Leave No Trace in Ireland

When I last blogged, I discussed the Leave No Trace international initiatives including three branches in Australia, Canada and Ireland. Beverely Pierson, who coordinates efforts in Ireland, recently sent an update about the progress that organization has made a very short period of time. Pierson, along with a Board of Directors and very broad selection of partners has not only facilitated educational efforts but they have spent much energy dealing with the fundamental issues of setting up and raising funds for a new organization. Below is Beverley’s contact information as well as her update.

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

Leave No Trace Ireland:
http://leavenotraceireland.org
Beverley Pierson, Coordinator
beverley@leavenotraceireland.org
0044 28 9030 3938

Leave No Trace in Ireland

The Leave No Trace concept is now been officially active in Ireland for 7 months, although much work has been done on the project prior to this.

During the past 12 months, Leave No Trace Ireland’s work has focused mainly on:
• Setting up of the legal entity – Leave No Trace Ireland Ltd
• Agreeing with Leave No Trace America the contractual arrangements to permit Leave No Trace Ireland to operate
• Putting in place the necessary administrative systems to allow Leave No Trace Ireland to operate effectively
• Agreeing the funding arrangements with Leave No Trace Ireland’s core funding bodies
• Establishing a training calendar and delivering a number of Master Educator and Awareness Sessions across Ireland
• Marketing the Leave No Trace message across Ireland through attendance at events, seminars and the web site.
• Creating a strong recognizable brand for Leave No Trace Ireland which will become effective in all educational, web site and publicity material associated with Leave No Trace Ireland http://www.leavenotraceireland.org
• Producing Leave No Trace Ireland’s first newsletter
• Redesigning the website – www.leavenotraceireland.org
• Redesigning the information booklet
• Creating a new partnership and membership structure for Leave No Trace Ireland
• Agreeing Master Educator and Trainer fees for conducting either training courses and awareness sessions
• Producing Trainer Packs for people who have participated in training courses - Certificates and pins

The growth of Leave No Trace in Ireland is becoming evident from the increase of uptake in training and the amount of organisations that support the programme. At present the programme in Ireland is financially supported by 19 different organisations.

With regards to training:
• We have 13 master educators within Ireland who can deliver Trainer Courses, with another instructor course planned for June 2008
• 13 Trainer Courses have been delivered to date
• 5 Trainer Courses planned for 2008
• 108 people are now qualified as Leave No Trace Trainers
• 43 Awareness Sessions have been delivered to date

A participant on a Trainer Course commented “The Leave No Trace training weekend I recently attended at the Share Holiday Village, Co.Fermanagh was a very informative and enjoyable experience. The course’s two instructors, Katy Egan and Richard Lappin provided us with a relaxed, ‘learning-friendly’ environment and did much to ensure the experience was both ‘good craic’ and informative. I came away from the weekend having gained a much better appreciation of the principles of Leave No Trace and now look forward to applying the principles in both my work and my day to day life” (Peter Hughes, Xtreme North West).

Anyone who has a keen eye, will see the Leave No Trace message appearing in all sorts of places from trail head signs to brochures and web sites. The spread of the message has been considerable and hopefully, as people begin to see it as a unified message it will begin to percolate the subconscious and effect a real change.

BUT… there is still much more work to be done and immediate priorities are to organise the Leave No Trace Instructor Course for June 2008, redesign and reword the educational material for Training and producing the Spring edition of the newsletter.

Now we will need to encourage new organisations to join the Leave No Trace Ireland Network and support the initiative financially and also in rolling out the message through their daily work.

For more information on Leave No Trace Ireland, please visit our website www.leavenotraceireland.org.