One of 10,000

Bears were on the loose

In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the Leave No Trace e-tour set up on just one lake this Monday -- Lake Bemidji. Visiting a beautiful town, the First City on the Mississippi, we got a chance to go to Lake Bemidji State Park to work with a stellar group of high school students. They were joining us from Voyageurs Expeditionary High School in town, a cool school where some of these students will later this year have the opportunity to take the Leave No Trace knowledge and skills they learned on Monday with them on trips to the Badlands of the Dakotas as well as Florida! Each one of the students we saw will get to be a leader of their peers with their newfound excitement for Leave No Trace!

Students exploring why they make the decisions they do

The students got to learn about all seven principles through discussions, games, and demonstrations. Coming from a variety of different outdoor experience levels, it was great to introduce them to everything from cat holes and human waste disposal issues to using a campstove to cook dinner. Throughout the day, the concept of Leave No Trace as a personal ethic and mindset weaved its way throughout each discussion. For the capstone of the day, they explored the considerations that go into their own decision making both in the outdoors and in the rest of their lives. During the activity, the students evaluated different factors in their decision making processes and considered why they do what they do. As they make individual decisions both in backcountry travel and everyday life, we hope they take what they learned from this activity with them!

Beautiful Lake Bemidji

While at Lake Bemidji State Park, we learned from our new friend and naturalist at the park John about an awesome program called I Can Camp! John, who came ready for the day with a Leave No Trace Bigfoot t-shirt on, participates in this program that Minnesota State Parks put on to help families who've never been camping before get outside, provides them with gear for a weekend, and teaches them techniques so they can have fun in the outdoors. Not only do they learn about how to put up a tent, cook outside, and start a fire, but they get to learn about Leave No Trace as well! It's a great way to educate, connect, and protect our favorite Minnesota wild places! We hope people take advantage of this awesome program, including the weekend at Lake Bemidji State Park coming up on June 8th!

On the Paul Bunyan Trail,

Quinn & Frank

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

Compromise Principles?

"Compromise is always wrong if it means sacrificing a principle"

This was the bold statement I found this week from my fortune cookie and it made me think of the Leave No Trace Principles. If principles are the fundamental truths that guide rationale and behavior, then the Leave No Trace principles guide outdoor behavior and the rationale behind it.

Do you believe in the fortune cookie's wisdom? Is it "always" wrong to sacrifice a principle when exploring and playing outdoors? Are there times you have had to sacrifice a Leave No Trace principle?

Seriously?

Everyday Leave No Trace

I often think about how I can further minimize my impact on the planet - how to transfer the Leave No Trace ethic from recreation to daily life. Sometimes it's easy - recycle, use less water, buy organic/local, drive less, consume less, reuse more, repair instead of replace, live lightly. However, I'm always looking for more ways to be a better steward of our planet; I mean the whole planet not just frontcountry, backcountry and wilderness.

I'm curious to know how you transfer Leave No Trace ethics into your daily life...

Ice Water

I guess I was good enough this year to make Santa's list. He brought me a nifty new digital camera that is waterproof, freezeproof, crushproof, dustproof, etc. Now if I can just figure out how to work the thing I'd be all set. It came with a 275 page instruction manual. And that's just the English version. I have a bit of reading to do...

Nonetheless, I took the camera to a local tailwater river yesterday to see if I could get some underwater shots of trout. First, of course, I had to catch them but that wasn't terribly difficult despite the 12˚ air temps. The hardest part of fishing in the winter is keeping your hands warm. Well that and getting out wind knots in tiny monofilament tippet and tying on size 22 midges (tiny, tiny bugs).

Regardless, I did catch some fish and I did take some underwater shots. For a first attempt, they weren't too shabby.





I got to thinking about respecting wildlife on the drive home, and having this new camera reminded me that there are definitely ways to enjoy wildlife in ways that are both legal (catching and releasing fish) and ethical (not getting too close, not feeding, etc.). It boils down to doing what we can to respect and protect all wildlife.

Help Answer Two Important Questions Today

Various issues have come up at the Center recently, bringing us to further examine questions that we have asked many times as Leave No Trace concepts have evolved:

1. What does "conservation" mean in the context of Leave No Trace?

2. How does our concept of conservation shape the way Leave No Trace ethics are taught?

Write in and let us know your thoughts.

On an unrelated note, enjoy this two minute segment about an elephant's special relationship with a dog at a wildlife sanctuary in Tennessee: http://www.wimp.com/wilddog