Sly as a Fox

Channel Islands National Park

As the e-tour continues to head west, we leave the "sky islands" of Southern Arizona for the Channel Islands off the coast of California. This epic series of islands, designated a National Park in 1980, hosts a variety of endemic and fascinating species. As volcanic islands isolated from the mainland, these ecosystems have evolved in such a fashion where unique plants and animals can thrive without heavy competition. One example is the island fox, a distinct fox species that only grows to 12 to 15 inches in height. Although no larger than a house cat, the island fox is the largest mammal in the island chain. Without any predators on the island, this fox has ended up quite curious.

The endemic island fox

The fox box!

Because the island fox is such a curious fellow, these animals have learned to find the campgrounds and picnic areas on the islands. Learning from experience by finding food left unattended by visitors, many of the foxes have become habituated and often directly approach humans on the islands seeking food. Some really clever foxes have even learned to nudge open tent zippers in search of food! The National Park is making a strong effort to help island foxes and visitors alike. The picnic areas and campgrounds on the islands do not have any trash cans, meaning that backcountry users and frontcountry day-visitors alike must pack out what they pack in. All the picnic tables and campsites are also equipped with food lockers to store any and all temptations through the foxes. By practicing Leave No Trace techniques regarding food repackaging, storage, and disposal, visitors to these islands can help protect one of the incredible animal species that make them such a special place!

Like a Fox on the Run,

Quinn & Frank

Out West with Team West

Saguaro!

What's the only thing better than one Traveling Trainer team? Two Traveling Trainer teams! This past week we met up with Mark & Tara from Team West for a few days and an event together in Tucson. With our powers combined, we capitalized on our time in the desert amid the beautiful cacti of the Southwest. One highlight of our collaborative adventures was a PEAK session at the Tucson REI where we met various community members including our Leave No Trace Arizona State Advocate Cindy! State Advocates serve a vital role in the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethic's volunteer corps and Cindy does a great job of outreach in Arizona. Whether it's getting out the word about training opportunities or connecting people with valuable Leave No Trace resources, State Advocates like Cindy make the Leave No Trace mission truly possible. Thanks Cindy!

The e-tour also had the opportunity to work with Cindy talking to Venture Scouts from the Catalina Council of the Boy Scouts while in town. These dedicated outdoorspeople pursue a variety of outdoor adventures ranging from backpacking to climbing to rafting, and it was great to have an evening program with them where we got in depth about Leave No Trace. At one point we even passed around a Go Anywhere Bag to challenge both the youth and adults to really think about Dispose of Waste Properly and whether or not to pack out human waste! It was awesome working with a group that cared so much about the desert ecosystem around them and the scarce water resources that they strove to protect!

Heading to the Ocean,

Quinn & Frank

Sea to Summit Trowels on Sale!

These cleverly designed trowels’ compact, lightweight design allows them to collapse down to fit inside your pocket, and have storage space for toilet paper inside the hollow handle. They are 25% off for the month of June, and come in either nylon or aluminum.

You can find them in our online store.

The Situation

In last December’s eNews, we posed the following question in a new column called The Situation:

While camping with some friends, you notice someone in the next campsite trying to burn food scraps in their campfire. What would you do?

Aaron Diving, Aaron Divine, M.S. who is a lecturer in Parks and Recreation Management in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Recreation at Northern Arizona University sent in this great response:

I was intrigued by the situation as we often have similar discussions on many of the Leave No Trace Master Educator courses that we teach here at Northern Arizona University. A few thoughts to the proposed situation entailing next door campers burning food scraps, etc. in the campfire - for starters, this is a highly situational scenario.

The first question I would ask myself, as I normally do in such cases, is "How strong are my personal convictions in this specific setting or with this particular issue? Am I strongly attached to a certain outcome or position along the ranging spectrum or not?" I suppose, the more personal conviction I have tied to a potentially divisive issue, the more important it is for me to take the necessary time to cool down and consciously analyze my thoughts in an attempt to avoid creating an uncomfortable or even potentially volatile encounter with someone who I do not know but am ultimately trying to befriend and educate on the positive elements of Leave No Trace.

