Around the World

Many people know about Leave No Trace from seeing signage or information at a park/natural area in their region. We come in contact with a number of people that are surprised to find out we are a nonprofit organization with not just a national reach, but an international one.

Check out these beautiful photos from Kakani Scout Camp in Nepal:

This Leave No Trace training was organized with the help of Initiative Outdoor. As, owner Chandra Ale describes:

Initiative Outdoor (I.O.) is an outdoor leadership school based in Kathmandu, Nepal. I.O. runs a variety of courses, including adventure camps for kids, wilderness first aid, whitewater rescue technician training, and leadership programs at local schools. The range of the course offerings results in a diverse clientele: I.O. students are river guides, kayakers, mountain guides, Nepali school children, international students, and employees of both local businesses and INGOs.

I.O. was able to incorporate Leave No Trace education into all of their training this year, including this camp near Shivapuri National Park. The Center is grateful for the work of all of our volunteers, partners, members and supporters in helping communicate the importance and universality of these principles in every corner of the world.

Student help hikers "Know Before They Go"

Students from Glen Cove Elementary in Roanoke, VA adopted their local Appalachian Trail Kiosk and gave it some much needed attention.

Check out the photos:

Before

After

Thanks to these students local hikers can learn how to take care of our shared public lands by leaving no trace. Glen Cove Elementary was a Leave No Trace grant recipient and also worked with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's "A Trail to Every Classroom" program.

Our 2010 grant recipients have done some amazing work in their local communities and we'd like to thank them for all of their volunteer work! Check back in January for 2011 grant deadlines.

Living Archaeology Weekend - Red River Gorge

If you are in the Kentucky area next weekeed, come support the first Leave No Trace Hot Spot: the Red River Gorge!

Living Archaeology weekend will take place September 24-24 at the Gladie Center in the Red River Gorge:

Have you ever wondered what life was like in Kentucky a thousand years ago? Then join us at Red River Gorge, and watch the prehistoric past come alive as Native Americans and other craftsmen demonstrate the way ancient cultures went about the daily business of living.

The weekend’s events will be held on an open terrace near Gladie Creek, similar to sites inhabited by Kentucky’s first people. This enjoyable program of outdoor activities is designed to promote an understanding of the technologies that Native Americans used in the area, and the appreciation and protection of Kentucky's fragile archaeological sites.

Note: Friday’s programs are for school groups by prior arrangement; contact Jessica Santangelo at the Gladie Center, 606-663-8100. Saturday’s programs are for the general public.

Hope to see you there!

Last Grant Deadline - October 1

The Center has had a successful year working with a diverse range of organizations through our four grant-giving programs:

Packing with PEAK

Tools for Teaching

Connect Grants for Culturally Diverse Communities

Master Educator Scholarships*

October 1 marks the final grant deadline for the year for most of these programs, with the exception of Master Educator Scholarships. These grants are a great opportunity to offset educational/training costs of fall programs.

For more information on how to apply, visit: http://lnt.org/programs/grantproposal.php

Please email grants@LNT.org with any questions!

Bigfoot Challenge Winner for April!

We recently awarded our April Bigfoot Challenge Winner, Paul Chrismon, with a bigfoot patch, a Leave No Trace Smartwool Beanie, a Leave No Trace Frisbee, a Coleman Sleeping Bag, a Coleman Camp Cookset, and a Platypus Hiker Hydrator Hydration kit. Enter the Bigfoot Challenge this month to see if you can win the June prize of some more sweet outdoor gear. Here is a little bit more information about Paul, our April Winner.

My name is Paul Chrismon, I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am involved in Hiking, Camping, and Boy Scouts as an adult leader for my sons pack. I got involved with Leave No Trace through Boy Scouts and by leading our den and pack through the requirements to earn their Leave No Trace patch. It has been rewarding to me personally as I was able to watch and see what our scouts learned and then apply it on our last camp out and in our service projects. I am grateful for an organization like yours that help people learn what they need to do to help preserve the environment and the natural resources around us.

Thanks Paul for taking the Bigfoot Challenge and thank you for all that you do for Leave No Trace!

March Bigfoot Challenge Winner!

March's Bigfoot Challenge winner is Erin Barker, Natural Science Program Coordinator from Cedar Creek, TX.

Bigfoot recently sat down with Erin for a little Q&A to learn more about how she spends her time outside and how she is involved in the Leave No Trace Program.

Bigfoot: What do you like to do outside?

Erin: Hiking, camping, exploring, teaching outdoor programs

Bigfoot: Who do you work with?

Erin: I work for the Lower Colorado River Authority at McKinney Roughs Nature Park.

Bigfoot: Why do you volunteer for Leave No Trace?

Erin: It’s a great program teaches the fundamentals of low impact land use.

Bigfoot: What was your original intention getting involved with Leave No Trace?

Erin: Get trained to teach Leave No Trace programs to youth and adults.

Bigfoot: How did your Bigfoot Challenge go?

Erin: Great, we did an Earth Day Festival, had Leave No Trace short programs and had REI demonstrating Leave No Trace using an interactive tent maze activity.

Bigfoot: Why is Leave No Trace important to you?

Erin: I think Leave No Trace is important because it’s a program that imparts some pretty important principles about land stewardship but in a fun, accessible way.

Bigfoot: If everyone out there could do ONE thing to Leave No Trace, what would it be?

Erin: Leave only footprints, take only memories!

Service and Leave No Trace Outreach in Northeast Georgia

One of favorite parts of working at Leave No Trace is receiving follow-up stories and photos from our grant recipients. They all have a unique story to tell and the photographs are a visual reminder of how many different ways to Leave No Trace program is used across the country.

