authors and cartoonists.

Slowly...and insidiously...he plants the idea in our culture that we MUST always have a campfire when we go to the backwoods! We all start to believe that the only way that we can cook, keep warm, or dry things out is to use a fire. We start to get scared of the "things that go bump in the night" and try to create a safe-haven by staying within the light-ring of a big campfire. We begin to think that the only way that we can socialize in camp is to poke coals around a campfire. We even come to believe that fire can purify our presence in the backwoods by consuming the nasty stuff we don't want to carry out.

NOW...slowly but surely...the bitter bear gets to see his horrible revenge come to pass:

the popular camping sites develop fire pits...many with multiple pits... some with so many fire pits that there is scarce room between them;

the fire-ring and backstop rocks get thoroughly fire stained...probably lasting for tens of thousands of years;

the soil under and near the fire pit is sterilized...dead;

the amount of ashes and charcoal nubbins builds up and up and often gets piled out of sight behind nearby veggies...hanging around for a LONG time;

partially and unburned trash (aluminum foil, especially) litters the ground around the fire pits;

half-burned nasties (rotten garbage, critter carcasses, bloody items, sour grease, used TP, etc.) get left in the fire pit for the next campers to play in;

smoke from the fire takes turns making the fire-users uncomfortable and too-often drifts over to strangle those innocent of any fire building;

fire-light blinds folks from any chance of seeing the beauty of the night-time sky and the quiet moon-lit backcountry;

fire-light and smoke scares away any interesting and exciting truly wild night-time critters that the fire users might have gotten to see or hear;

fine ash from the burned garbage combines with other human leavings to deep-dust the camp area with the unmistakable sour smell of long human use;

limbs, standing dead trees, and even live trees are broken off, pushed over, grubbed out, and chopped/sawed up for fire wood;

gathering firewood, fire tending, and campfire cooking takes over as the most common cause for "minor" injuries to campers:

the constant need to feed the fire strips all organic materials from an ever-widening radius of destruction...slowly turning the whole area around the camp site into a sterile desert;

and, as if all the above isn't enough,
efforts to burn modern man-made materials (different plastics, styrofoam, etc.) slowly turn the fire-pit and ash piles into (mini) toxic waste dumps...traced with nice things like poisons, carcinogens, and even forms of nerve gas!

Hooboy...a diabolical bear, indeed! The devastation in our well-used camp sites is ample proof that his mean-spirited plot is working...but maybe... just maybe...we can use his own "image" to foil him after all! Whenever we hear his deep voice saying those famous words of his, we just need to make one little change in our minds...:

"Remember, only YOU can prevent CAMP fires!"

I would like to think that the above kinda-grim little story might help us all to start thinking about taking a giant ethical leap...to NOT using campfires in the backcountry at all!

I would be happy to bet that there are more than a few camping experts on this list that can help us all come to better understand the expert outdoor skills that allow us to eat, stay warm, dry our gear, be safe from critters, keep bugs away, and have fun socializing...all without fire!

EVERY source that I have studied rates "use of campfires" as the single biggest source (by far!) of backcountry impact! This has just GOT to be one of our backcountry behaviors that we can change just a little...and the backcountry gets a LOT in return <g>.

Be thinking about shunning campfires...but, sometimes the devil just MAKES us want to build one <VBG>. We can look at some ways to at least minimize the damage from fire-use in "LNT 13- Flic a Bic"

See you there!

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 13- Flic a Bic

Hello All -

This posting wraps up my discussion on the LNT Principle:

Minimize Use and Impact of Fire

The very notion of giving up our cherished campfires is always a gut-grabber <g>.

I would guess that from it's "discovery" on, fire has always been deeply symbolic to us humans...and a LOT of us do get a double-dose of fire-use in our important heritage from our "pioneering" and native American ancestors. It's HARD to escape the fact that (for most of us) belief in the utility of (and a fascination with) fire seems to come "built-in"!

I truly love sitting at a campfire....good friends and I have solved the majority of the worlds problems around some of the better ones <VBG>. I believe strongly in the worth of a youth organization that makes excellent use of social and ceremonial campfires to help accomplish its educational aims. I feel that EVERY person who ever goes into the backcountry should learn (and practice!) the very important survival skills related to fire-making.

I have no intention of giving my campfires up...but, I HAVE decided that I might need to do a LOT better job of deciding where and when I make them!

