Teaching kids to appreciate cultural history

We recently did a family raft trip on a river in Utah that was rich with cultural history. Pot shards, rock houses, petroglyphs and other signs of past generations. One particular area was littered with pot shards and all the kids were amazed. They also wanted to each take home one or more pieces, which gave me a great opportunity to help them understand why the pot shards should be left where they were found. It took a little convincing but eventually all the kids (8 of them under the age of eight) decide to leave the artifacts for the next "kids so they could see them." It was great to see little people beginning to develop an outdoor ethic.

Is This OK?

I recently came across these kids on a trail above the mountains in Boulder and wondered what they were up to. OK -I confess, these are my kids and although I didn't encourage this activity, I also didn't discourage it. They were having fun, being creative, getting into nature. What do you think? Send me your thoughts!

Some people just love Leave No Trace!

Do you love Leave No Trace as much as Lydia?  If you do, send us your picture in Leave No Trace garb (t-shirts, hats, patches, pins, stickers!).  We'll blog about you in 2 weeks!

Send your picture in today!  info@LNT.org

Happy Hollow Children's Camp

Happy Hollow Children’s Camp, Inc. founded in 1951 is a private nonprofit agency of the United Way of Central Indiana and is accredited by the American Camp Association that provides one week camp sessions at little to no cost for children, ages 7-14 years from finically disadvantaged families that live in the United Way of Central Indiana demographic area, foster children from the state of Indiana and children with moderate to serve asthma from the state of Indiana. These children will participate in a safe, supportive and supervised outdoor residential camping program which is designed to increase the understanding of the environment at Happy Hollow Camp in Nashville, Indiana.


Many of the children that attend Happy Hollow have had very limited access to the natural world around them. One of the goals of the camp is to teach the campers how to appreciate and care for the natural world around them. Through the Leave No Trace program the children were able to learn firsthand about the impact that they have on the world around them. This program has provided several new games and new opportunities to work with the children and show them how to Leave no trace when they return home. Through different evaluations from camp both from parents and campers I have heard how there have been recycling programs started at home. Also a few of the campers meet at a local park and help to clean up all the trash left on the ground. During our summer program the most popular game was the family feud game. We were able to incorporate the game into many different aspects of camp. It was great to see how the campers really got involved with the game. In the attached pictures is a group of young ladies actively involved with playing the family feud game. A couple of days later the campers were still talking about playing and many of them were able demonstrate many of the new skills they learned. The leave no trace program is a priceless addition to our curriculum and a permanent addition to our camp program.

Check out the Happy Hollow Camp blog!

Feeling Kind Of Lucky

I'm adding to Dave's last blog:

Last week, we sent out a wrap-up press about the Leave No Trace e-tour, our team of mobile Leave No Trace educators that provided vital and innovative training in 24 states this summer. We talked about the 4,500 people they reached and the work they did to further our national effort to help people make a critical connection to the outdoors. We talked about who they reached, how effective the Leave No Trace outreach was, and what impact had on protection of the outdoors. We also thanked Coleman for their sponsorship of the important initiative.

What we didn’t say was how extraordinary the e-tour team of Kate Bullock and Tracy Howard were. We consider ourselves very luck to have found this unusual duo that love kids, the outdoors, and were able to merge the weight of Leave No Trace with a great sense of joy and fun.

On behalf of all of us here, I thank them for their great work and good cheer.

Leave No Trace 2008 PowerPoint Available Online!

The slideshow is available for download here!

What Does the Leave No Trace Logo Mean to You?

We’re frequently asked around the Center about the meaning of the Leave No Trace logo. It’s not uncommon to get a least 1 call a week with some reference to the logo. The following are a few of the terms we hear:

• swirly gig
• pinwheel
• hurricane
• whirlpool
• galaxy

With such creative terms for the logo, you can imagine that the explanations of the Leave No Trace emblem get quite original as well. I’ve heard folks incorporate everything from water to space in their meanings of the symbol we’re all so fond of (side note: we know of at least 3 people who have Leave No Trace tattoos!).

I thought it was time to share the Center’s “unofficial” definition of the Leave No Trace logo. Consider the circle in the middle to be a fond outdoor experience or your favorite place to play outside. The surrounding lines represent the ways we interact with that experience or in that space: with enjoyment, wonder, appreciation, and awareness we come into and out of the experience with as little impact as possible.

This is, of course, up for interpretation. Leave us a comment and let us know what the Leave No Trace logo means to you!

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!