Here are some photos from a recent Tools for Teaching grant recipient in northeast Georgia conducting a trail rehabilitation project on over 13 miles of the Chattachoochee National Forest. They also hosted a Leave No Trace awareness program.

This project was a great example of various youth and adult community groups working together. Close to 700 people participated, representing: Boy Scouts of America - Northeast Georgia Council, Chattahoochee Trail Horse Association, Southern Off Road Biking Association and Georgia Appalachian Trail Association.

We love to see photos of your community programs in action! Grant recipients, Master Educators, Trainers, PEAK presentations--many of the Bigfoot Challenges incorporate photo or video elements. Thanks for taking the time to tell us your story. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Enhancing the lives of Urban Teens - Click here!

Supporting community programs continues to get easier with technology. The Pepsi Refresh Project gives away millions in grants each month to great "ideas" or community projects that support different sectors: arts and culture, health, education, food and shelter, neighborhoods and, of course, the environment.

With the click of a button, daily, you can support these great ideas. The top 10 receive a grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project each month. New applications are also accepted monthly.

One of Leave No Trace's community partners, Big City Mountaineers, is currently in the running. Big City Mountaineer's mission is "enhancing the lives of urban teens through wilderness adventures." BCM is a Connect Grant recipient and has done great work in combining Leave No Trace education with wilderness outings. They are in the running for $25K and voting for this round ends on February 28th.

In a year where it's a bit harder to give monetarily, take a minute to

support this community program, or one closer to home, by voting.

Have a great day!

2010 Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Season is getting set to Kick Off!

On Monday we began our annual Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Training for our 2010 teams. We are lucky to have Kate Bullock and Tracy Howard returning for their third season on the road, starting their year as our Team East. Check out their schedule so far.

We are also very excited to have a new pair, Jason and Agata Ketterick, joining us for our 12th year of the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Program as Team West. You can take a look to see if they will be coming to your area in the coming months by clicking here.

Both teams will be attending the Outdoor Retailer trade show next week in Salt Lake City, and then will be back here for another week and a half of training before they hit the road for the season in early February. If you are interested in hosting the Traveling Trainers this year, please request a visit online.

Kate and Tracy, are excited for you to meet Bigfoot!

Jason and Agata on top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine last June.

Community Program Focus: Kids in the Valley, Adventuring

As part of the Education Department, I get the privilege of reading through a lot of awesome grant applications from organizations doing Leave No Trace related programs. I thought I'd share one from our Tools for Teaching Fund, keeping in mind that over $.80 of every dollar the Center takes in goes right back into programming such as this.

This application is from "Kids in the Valley, Adventuring", a free family program in southwest VA. Co-founder Chip Donahue describes how the program got started:

In January of 2008, my wife and I started a free monthly family nature club for the families in the Roanoke, Virginia area. We call it KIVA, Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! and we have been meeting in a different park each since then. Our motto is simple: KIVA - Play, Learn, Volunteer. As a father of three and a second grade teacher, I see the need to encourage families to get out together to ensure that we have more natural stewards in the future.

We maintain a website at www.kidsadventuring.org and produce a monthly newsletter which goes out to over 350 families. Our events have been very successful and we even ended up on the Today show last summer. We write up gear and product reviews to help parents make good choices about things to carry with them on family hikes. We also discuss ways to take care of our environment and always carry bags with us to make sure the park is cleaner by the time we leave.

There are endless ways to get involved with the Leave No Trace program. One of the easiest? Become a member! Your annual dues support programs like the Tools for Teaching Fund, which in turn, generate opportunities for youth and families in your own community.

Leave What You Find

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun. I will touch a houndred flowers and not pick one" - Edna St. Vincent Millay

Recreating in the outdoors with kids is a wonderful experience, but it might take a little extra effort to convince them that they must leave what they find for the next person to enjoy. This is tough for many kids to understand, especially when the woods are so full of treasures to collect! Here are a few ways that your kids can still "collect" all the wonderful things that they see:

1) Make a sketch of interesting plants and animals. On your next adventure, bring along a notepad and some crayons and encourage kids to draw the pretty rocks, interesting pine cones and beautiful flowers that they see along the way. When you get home, you can help kids write about the drawings and turn their notebook into a story about their day.

2) Take pictures. Kids will love looking back at all of the wonderful tresures they found on your adventures. If your kids like to collect things, help them organize the pictures into scrapbooks or special folders on the computer so that they can look at their treasures again and again.

3) Bring your binoculars. When kids spot an animal, they might be tempted to run up to get a better look. To avoid frightened wildlife (and disappointed kids) have a pair of binoculars handy to view wildlife from a safe distance.

Leave No Trace is Hiring!

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics is seeking a dedicated, savvy, dynamic team of educators (only teams of two are accepted as applicants) for seasonal traveling positions.

Visit the link below for more information:
http://www.lnt.org/aboutUS/office_pdfs/2009_etour_Listing.pdf

To learn more about the Leave No Trace e-tour and their accomplishments in 2008, check out their blog!

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!

New PEAK in action

This picture was taken by Team West from a recent Leave No Trace/Subaru Traveling Trainer event. The kids participated in a Leave No Trace relay race. Participants worked as pairs to complete various stations where they had to act out each principle.

The Center is currently designing and testing new activities for the PEAK (Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids) program. General themes for these new activities include: large group activities, younger audiences and more "urban" themed games. Two new PEAK activities and two new Teen activities will become available to the public at the end of the summer. Stay tuned for more information!