I wish that I could somehow deny that the problems listed in the "dark side of Smokey" are true. Even more, I wish that they were not getting worse (in WAY too many places!) at an alarmingly high rate! I cut out some text that I had here (about a foot and a half <g>) because a rereading convinced me that I was probably pounding a bit too hard on how pervasive campfire damage is becoming (especially along such a national treasure as a National Scenic Trail!).

Instead of reading my deep concerns...we can go take a hike! Let's do a few weeks on some of the better-protected stretches of the AT in AMCland or (especially!) in Connecticut (where fires were banned when I came thru in '93...I HOPE they still are!). Then we can do a couple of weeks on the AT almost anywhere else. We can play detective and use our eyes...and our noses...a LOT...and then put our good noggins to work. THEN...I can still dig out the lost 18" of text if we still need it to debate how pervasive campfire damage is becoming <VBG>.

I do get gloomy at times, but I haven't given up yet! I still believe that we CAN do away with a LOT of the damage that campfire use brings to the backcountry (and certainly to heavily used trails like the AT!) if we just get a tad more careful about how, when, and where we make them.

For me, first choice is ALWAYS to try HARD to find a way to have an enjoyable and safe outing (that meets all our personal needs) without ever building a fire! It ain't always easy...but it IS always worth a good try <g>.

If we feel that we simply must have a fire, then "first choice" easily morphs into building it in an established fire-pit where the damage has already been done. We can use some of the wood-gathering techniques discussed below to help reduce our impacts to the surrounding area. We can take the time to remove our ashes from the fire-pit and to distribute them widely as we go miles on down the trail. Remembering the other LNT Principles can help us keep down some of the remaining damages that are WAY too easy to unthinkingly do as we enjoy our fire.

If there is no hi-impact fire-pit handy, then we might want to do a bit of soul-searching. Maybe we can just sniff a charcoal nubbin saved from our last fire...and the campfire fit might go away <VBG>. If we can convince ourselves that the local ecosystem CAN support the incremental damage done by our fire, AND we are willing to take the time to use some important skills, then we might want to try one of the following minimum-impact fire techniques.

The easiest for us backpackers, in the long run, is the "mound" fire. We grab something flat (garbage bag, Scoutmaster's shirt, etc....anything about 3' x 3' or so) that will hold dirt and smooth it out on the ground where we want to build our campfire. We turn our sleeping-bag stuff sack inside-out (so the inside won't get dirty) and go off to find some place where we can use our cathole trowel to fill it up with relatively dry mineral soil. Under the root mass of a blown-over tree or a dry sand/gravel bar are typical of the good places to get mineral soil (the sterile soil with no combustible organic material in it).

We dump the pile of mineral soil onto the middle of that flat "something" laid down earlier. We pat it into a shape kinda like an upside-down ice cream cone with the pointy end cut off a little ways up from the big end. The top surface of the remaining "truncated cone" will be where the fire is built, so we dish it slightly to keep the coals from rolling over the side.

A typical mound fire might be about 2' in diameter at the base, about 4-6" high, and a bit less than 2' in diameter at the top (the steepness of the sides is determined greatly by how cohesive the dirt will stay when it gets hot). If we expect to use the fire for more than a quick one-pot meal (want to do some baking, etc.), then it might pay us to get some more dirt and make the fire platform a couple inches higher (to make SURE that the heat doesn't make it all the way thru the dirt to the surface it is sitting on).

Now it is time to gather wood! We need to check how much our stomach is growling...if we can stand it, we need to set enough time aside to take a nice pre-dinner walk thru the woods <g>. Taking a 10-15 minute hike as we gather wood...making a big loop away from the camp area and picking up just a little here and a little there...helps us keep from stripping any one area of so many organics that the ecosystem can't self-repair. If we pick up branches no bigger than we can break with our hands (dead and down only...no fair stripping branches off the trees or pushing dead trees over), we are likely to be taking only easily-replaceable "seasonal" wood AND we get to leave the saw/axe at home!

It's easy to pick up and carry whole branches during our gathering walk and when we come back we can drop them near the fire location. We can break off only what wood we need to make and maintain the fire...and then, when finished, we can toss the unbroken (still natural) left-over branches back out into the woods. If we toss them into the nearby woods, we might be helping to replace a little of the organic materials that less-thoughtful campers have stripped away to feed their fires (stave off that desert for another day! <g>). If we leave the branches next to the fire area (or make a "courtesy" wood pile), then we are setting up a "monkey see, monkey do" situation that, woefully often, quickly leads to an unwanted hi-impact fire pit.