Next steps would be dependent on whether or not I have already established a positive connection with these individuals. If the answer is Yes, then I would probably be more compelled to engage in a friendly discussion with them about the issue. If the answer is No, then I would not likely make my first encounter with them seem as though I were the Leave No Trace police" and watching their every move.

As I got to know the individuals I would garner a feel for how to best approach the topic with my new neighbors - I hope there would be a whole host of ways to bridge the gap - without sounding condescending or preachy. It may be most appropriate to simply begin by raising awareness of the basic cause/effect of such actions and leave it at that. And, depending on their interest in the subject, prolong or curtail the ensuing conversation accordingly.

‘Chunky soup’ of plastic trash in Atlantic

Researchers tracking garbage in the Atlantic last February came across this collection of plastic debris on Portugal's Azores Islands.

By MIKE MELIA

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Researchers are warning of a new blight on the ocean: a swirl of confetti-like plastic debris stretching over thousands of square miles in a remote expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

The floating garbage — hard to spot from the surface and spun together by a vortex of currents — was documented by two groups of scientists who trawled the sea between scenic Bermuda and Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores islands.

The studies describe a soup of micro-particles similar to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a phenomenon discovered a decade ago between Hawaii and California that researchers say is likely to exist in other places around the globe.

Read the rest of the article from msnbc.com here.

B.Y.O.B. - A Restop Affair

(With special thanks to guest blogger - Lara Usinowicz)
Attend a National Park, Forest Service, or BLM meeting and the topic that seems to garner the most attention is…yep, you guessed it…poop in the woods. These agencies have plenty of other issues to worry about other than how to manage YOUR poop! Some areas have implemented “pack it out” programs where land managers provide a “poop bag” with your backcountry permit but this puts the cost of implementation and management of a backcountry waste management program on the land managers. You wouldn’t expect a Forest Service or National Park Ranger to pack out your trash and human waste should be treated as just that…part of the trash you are responsible for taking with you.

You can easily and effectively take on that responsibility and BYOB (bring your own bag)…a Restop 2 bag, that is!
The Restop 2 solid waste bag provides a safe, sanitary and inexpensive means to transport solid human waste from sensitive wilderness areas. The outer bag is gas-impervious, thereby containing the odor, a significant issue if one is expected to “pack it out.” Inside the bag is a powder, a polymer/enzyme blend, that processes the waste so it is approved for trash disposal. The Restop 2 bag is designed to be used with a Restop Commode in a base camp situation or, in the backcountry, can be used directly on the ground. For a more discreet experience, it can also be used with the Restop Privacy Shelter.
Be a part of a good “movement” and pack out your poop. The Restop 2 bag is being used from Grand Teton to Mount Everest as an effective backcountry waste management solution and should be a part of your packing list when you head into the backcountry.

We can all take responsibility for ourselves in the backcountry or we can let it go to…

For more information, contact Lara Usinowicz. (303) 746-2790 lusinowicz@restop.com

Exit Strategies Conference in Golden, CO July 2010

The American Alpine Club is hosting a conference on waste removal in the backcountry in July. Exit Strategies-Managing Human Waste in the Wild, July 30-31st and August 1st, 2010.

The American Alpine Club is inviting top land managers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and wilderness participants from around the globe to discuss and formulate strategies for managing human waste in remote areas. The Exit Strategies conference will include general/plenary sessions, poster presentations, field-proven techniques and opportunities for focused problem solving. To create a productive setting in which participants can spark important conversations, explore innovative ideas, and develop effective solutions, the conference will be limited to 100 attendees.

More information and registration can be found here:

http://www.americanalpineclub.org/exitstrategies.

Chalk Dust a Flyin' in Chattanooga, TN

Tennessee Bouldering Authority (TBA) is Chattanooga’s first indoor bouldering and rock-climbing facility. On Monday evening we visited the facility that has nearly 3,000 ft2 of world-class indoor rock climbing walls and dedicated training space. For over 10 years they have offered the right equipment, instruction, and support to ensure excellent rock climbing experiences for climbers of all skill levels. During our presentation, we highlighted the importance of disposing of waste properly in climbing areas, while playing the activity "How Long Does It Last?". The group was intrigued to learn that an aluminum can can last from 200-400 years in the outdoors. Additionally, the activity was an eye-opener for one participant who admittedly just quit smoking 2 months ago, after 8 years of smoking. She realized that many of the cigarette butts that she tossed out the window without a second thought were still lingering in the environment today!

