While I couldn’t agree more that this is an important issue, I also believe as efforts brew to get more kids active in the outdoors, it is imperative that an outdoor ethic message also be interwoven effectively in all efforts. What better time to introduce Leave No Trace to kids who are first experiencing the outdoors? What better opportunity to help shape these malleable value systems and help build leaders with the outdoor code of ethics we’re working so hard to foster? This is an issue we will actively pursue - more about this subject in the near future.
-Dana
-Dana
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I like to take my cell phone on hikes so I can send my wife a picture of the view - and text her to let her know I made the day's hike safely. I leave the radio at home. No fires. I try to leave a small footprint. I pack out what I pack in. I don't feel badly when I startle a snake, deer or armadillo.
But the most important thing I like to do is bring a kid along and show them the trail. I teach them to leave no trace and to be respectful of nature. I think the concept of avoiding nature altogether goes a little overboard.
If, however, the people with gasoline generators and boom boxes playing Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits want to avoid nature, then I would strongly encourage them to do so.
Bill
"I think the concept of avoiding nature altogether goes a little overboard."
I didn't say we should avoid nature altogether. But FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE WILDLIFE, it is not overboard at all. That is my point.
Obviously, we need to experience nature at times, in order to appreciate it. But it is also true that the only way that the wildlife can thrive is for us to give them a break from human presence. The latter is never even discussed, showing just how selfish humans are. It's time to start discussing this openly, especially in a time when global warming is putting added pressure on all species.
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