A "twiggy" fire does a much better job at cooking than we might think at first. We are cooking mostly with the flame, not with the coals, so we DO get to play a bit more at stoking the fire while we cook up that one-pot meal...OR bake that pizza. The pot quickly gets black with soot...I never wash the outside of mine (better absorption of heat!) and just store it in a lite nylon stuff sack (which I wash every month or so on a long hike...whether it needs it or not <g>).

If we let the twigs burn down to a fine ash, we are left with almost no disposal problem with the fire "remains"...we simply pick up our flat "something" and carry dirt and ashes back to the hole where we got the mineral soil. Dump it all back in, smoosh the local duff or nearby surface soil around a bit, and the remains of our fire are history. Back where we had our campfire, we simply need to "fluff" up any veggies we might have mashed...there will be no burn scars, no soot stains, and no sterilized soil to contend with!

The same fire-use technique works well with a "fire-pan"...a shallow metal pan that can be placed on local rock "legs" and which serves the same function as the mound. Horsepackers, canoeists, and rafters are probably a lot more interested than hikers in making this particular weight/convenience tradeoff <g>.

The "low-impact" firepit that we have been teaching in Scouting (for decades) has served us fairly well. Many times, careful Scouts have been able to use a low-impact firepit and then to replace (and water) the sod such that it completely heals over time. Unfortunately, many times the low-impact firepit resulted in a large area of sterile soil (the fire sterilized out to the sides as well as below the fire) and/or a soil penetration covered with dead sod (which allowed erosion to quickly occur). Heavy-use areas often simply didn't allow time for the many low-impact firepits to heal before the same ground was needed for yet another firepit! To top it off, a low-impact firepit takes more work (more dirt to move, bend WAY over to cook, etc.) than a mound fire...makes it easy for a lazy guy like me to choose <VBG>.

It's not hard at all to significantly reduce the damages that we could do with our campfires. The above techniques CAN help us reduce the actual damage we do...often getting us on the good side of that threshold of "ecosystem self-recovery" we always look for. The somewhat shop-worn observation: "big work to build big fire - sit way back...small work to build small fire - sit close" can help us still meet our personal fireside needs without doing TOO much damage to our favorite backcountry camping spots!

Next up is "Plan Ahead and Prepare" ...see you at "LNT 14-Planning Planning"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 14- Planning planning

Hello All -

This posting lays out a few thoughts on the LNT Principle:

Plan Ahead and Prepare

If we do this one at the start of a LNT presentation it can be a REAL sonofagun <g>. At the end, once we all know what we are preparing for, it gets a BUNCH easier!

By now, we all know what we want to do to help protect our backcountry:

Obviously, the better prepared we are before we go, the better we can do all the above!

One way to plan and prepare (p&p) is to do just what we have been doing for the last thirteen LNT messages...looking at the LNT "big picture." "LNT 15- Wrap up!" includes a short bibliography which can help get us all into LNT a LOT deeper than this simple set of introductory messages.

The next p&p step is for each of us to take a hard look at our intended use of the backcountry. There are a LOT of variables that come to play when we start considering all the various ways that we "users" like to interact with the many different backcountry ecosystems during the different seasons.

As climbers, bikers, hikers, x-country skiers, cavers, hoss folks...(and on and on), we all have widely differing ways that we like to use the backcountry. We each need to become familiar with the good LNT-type thinking that has already been done by the heavy-hitters in our particular sport(s). It is a rare backcountry sport nowadays that hasn't added LNT to it's bag of tricks...and the few that haven't are likely to be simply calling it something else (low impact, minimum impact, Ghost Riders, ethical use, soft use, Tread Lightly!, etc.).

Once we get pretty sharp on the kinds of LNT questions that we should be asking, we can start to research the specific backcountry ecosystem(s) that we plan to visit. There are a LOT of documents published about most of the popular backcountry areas...and the managing agencies WILL fall all over themselves to help us understand the special LNT considerations that might be peculiar to the areas they care for.

Once we (really!) know the range of conditions that we can expect during our backcountry visit...and we have decided on our personal/group LNT approach toward meeting those conditions...we can start to plan the details of our trip. Do we take stoves, use tarps, follow trails, visit pristine areas, go in big groups, stay in one camp for days, make campfires, (yaddata, yaddata)....are all these choices "optimum" LNT practice?

I dunno - there is NO WAY that I could know...it's the responsibility (and the privilege!) of each person heading out into the backcountry to evaluate:

Tough task for somebody not involved...easy task for those that are <g>.

We ARE getting more help to integrate this type of "heads-up" planning into our Scouting adventures (see the new "Passport To High Adventure", BSA pub: 4310). This type of sophisticated and ethical/idealistic analysis is EXACTLY up the alley of our older Scouts...and it dovetails nicely with the rest of a full Scouting program!