Here is an action shot from the activity "Step On It", where we focused on choosing durable surfaces. If you are in Chattanooga, be sure to check out TBA for a stellar climbing experience.

Happy Adventuring...Kate and Tracy

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...REFUSE

In recent years the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" has become widely known, accepted, and practiced. At Leave No Trace, we would like to challenge you to practice a fourth "R", which stands for REFUSE. Here are two examples of refusing that could be easily achieved in your everyday life. First, carry your own reusable water container. Every five minutes, 2 million plastic bottles are thrown away, using 750 million gallons of crude oil per year. In the U.S. only 20 percent of those bottles are recycled. Refusing plastic bottles would cut down on the amount of plastics purchased and the amount of plastic that ends up in a landfill each year. Second, store reusable shopping bags in the trunk of your car, eliminating the need for plastic bags. Plastic bags are made from petroleum. Every year, Americans consume an extra 12 million barrels of oil for plastic bags! Take action today. Every little bit helps!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

Dear Education Department: Disposing of wastewater in Frontcountry

Dear Education Department,

How am I supposed to get rid of wastewater in the Frontcountry? Dig a sump or broadcast strained grey water? Would I ever broadcast it onto a roadway?

Signed,

Concerned Camper

Dear Concerned Camper,

Generally speaking, we advocate the broadcasting of strained wastewater for most environments. However, there are a few exceptions:

1. In Frontcountry environments, we advocate using existing facilities to dispose of wastewater (sink, sump, etc.) if provided. If no facilities are provided, we’d default to straining and broadcasting. However, if you’re in grizzly country, the sump (6-8” deep cathole) might be preferred as it concentrates smells and provides some smell barrier with the 6-8” of soil and thus might not be as attractive to animals (grizzly bears.

From our Rocky Mountain Skills & Ethics Booklet on wastewater disposal in grizzly country:

Disposing of wastewater in bear country is tricky. Once again, your main goal is to keep odors out of camp. If you are camped by a large volume river—at least 10 feet wide with substantial depth—you can pour strained wash water directly into the river to help disperse any odor. If you are not by a river, consider digging a small hole and sumping your wastewater. This practice concentrates odors in one safe location well away from your camp, however, animals may be attracted to the smell and dig up the hole in search of food. For this reason, sumping is not recommended in areas of high use. In these places, you should walk well away from camp and scatter your wastewater.

2. I would not recommend pouring strained wastewater onto a roadway. The reason is that the food smells in the wastewater are still likely an attractant to wildlife, which can then be drawn to the roadway to investigate. This in and of itself can lead to habituation with food conditioning of animals. Furthermore, it can snowball from there by attracting wildlife to roadways in search of food, which then get hit by cars, which then are fed on by animals like raptors, which then also get hit by cars. It can be a nasty domino effect…

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

One more question: Seems like you have a lot of information on disposing of human waste, but grey water seems to be up in the air so to speak.

While there is some truth to the assertion that our recommendations on wastewater disposal, predominately in Frontcountry, are “up in the air,” our backcounty recommendations are solid – strain and broadcast or strain and sump in grizzly country, always defaulting to agency regulations. In the Frontcountry, it’s a bit trickier. There are many factors that must be taken into consideration. However, we’d recommend the following: dispose of strained wastewater in provided facilities first (sink, sump, possibly a flush toilet even if allowed), if no facilities exist, strain wastewater and broadcast 200 ft from the campsite if possible (can be a challenge in many Frontcountry areas to actually get that far from the site without being in someone else’s site or near a water source, road, etc.) and be mindful of special considerations in grizzly country.

Picking up Dog Poop

As we're all aware, Leave No Trace emphasizes a Pack it in, Pack it out mentality - and this includes dog waste.

From the Frontcountry Ethics Reference Card:

Trash Your Trash and Pick Up Poop.

• Use a plastic bag to pack out your pet's poop to a garbage can.

While this task can be come increasingly stinky on long (and multi-day) hikes, I've discovered

a great compromise!