National Get Outdoors Day - Denver, CO

JUNE 14, 2008: DENVER COLORADO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2008

Contact: [Susan Alden-Weingardt, Partnership Coordinator, USFS, Rocky Mountain Region and Co-Chair of June 14 event, 303-275-5401, salden@fs.fed.us]

Fun in the sun at Sloan’s Lake Park on National Get Outdoors Day

DENVER, Colorado, (May 21, 2008) – Governor Bill Ritter has declared June Great Outdoors Month in Colorado and President Bush has proclaimed June 14 as National Get Outdoors Day. Denver’s celebration will be a signature event highlighting the importance of enjoying our amazing outdoor recreation opportunities.

Avid4 Adventure, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Parks and Recreation, Outward Bound, REI, The US Forest Service, The National Park Service, Vail Resorts, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and many more sponsors will host the inaugural National Get Outdoors Day on Saturday, June 14, 2008, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver. Designed to become an annual summer event, National Get Outdoors Day encourages healthy, active outdoor fun. Participating partners will offer opportunities for families across the United States to experience traditional and non-traditional types of outdoor activities.

This exciting, unique event is designed to reach first-time visitors to public lands and to reconnect our youth to the great outdoors. Booths and outdoor stations will offer a variety of fun activities such as a mountain bike course, rock climbing and geocaching.

National Get Outdoors Day is an outgrowth of the Get Outdoors USA! campaign, which encourages everyone, especially our youth, to seek out healthy, active outdoor lives and embrace our parks, forests, refuges and other public lands and waters.

For more information visit www.nationalgetoutdoorsday.org. To reserve space for a booth call Bill Kight at 970-948-1894 or email bkight@fs.fed.us.

I'm Finally Cool

The other day, my son informed me that, particularly on Earth Day people want to Leave No Trace. He learned it at Mountain Day Camp, a summer camp program that also provides school-year programs for kid our Boulder, Colorado community. Mountain Day Camp, http://www.mountaindaycamp.com, infuses Leave No Trace into its entire curriculum and focuses on building community and connection to the natural world.

He told me all about Leave No Trace, what he had learned and also made some fascinating leaps such as: “When you Leave No Trace on Earth Day, you should walk quietly and avoid running because it hurts the earth less. Also, you don’t want to throw rocks on Earth Day.”

He got it for the first time, and was proud of me for working on behalf of the Leave No Trace ethos as he understood it. He thought I was cool for doing environmental work. It was thrilling.

Plan Ahead and Prepare....NOT!

*Picture from a recent trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Last Sunday was one of those beautiful, warm, sunny, late winter days that makes you long for spring. Having been on the road for the past week at a meeting in California, I wanted to get out, stretch the legs and go for a hike with my son. I was thinking about a favorite hike, Gregory Canyon, because it's relatively long (about 4.5 miles) and traverses some beautiful country. I had also settled on this particular hike because it's in the trees and I knew it would provide shade for my son since he was going to be riding in a kid carrier. My son, my dog and I hit the trail and within a few hundred yards, I quickly realized that I was sorely unprepared (and I'm an Eagle Scout!). I had on the wrong shoes and was in a slippery situation, literally. Recent snow in Boulder had blanketed the trails and the tree cover had kept the trail icy and snowpacked. I didn't have on shoes that could grip the trail and I began to worry that we wouldn't be able to safely make it down the trail. I made the decision to keep going up and make a loop out of it, banking on the south facing part of the trail being thawed. Boy, was I wrong. It' took a full 2 hours to complete just a short 2 mile loop (I decided not to do the entire trail). "Never again" I said. On our way home I stopped by the local hardware store and bought an arsenal of hex head sheet metal screws to turn my hiking shoes into studded hiking shoes. This is something that I had been thinking/talking about doing for, oh, about 7 years. However, it took putting myself and my son in a precarious situation before actually really preparing myself. It all goes back to the importance of being prepared for what you're either likely to or will encounter on an outdoor adventure. Learning lessons the hard way is effective but in the future I'll be ready for anything!


* My "new" snow/ice hiking shoes.

Leave No Trace - Now More Than Ever

In the seven years I've been with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, I've provided outreach, education and training to thousands of people all across the U.S. and in many countries around the globe. While on the road, I'm constantly reminded of just how many people are supporters or practitioners of Leave No Trace - a great thing. Particularly when you consider that there are hundreds of millions of recreationists who regularly enjoy all the outdoor opportunities this country has to offer.