Our sharp youth-leaders doing the p&p job DO have a lot to think about!

We in Scouting are in the biz of growing kids (check out the Aims!) and we have discovered a pretty doggone well-defined way to do it that REALLY works (check out the Methods!). Our stock in trade is to recruit absolutely neophyte campers (youth and adults) and to provide a program that teaches them how to be safe, to be good outdoor citizens, and to have huge fun in the backcountry. The simple little fact that this outdoor-use allows ALL the Methods to come to life in a wonderful and highly effective OJT educational/growth program can be our little "secret"! <g>

Scout units don't go to the woods just to have fun...we visit the backcountry to do good Scouting! By definition, our program is based on teams (Patrols) and on skilled older youth passing important (and highly relevant/practical!) skills down to the new guys.

We can reasonably expect a certain amount of "extra" impact to the backcountry ecosystem when new campers are learning very basic camping skills. We can expect even more impact when we choose to do this sort of training in teams (groups). We can expect even MORE impact when we choose (for important program reasons) to allow youth leaders to learn/practice their own leadership skills as they pass on the basics of camping. All of this adds up to some pretty heavy-duty impacts caused in the name of doing good Scouting!

Do we want to try to design an outdoor program that completely stops all impacts? We could easily set up LOTS of detailed "rules", do adult dictatorships instead of youth leadership, force the groups to be smaller than our designated teams, impose severe penalties if impacts are caused...and on and on <f>.

Or...we can just get a tad smarter about where we choose to do our outdoor Scouting program!

Believe me, our sharp youth leaders are PLENTY capable of finding and planning trips to those "bombproof" backcountry locations where we can do the hi-impact parts of our outdoor program (Scout camps, private property, backcountry locations set aside for such use by the managing agencies, etc.). We CAN...easily...run an outdoor program that still allows new campers (and new young leaders!) to learn by doing...and sometimes failing...in backcountry areas that CAN absorb this kind of hi-impact use.

Hey...we then get to "graduate" these trained/practiced/skilled young Scouts into having huge fun visiting (and still doing good Scouting!) in all those beautiful hi-use/fragile public wildlands out there! The Scouts "win" because they become welcome visitors to some incredibly beautiful (world-class!) backcountry locations, the backcountry locations "win" because a significant chunk of users are truly able to visit with little/minimum impact, and Scouting as a whole "wins" because we are EARNING back our reputation as expert outdoorsmen!

This p&p stuff really IS pretty doggone simple:

get smart about LNT, get smart about our sport, get smart about where we plan to visit...and then play smart <g>.

Piece of cake!

The last little bit to add to our p&p "smarts" is our need to be smart about getting help as we try to stem the tide of destruction to OUR beautiful backcountry that we are heading out to enjoy. We can't do it alone...and we all think that the effort IS worth doing...or we wouldn't be heading out!

Meet you at "LNT 15- Wrap up!"

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

 

LNT 15- Wrap up!

Hello All -

I first started to use "LNT 15- Wrap up!" as a summary of the issues raised in the previous 14 LNT postings. With just a little reflection (and an elbow jab from Charlie I <g>), I realized that my LNT postings are really just summaries themselves...and a summary of a summary is starting to get a tad too removed from reality for my taste <VBG>.

"Leave No Trace" is the name of a "formal" program which has the goal of educating and promoting minimum-impact skills and ethics across the country (and world!). LNT is a BROAD and coordinated effort by the major (and many other!) land managing agencies to bring the best research-driven thinking in this area to ALL backcountry users. To my knowledge, this is the FIRST such effort at the federal level (I heard that it took the lawyers for Interior and Agriculture over a year to agree on the Memorandum of Understanding <g>).

The good NOLS folks are madly cranking out curriculum materials and "Skills & Ethics" booklets that tailor the LNT message to the widely different ecosystems in our many different backcountry use areas. LNT "Masters" courses are being held all over the country and hundreds of managing agency personnel (and more than a few volunteers!) are being trained-up (and fired-up!) to go out and help spread the word. The "LNT, Inc." (non-profit) foundation has been set up to "promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research, and partnership." LNT, Inc. has been set up to be the logical "first contact" for all things LNT.