Meet my backpacking Lab, Ollie:

Ollie on top of Sunshine Peak, her first 14er (July, 2008).

Instead of (me) lugging around days worth of her less-than-pleasant smelling deposits, she

carries it herself in her own pack!

There are several great manufacturers making dog-specific packs. Just make sure to balance

the load, and keep a light load to maximize the fun factor for your pooch. For example, Ollie

just carries her food and waste (in separate air-tight containers, of course).

Flagstaff gets an A+

Outreach was a plenty in Flagstaff, AZ. We visited two local schools to work with the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Competition grew fierce during Leave No Trace Jeopardy, as the students of the Outdoor Leadership program learned about minimizing impacts in the outdoors. These student leaders will be educating their fellow classmates on the Leave No Trace principles before their next outing.

In addition to our school visits, we spent an entire day with the rangers and volunteers of the Coconino National Forest at the Peak Ranger Station. Justin Loxley, the R3 Leave No Trace Coordinator and the Volunteer Coordinator for Coconino National Forest, is enthusiastic about reaching park visitors with Leave No Trace information. During the training we played a variety of activities to explore the principles of Leave No Trace, including "How Long Does It Last?" which focuses on Disposing of Waste Properly. This was the first group we have worked with to correctly organize the items of waste into chronological order of how long they take to biodegrade. Great job! A+

We look forward to working with Justin again at the Wilderness Rendezvous in Santa Fe, NM at the beginning of June.

Off to Phoenix to wrap up our time in Arizona!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

Paper Facts

PAPER FACTS

Info below per Recycling-Revolution.com: These recycling facts have been compiled from various sources including the National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Earth911.com.

• To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
• Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
• If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
• If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket goes through 60,500,000 paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are in the U.S.!!!
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
• The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
• In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
• The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
• The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.

A New Way to Leave No Trace in the Frontcountry

We all know that it's important to pick up after our dogs when we are taking them to the park or out on trails, but what is the best way to get rid of the waste responsibly after you pick it up? I recently discovered a compost method that enables dog owners to safely compost dog waste. You can't use this compost in the garden, but this method keeps untreated waste out of the landfill. Give it a try and tell me what you think :).

Check it out at http://homepage.mac.com/cityfarmer/PhotoAlbum22.html

A Question For You

Our local friends groups for dog owners: FIDOS (Friends Interested in Dogs on Open Space http://fidos.org/) instituted a program a couple of years ago, encouraging its members to take an extra poop bag on the Boulder trails. They asked everyone to pick up, not only their own dog's poop, but an extra one as well, in an effort to greatly reduce the dog poop on Open Space trails.

A Boulder County Open Space and Mountain Parks representative questioned the program's positive impact because it didn't change the behavior of the original culprits.

What's your opinion of the the FIDOS program?

The Scoop on Dog Poop

As I was dog walking with my brother-in-law in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park recently, I had the conversation with him about a couple a couple of dog poop misconceptions. He said two things common to this discussion: 1. Dog poop is biodegradable; 2. No one is cleaning up after bears and deer.

My answer to #1: Dog poop ain’t pretty and it is also a breeder of disease and germs. Particularly in cities, it plays a role in water bacterial pollution of relevant streams and lakes. Dog poop creates high levels of nitrogen in the soil, killing off native plants that often yield to tougher invasive weeds.

My answer to #2: True, though animals in the wild are not eating the processed food that dogs are. They are eating native plants and animals, unless you leave your Burger King on a bench.

How could I make a stronger argument? What did I miss?

Susy Alkaitis

Cash for Trash

Over the weekend, I paid my 6 year old $4.25 to pick up trash on our camping trip. Our favorite campground littered with mostly “micro trash” such as discarded stickers from fruit and wrapper fractions.

The deal was: no glass, nothing sharp, no toilet paper — 5 cents a piece, and 25 cents if it was bigger than his head. He responded like a good, little capitalist and spent hours indentifying and collecting trash. He asked us why people left all of their stuff behind and, in the process, became much more aware of where his juice box straw wrappers were going.

