Earth Week in Colorado!

Starting on Earth Day on Sunday in Nederland, the e-tour has been spreading the word about Leave No Trace all over Colorado for Earth Week! It's been a truly beautiful location to talk about environmental stewardship to audiences ranging from interested citizens in Boulder County to high schoolers set on making a difference to elementary school students getting outside for the first time!

Bigfoot at Wild Bear!

To kick off the week, we headed up to the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center where we joined with other conservation-minded organizations for an Earth Day Celebration! It was awesome to get to talk to youth and adults alike about the outdoors with the Rocky Mountains towering over us. From outdoor enthusiasts excited to learn about new reference cards for Winter Use and Rock Climbing to kids learning the PEAK principles, everyone took home some new information to help make good decisions in the outdoors. Not only that, but our Colorado State Advocate Kristin and famous mascot Bigfoot also were able to make the event!

Quinn and Bigfoot at Earth Day in Nederland, CO!

The next morning, we scrambled over to the Shining Mountain School in Boulder where we got to talk with some high school students before they scattered about town to help out with keeping this beautiful area clean. With this dialed group, we got to focus on the reasons why Leave No Trace is an ethic -- not a set of rules, but a series of personal values and selected responsibilities about how to be a good citizen not of the state or country but of the planet. In addition to cleaning up around their school and community, these students are challenging themselves to take responsibility for the trash that they generate on a daily basis by packing out what they pack in to school just like you would in the backcountry. In this fashion, they become aware of what they are using each and every day and can strive as individuals to minimize their overall impact. We were inspired to get to speak with such dedicated students!
 

Traveling Trainer Frank with his college friend and now elementary school teacher Mr. Gamble at Wildflower Elementary!

Finally, with a little help from our good friend Bigfoot we got to visit elementary school students both in Boulder and Colorado Springs! The kindergarteners in Boulder got to share some of their favorite activities in the outdoors by drawing pictures for each other. By getting out and connecting with nature, these students are forming the foundations for a life of conservation. The fifth graders in Colorado Springs drilled into a lot of the science behind what happens to trash. They asked the tough questions about the difference between natural products and plastic, recycling and composting, and the effect you can have on animals by carelessly discarding food waste. We're confident that they will take this enthusiasm and inquisitive mindset with them as they head out into the world and start making their own decisions about the actions they take and the impacts they make. Great work Wildflower Wildcats!

Everyday is Earth Day,

Quinn & Frank

Help Leave No Trace get $10,000

We need your help to get a $10,000 gift from Fetzer Vineyards. Fetzer has pledged to give Leave No Trace $1 for every person who joins the Leave No Trace page on Causes.com from now until May.

Between the months of March to May, for every person who joins the Leave No Trace Cause and “likes” the Fetzer Facebook page, Fetzer will donate $1 to Leave No Trace. The contribution will support Leave No Trace’s work to reach hundreds of thousands of people this year, with vital environmental education to help them enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

Fetzer Vineyards, based in Mendocino County California prides itself on its earth-friendly wines and environmentally sustainable wine production practices. In keeping with its mission, Fetzer Vineyards has chosen Leave No Trace as its Cause to celebrate Earth Day, 2011, as well as 25 years of pioneering environmentally responsible reds and whites.

And check your local store in April when Fetzer will be releasing a limited edition 2010 Chardonnay Earth Day bottle, featuring a striking new label depicting the beautiful California landscape, designed by a renowned artist Anne Kessler.

Earth Day...the Blanchard Elementary Way!

In celebration of Earth Day, we dusted off our Traveling Trainer shoes (Chacos in our case) and headed to Blanchard Elementary School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Borrowing the school’s playground, we met with the entire second grade to talk about LITTER! Using one of our favorite activities from the PEAK Pack, we were able to learn a little about Leave No Trace and have fun at the same time.

We were very impressed with the ideas that the students shared on ways that we could Reduce, Reuse and Recycle our trash.

After our presentation, Ms. Harper invited us to her classroom where her students showed us some ways to be great citizens of our planet! They had such great ideas, that we wanted to share a few of them with everyone!

We wanted to give a BIG THANKS to all the second grade students and their teachers for spending Earth Day with us! We really appreciated your interest in Leave No Trace and your excitement for protecting our environment!

Emily & JD

(Leave No Trace members and former Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers)

Bigfoot Challenge Winner for February!

Each month we are randomly selecting one person who took the Bigfoot Challenge and awarding them for their efforts with product from our partners. In February Leave No Trace member Patrick Beezley was our winner. Patrick wrote us to tell us more about how he practices Leave No Trace and gets involved in his local community.

Hi Leave No Trace,

I am Patrick Beezley from Carbondale, IL. I enjoy rock climbing, backpacking, whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, canoeing, hiking, and traveling. I work for Southern Illinois University as a grad assistant. I appreciate what Leave No Trace promotes. I think outdoor areas that people spend time in will be better off if more people know about Leave No Trace skills and techniques. I volunteer my time to Leave No Trace to help promote it so others can learn to take care of the places that they enjoy. For my Bigfoot Challenge, I walked through the middle of the trail versus walking over to the side. Taking the challenge made it easier to focus on hiking in the middle versus hiking around. Leave No Trace helps me do something beneficial for the wilderness areas that I travel in.