Lotsa folks working hard to get the message out! A common thread is the belief that the "magic" threshhold CAN be reached which would allow a true "culture change" to occur among the legions of us backcountry users...before too many more beautiful areas are closed off and too many more rules/limits are dumped on us. One of the really neat things about LNT is that there is a place in the discussion for ALL backcountry users... no matter how we want to use the backcountry and no matter how well our personal "wilderness ethic" is (or isn't) developed. It's a little like taking Bubba's BIG bib-overalls off the line...there is plenty of room inside for everybody...come on in! <VBG>

One little thing that we gotta remember, though...LNT is only one piece in the whole puzzle! A logical approach to solving the overall problem of impacts to our beautiful wildlands might look something like:

LNT is designed to help with the first step. In Scouting, we have the "T.R.A.I.L. Boss" program (among others) to help with the second step. The third step is up to us individually as good citizens!

The neat thing about LNT is that, since WE cause the impacts, WE can STOP causing the impacts! We can get started tomorrow...no need to mess with pestering politicians, raising funds, passing out petitions, or manning the barricades <VBG>.

My LNT series is just one small look at the LNT philosophy - done from the viewpoint of a thru-hiker who also works a lot with youth groups. I took the trouble to do the postings because the LNT message IS complex and, too often, not having a chance to discuss the complex issues just winds up with folks believing that the simple little list of "Six (7, 8 or 12 <g>) LNT Principles" is the whole shebang. There are MUCH better treatments of both the ethics and the techniques involved...my hope is that all of you will get the chance to read them someday (tomorrow!). See the "Bibliography" below.

Here are a few of the many books related to LNT that I like (at least the ones that I brought to Colorado with me...or found in the good local library):

First choice...bar none!

"Soft Paths" by Bruce Hampton and David Cole (Stackpole Books, rev.1995). Bruce is a long-time instructor with NOLS and David is a well-known USFS research biologist. Nicely written...these guys have been there, they care, and they are writing to share their hard-won knowledge instead of beating folks up. This is a "must read"!

The following books are in no particular order (other than the way that they were stacked on my table <g>:

"An Introduction to Wildland Ethics & Management" by Susan Brame and Chad Henderson (NOLS, 1992). Very interesting intro to backcountry ethics/management issues here and at NOLS locations around the world (has an EXCELLENT Bibliography!). Definitely a worthwhile read if you want to dig in a little deeper than "Soft Paths" or the "Skills & Ethics" booklets.

"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold (Ballantine Books, 1970). A good man takes us by the hand and helps us grow up. The writings date from the late '40's and early '50's...but the thinking is currently alive in everything published about LNT! An excellent background read.

"How to S*it in the Woods" by Kathleen Meyer (Ten Speed Press, 1989). I actually have the expurgated version: "How to S___ in the Woods" <VBG>. A lighthearted (but VERY informative) treatment of a subject too-often glossed over or simply forgotten. Well worth reading!

"Minimum Impact Camping - A Basic Guide" by Curt Schatz and Dan Seemon (Adventure Publications, Inc., 1994). A general "how to" book (canoe camping and backpacking) that has a LOT of worthwhile minimum-impact philosophy tossed in. Done in parallel to the early LNT efforts...a good example of some of the excellent books that cover the subject with a slightly different slant from the LNT pubs.

"Backwoods Ethics" by Laura and Guy Waterman (The Countryman Press, 1993). An "environmental issues for hikers and campers" reader for all of us. The Waterman's have an honest "deep northwoods" pedigree...and they write with a very comfortable and informative style (they write for Backpacker, among others). There is even an AT chapter: "The 2,000-Mile Community-on-the-Move". Another of those excellent books that were developed before (and in parallel to) the formal LNT program.

"Eating Hearty in the Wilderness With Absolutely No Cleanup" by Bern Kreissman (Bear Klaw Press, 1994). An excellent example of the specialized "how-to" books that are starting to appear. Interesting approach to trail cuisine that is both very practical (for a change! <g>) and up-to-date. Nice look at how the author lives his minimum-impact beliefs. Definitely a good read...even if you only plan to do Liptons and Mac'n'Cheese <g>.

LNT outdoor "Skills & Ethics" series of booklets:

These booklets are excellent (fairly brief, 15-25 pages each) treatments of how the LNT Principles can be tailored to the various ecosystems and backcountry uses we all enjoy. I would consider the appropriate booklet (for the area being visited) to be the MINIMUM info needed for an ethical backcountry user!

Call "LNT, Inc." at (800)332-4100 for LNT info and materials. The "LNT, Inc." web site url is: http://www.lnt.org

See you on the LNT trail!

- Charlie II AT (MEGA'93)

PCT (Mex@Can'95)

Last edited: February 22, 2004
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