Leave No Footprint
Whether you're mountainbiking through the wilderness or camping just off the highway on a long road trip, you're just one of hundreds of thousands of Americans who enjoy spending a few days and nights close to nature. But even as the number of people seeking the wilderness experience increases every year, those same areas of unspoiled natural beauty we seek shrink daily in the face of commercial harvesting and urban development. As a result, we are forced to re-evaluate our impact on nature and the character of our interface with it.
      As recently as my own childhood, the wilderness was vast and seemingly unlimited and most people were too busy creating their own urban homesteads to use it as a recreational opportunity. But now trails crisscross the wilderness and maps and GPS systems beckon the most civilized of couch potatoes with their RVs into our national parks. Suddenly the wilderness is crowded, and there is a great deal of pressure on a diminishing resource.
      Gone are the days of the Junior Woodchucks, when we could chop down trees to build bonfires and even camp furniture, raise huge fire rings with unearthed stones, then move to another site when it became too "civilized." Now it is our ethical responsibility to leave the wilderness just the way we found it, so our children and grandchildren can enjoy the same experience. Our obligation is to leave no footprint.
Rules for Minimum Impact Camping
 When you make camp, use an existing site whenever possible; while this may further impact an already trampled area, it will leave the still-virgin area around untouched.
 Make camp well away from the road so as to minimize your presence for other campers. People who travel the wilderness like to imagine they're the only humans within 100 miles.
 Camp on well-drained sandy or rocky sites, or on vegetation that is heavily-laden with soft humus. Never camp on fragile alpine meadow vegetation (which takes many years to recover).
 Make camp at least 200 feet from your water source; there is too great a risk of contaminating the source with dishwater or food remains if you camp nearby. Fish can be harmed by human waste products and wild fowl such as ducks which land in the water can have the protective coating on their feathers damaged by detergent.
 Don't build a fire - use a campstove. Even the deadfall provides cover and housing for small animals, and, if it's removed, it can harm the local ecology.
 If you have to build a fire, build only a small one to cook - no bonfires. Use only deadfall and gather it from as far away from the site as reasonably possible. Don't build a fire ring by unearthing rocks. Make absolutely sure it's out before you leave and scatter the ashes to obliterate any evidence of a fire. At one time it was considered polite to leave a ring and firewood for the next party, but this no longer the prevailing ethic.
 Take a small trowel and dig a latrine at least 6 inches deep and at least 100 yards from the campsite. Cover your waste and paper well - wild animals are attracted to these small burials and will try to dig it up soon after you leave. You certainly wouldn't want the last party's waste to be unearthed near your campsite, so do the next party the same favor. Keep your latrine area (including urination) well away from the water source.
 When you wash dishes (or body parts) don't do it directly in your weater source - fill a pot with water and use that. Empty the dirty water at least 100 yards from camp, but not back into the source. Use biodegradable soap for everything. There may be others downstream from you who would not appreciate waste you dump into the stream.
 Don't trample down trails around your campsite - be gentle with the vegetation.
 When you need to dispose of food or fish remains, likewise dig a 6 inch hole well away from camp and cover it well.
 Whatever non-food remains you have generated, take it with you. If you pack it in, pack it out. This includes plastic or aluminum packaging and any waste items in and around the fire pit.
Use Common Sense
Use your head. If you're sensitive to the principle of leaving no footprint, decisions on how to set up camp in a specific area should be no challenge. Remember, we have only one earth, and you are the current temporary custodian.


© 2010 | 2011 Bob Beach