Robert Miller :: Guest Blogger

Kate Bullock and Tracy Howard are Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers and you can follow them around the country on their Traveling Trainers blog. On Wednesday February 11th in Fort Collins, Colorado, I had the pleasure of attending one of their two hour Leave No Trace Awareness Workshops as part of my ongoing Volunteer Naturalist training. The primary message of the workshop was that it is vital for every person to understand the combined effect that millions of people can have on our natural resources and, thus, spreading the message of outdoor ethics is an invaluable activity. The following are Leave No Trace suggestions that I become aware of during the awareness workshop:

• Backcountry camp fires - When backcountry camping, it is advocated to check with a park ranger or local land manager concerning where it is preferred to start a camp fire because existing camp fire circles may have been incorrectly created and building a new camp fire circle can be harmful to the local ecosystem.
  
• Leave what you find - Picking up rocks, harvesting flowers, or other items in nature diminishes their significance. In other words, rocks (e.g., Tipi rings), plants, and other natural objects are more powerful in nature than they are in your house.
• Durable surfaces - A durable surface is any surface that is impervious to footprints (e.g., dry grass, deep snow, rock). For the purpose of leaving as little trace as possible, it is advocated to bike, hike, and camp on durable surfaces. Cryptobiotic soil, found in the deserts of the Colorado Plateau, is the opposite of a durable surface because it is a living soil crust that takes up to 50 years to mature and, if destroyed, causes the land to be vulnerable to dust storms and water erosion.
• Hiking spread out vs single file - It is appropriate to hike in single file line while on designated trails. However, if your group needs to hike off trail it is prescribed to spread out laterally because a sizable group that hikes in single file line off-trail can create the appearance of a new trail. Unintentionally creating the appearance of a new trail increases the probability that a subsequent group of hikers will think it is a designated trail which can lead to further expansion of unplanned trails. Unplanned trails can have a negative impact on the local ecosystem.

Robert Miller is a volunteer trail naturalist for Larimer County and blog writer for Guide to Colorado Trails. He is co-founder of Two Knobby Tires; an online store for outdoor gear that strives to promote a healthy, active, and eco-friendly lifestyle for hikers, cyclists, skiers, recreational families, and pet owners.