Last week I had the opportunity to present to a group of forty river rafting company owners and guides in Oregon about Leave No Trace. All were part of the Headwaters Institute, an organization with a mission to provide education that inspires individuals and communities to care for and connect with their watershed. They were all very supportive of Leave No Trace and in many ways, it was like preaching to the choir. This week, I'm at the American Camp Association conference in Tennessee, and again, I'm interacting with people who are supportive of Leave No Trace. Many of the ACA conference participants are deeply involved in the Leave No Trace program and are actively teaching kids about Leave No Trace. Both of these great organizations are partners of Leave No Trace and actively promote outdoor ethics.

What I keep seeing is more and more support for Leave No Trace from all those who enjoy the out of doors. Now more than ever, Leave No Trace is gaining momentum and educating more people than we ever thought possible. Together we can make a significant difference for the responsible use and active stewardship of our shared outdoor resources. It's not what you did yesterday, it's what you're doing tomorrow.

Shooting To Reach More Kids

Earlier this month, I attended the Shot Show, a trade show of more than 30,000 manufacturers, trade reps, retailers and media for the biggest shooting, hunting and outdoor trade show in the country. Various meetings are hosted during the show by the trade show’s parent organization, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Leave No Trace was invited to attend a National Shooting Sports Foundation meeting of shooting sports-based organizations from the Isaac Walton League to the NRA, Youth Shooting Sports Alliance, and the International Hunter Education Association. During the meeting I had the opportunity to talk briefly about Leave No Trace and its relevance to the hunting and youth.

As with virtually all meetings I’ve attended in the last year, Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods” was sited during the gathering. The shooting sports groups seem to have the same concern and worries about increasing participation as everyone else. Outdoor communities are scrambling and scratching their heads about getting kids off of their Game Boys and into their backyards — hunting is no exception.

It is heartening to see, even among such diverse outdoor groups, common threads regarding kids and the outdoors. Our common thread as we talk to various factions that are working to get kids outside, is that Leave No Trace is a vital companion to any of these efforts.

A Topic Worth Revisiting ...

A hot topic at several conferences I have attending this year and that also is the buzz in the outdoor industry is the issue of kids connection to the outdoors – or lack of connection to the outdoors. “Nature deficit disorder” is the term Richard Louv uses in his book, Last Child in the Woods. Many groups and individuals are working to tackle the issue including the Conservation Fund’s National Forum on Children and Nature , an assortment of groups that includes government, media and corporate partners. 

While I couldn’t agree more that this is an important issue, I also believe as efforts brew to get more kids active in the outdoors, it is imperative that an outdoor ethic message also be interwoven effectively in all efforts. What better time to introduce Leave No Trace to kids who are first experiencing the outdoors? What better opportunity to help shape these malleable value systems and help build leaders with the outdoor code of ethics we’re working so hard to foster? This is an issue we will actively pursue - more about this subject in the near future.

-Dana

Where are all the kids?

I was recently looking at visitation statistics* for lands managed by the National Park Service and noticed an alarming trend - numbers of visitors to our nations national parks, national recreation areas, national seashores, etc. have been on the decline since the late 90's:

1997: 275,236,335
1998: 286,762,265
1999: 287,130,879
2000: 285,891,275
2001: 279,873,926
2002: 277,299,880
2003: 266,099,641
2004: 276,908,337
2005: 273,488,751
2006: 272,623,980

*Data from Public Use Statistics Office of the NPS



While some may view this as welcome relief for our sometimes overused national park lands, I view it as part of a larger problems that we're experiencing - less and less people are being exposed to the wonders of the out-of-doors. Why is this a concern? It's a concern because it begs the question of who will be the next generation of supporters of national parks and other public lands. As you've no doubt heard, there has been a great emphasis placed on getting more kids outside. The book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv sparked much action to combat what he termed nature deficit disorder. Many of the federal land management agencies have programs such as the Bureau of Land Management's Take It Outside program. There are also many web-based resources such as the Children and Nature Network which are specifically trying to provide more opportunities for children to get out and experience the out-of-doors.

With all the increased emphasis on getting kids outside, Leave No Trace certainly has a role to play. More people on the land means more opportunities for impact. However, it also mean more opportunities for education! If every kid who experiences the out-of-doors were introduced to Leave No Trace, think what the future of our shared lands would look like. While it saddens me greatly to think that we've become so technologically advanced that our kids our now suffering from nature deficit disorder, I do find great hope in the fact that steps, BIG steps, are being taken to expose our youth to all that nature has to offer.

Meet Emily...

Status: Leaves very little trace

Recent trip: Camping at Great Sand Dunes National Park

Favorite outfit during trip: Tutu with optional sun hat

Favorite way to see the dunes: Running, running, running.....

Any Trace?: only very small footprints and many many smiles