I have thought about doing this sort of thing on past outdoor excursions though he seemed too young to use good judgment. Picking a bottle cap is one thing, but I was a bit grossed out about the germ factor. With visions of used hypodermic needles swirling in my head as well as not wanting to set a precedent of giving my kid money for an action that I hope to instill as an ethic, I resisted. This Cash for Trash plan, however, seemed like a reasonable way to raise his awareness thus I stayed close, and we talked about the trash he found and how it got there.

If you’re reading this and dismayed by my parenting or, better yet, have another version of doing a little community service as well as Leave No Trace education with a young child, please write in!

Was It Just A Bad Dream? An Unusual Leave No Trace Moment In Mexico

My family just returned from our third trip to Sayulita, a fishing village on the Pacific Coast of Nayarit, Mexico. Our timing each year straddles the breathtakingly divine and impeccably bad. The good: It is pre-season. The jungle is lush and the banana trees sprout fruit. You’re forced to access your high school Spanish and the waves are perfection.

Sayulita Days, a local carnival and indescribably raucous local party, on the other hand, could bring one to bang her head against a cement wall. The fiesta is a cacophony of questionable kids rides (see my son on one such ride above), all night sirens, battles of the bands, tequila, roving speaker systems blaring some sort of advertising, and the occasional gunshots. For a couple of nights the town reverberates in a way that mere words cannot do justice to. If you wander to the town square in late evening, young men can often be found trashing the place with riot-like vigor.

Something remarkable, though, happens come morning. Everything is restored to its lovely, breezy beach-town order. The surfers pad down to the beach as though they weren’t up all night, dogs doze in the middle of the streets. The town square is eerily spotless.

I initially thought the clean up was a town-sponsored effort to “leave it better than you found it.“ Though after the mayhem turns out not to be something much more amazing. I’ve always been too tired to see it in action, but apparently, a group of local “grandmothers” emerge at the crack of dawn and clean up after the young people. It is the local solution to restoring the order, I suppose, or a locals’ Dispose of Waste Properly’ custom. Weird, but it seems to work. For just a moment, it seemed that I should steal some fairy dust and replicate these magical grandmothers and bring them back to the U.S. — Dispose of Waste Properly: Check.

But upon further thought...

Rookie vs. Veteran

I recently had the pleasure of participating in my first ever winter hut trip.  A fairly experienced (in-bounds) telemark skier, I jumped at the invitation of a friend to join a group of experienced backcountry skiers on a backcountry hut trip to the 10th Mountain Hut, part of the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association, near Leadville, CO.  Part of the appeal of this trip for me was to escape the comfort and familiarity of resort skiing, but it was mostly about getting outside, pushing myself physically and learning how to travel safely off-piste.

It felt good to be humbled by my lack of experience ... I had never skied with a pack, never used skins, and knew little beyond the basics regarding avalanche safety.  My counterparts were patient and willing teachers - instructing me on when to use which wax, how to put on my skins, and other important techniques.  However, when it came to the subject of Leave No Trace, I was shocked to learn that my cohorts and I didn't share the same philosophies.  

I had (optimistically) assumed that all experienced backcountry users shared the same ethics when it came to leaving our natural areas in the same shape (or better!) as we found them. 

After a brief break during our ski in to the hut on the first day, I wondered allowed where to put my apple core - in the outside mesh pocket of my pack or back in my food bag.  I was shocked to hear my fellow skier, one of the very "veterans" who had already taught me so much in preceding hours (I'll call him "Joe"), say, "just chuck it in the snow.  The animals will appreciate it."  

I took several issues with this statement, knowing well that introducing my food waste into the diets of wild animals is never a good idea.  However, the hardest part of this verbal exchange was my changing perception of this talented and experienced backcountry skier whom I admire and respect.  It's always been challenging for me to stand up to the contrasting opinions of my elders (I blame my Southern upbringing), but in this case, I didn't hesitate to stand my ground and tell Joe that I didn't think it was at all a good idea and proceeded to put my apple core into the side pocket of my pack.

I refrained from preaching, ranting or rattling off the hazards of introducing human food waste into the diets of animals.  Instead, I chose to lead by example, which I personally feel is the best way to impact the behavior of others.  I have found that the best way to share Leave No Trace outdoor ethics with others is to educate, not regulate.  

What do you think?

Critters

Thanks to Stick and Move.

Susy