The best part about Leave No Trace education is knowing that you are helping out wilderness areas and the people that enjoy them. I think focusing on teaching kids Leave No Trace would be beneficial. That way people would grow up using the principles and it would be second nature to them.

I hope that people who use Leave No Trace principles when they are out camping can transfer that attitude for the outdoors to finding other ways to take care of the environment.

Thanks Bigfoot, Patrick Beezley

Stay tuned to hear more from the March Winner. Take the Bigfoot Challenge today to get involved and increase your chance to be the April winner of some great outdoor gear.

Earth Day is My Day

It is remarkable how many people I cross paths with at conferences and meetings take some sort of ownership for creating the Leave No Trace Seven Principles. I’ve heard everything from, “I was there at the table when we said, ‘Wow, we need a SEVENTH principle’” to “We hashed out back there in the eighties.”

First I thought it mirrored Al Gore and his early claim that he started the internet, though now I look at it in another way. I enjoy each story, many people were involved at different points in Leave No Trace’s evolution. It is an incredible thing that such a broad community takes personal ownership for the development of the Leave No Trace basic tenets.

The same is true for Earth Day. Many on the Leave No Trace staff volunteered at some sort of earth day event last week and pinpointing the event’s true origins is not a straightforward exercise — so I turn to Al Gore’s internet I found endless iterations, but here are two relatively consistent ones:

http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

Earth Day is Everyday!

Leave No Trace Community & Partnership Coordinator, Catherine Smith, 

at Bridal Veil Falls near Telluride, CO.

How are you spending your Earth Day?  

For a comprehensive list of Earth Day events, check out the Earth Day Network.

Enjoy the outdoors responsibly today and everyday with Leave No Trace!

Celebrate Earth Day: Locally is Globally

Although we like to think of Earth Day as everyday, the annual celebration is upon us. This past weekend we had the pleasure of being a part of two Earth Day Festivals in Utah. The first took place in Kanab on Friday. The theme of the celebration was "Growing the Seeds of Change" in which 609 students from Kanab took part in an art project to share their ideas of what this years slogan means to them. The students of the county were very creative with their depictions for a better planet and a brighter future!

Saturday was also a special day, as we celebrated our Mother Earth with the community of Springdale and Zion National Park. The theme "locally is globally" was evident throughout the festival with local produce, local bands, local artists, and local products for all to enjoy. On this Earth Day, get out there and enjoy the outdoors responsibly! The world is a beautiful place. Let's be sure to all do our part to love and protect it! Happy Earth Day!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

Leave No Trace at Dirt Days for Earth Day

This past Saturday I had a nostalgic experience in the world of Leave No Trace – my “First Anniversary Event.” Exactly one year ago, I participated in a local Earth Day event, Dirt Days, after having only been working at Leave No Trace for 3 days.

Having come full circle after a year of work at Leave No Trace, including participation in other events, and even attending and completing a Master Educator course, I can say that this year’s Dirt Days event was a fantastic occasion to use as a one-year marker.

After a delicious breakfast at the Farmer’s Market, my colleague, Catherine Smith, and I spent a beautiful, blue-sky day on the lawn of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which plays host to this event each year. Organized in conjunction with the Boulder Adventure Film Festival, Dirt Days seems to get bigger, more successful, and more fun for the entire community each year.

There is something to be said for seeing the pure enjoyment on kids’ faces as they explore the outdoors. Hundreds of examples crossed our paths on Saturday, some with faces brightly painted, others plunging seeds in biodegradable planters, and some careening along a designated trail fitted with a pack holding 10 percent of their body weight. Not to mention, several kids with chocolate from cookies baked in a solar oven smeared all over their face (usually matching the chocolate on their parents’ faces, as well).

Even better is seeing the lasting result of this exposure and new appreciation for the outdoors. Shortly after the event ended, I found myself running on a trail near my neighborhood. Up ahead of me were two girls and a boy, who were trading a single pack amongst them and practicing running down the middle of the trail, negotiating the rocks, and communicating their quick approach to others (over and over again). Off the back of their small pack was a Leave No Trace Kids Reference Card – a bright yellow reminder for kids on how to play outside, responsibly. I couldn’t help but smile and give them all high fives as we passed each other.



-Sara Close

"A River Runs Through It"

This upcoming weekend, staff at the Center for Outdoor Ethics will be participating in several different events to promote Earth Day.

One such event that I'll be attending is the 2nd annual S. Platte River Clean Up presented by Down River Equipment, Confluence Kayaks, and KEEN. 

The South Platte runs through Denver and development along the downtown portion has grown significantly since I was a kid. However, the City of Denver has made great strides in setting aside green space and preserving historic architecture as this development occurred.

In addition to the flagship REI store being centrally located here, there are old warehouses turned into urban living spaces, a community dog park, outdoor concert space, a skate park and bike/pedestrian trails.

On any given weekend day in the Spring/Summer, you will witness people running, biking, walking their dogs, kayaking, and on especially hot days, families splashing around in the water at Confluence Park. 

The space is a real cross-section of culture and has something for just about everybody, regardless of age or outdoor interest. 

Earth Day celebrations such as this are an example of how we can still strive to maintain the ecological integrity of our urban recreational lands, as well as our backcountry ones.

For more information, visit the South Platte River Initiative.