A Few Key Goals for 2008

The Leave No Trace staff has been busy discussing and updating the Leave No Trace strategic and operational plan for 2008. We have a robust agenda and I’d like to share some of it with you, our dedicated blog readers. Our 2008 goals work in cooperation with all of our critical training and educational programs such as Traveling Trainers, PEAK, State Advocates, curriculum development, Leave No Trace courses and more. I won’t go through all the nitty gritty but rather, provide some of our top priorities that assist in our delivery of quality Leave No Trace programs this year.


RESEARCH & REPORTING
Goal Statement: Facilitate, conduct and/or coordinate research in the forms of surveys, case studies and longer-term empirical studies that:
• Determine the program’s effectiveness in positively changing visitor opinions and human behavior in the outdoors, in reducing visitor impacts and/or user group conflicts, and ultimately in minimizing human impacts on natural lands.
• Build on our current research foundation with new, updated, relevant information that ensures the effectiveness of programs and materials.
• Enables us to broaden our reach into new communities and demographics with dynamic, effective, cutting-edge trainings and program.

ENVIRONMENT
Goal Statement: As professionals in the environmental education field, we strive to be accountable for actions that impact our environment, and seek to be champions for sustainable and environmental initiatives. The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics recognizes the need to endeavor for environmental sustainability and conservation of natural resources. We acknowledge the need for ethical and sustainable practices that transcend our organizational mission, which become inherent parts of the way we manage our organization and our daily lives.

COMMUNITY
Goal Statement: Connect people in their home states - active volunteers, State Advocates, educators, Leave No Trace partners, individual members and other interested outdoor users. Link all of these important groups and enable them to more easily share Leave No Trace information, ideas and experiences. Provide more localized outreach and training opportunities and empower and support local communities to lead their own Leave No Trace activities. Better understand our audience’s changing needs, create more meaningful trainings and outreach, and involve new people, especially kids and broader ethnic groups, in Leave No Trace programs.

It’s already March and we’re working hard to put our operational plan into action on many significant levels. We plan to report some concrete, tangible results by years’ end. Stay tuned…