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

Klamath Falls Bonanza Blitz

Talking Leave No Trace with the US Forest Service & Fish and Wildlife!

The Leave No Trace e-tour was invited to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for a community-wide Leave No Trace blitz! The results? Awesome. After driving back into winter snow, the week kicked off with events at a couple of the city's elementary schools. In two days, we got to speak to eight different classrooms, making over 200 brand-new Leave No Trace experts! These students were dialed in on what to do with trash when they're hiking, fishing, and hanging out around their beautiful city. Trash Your Trash! We were incredibly impressed with how much some of the youth of Klamath Falls already knew. When talking about how to minimize campfire impacts, one third grader even mentioned that it was important not to build a campfire above the treeline! That's wild!

Rocking Gear from The North Face at Crater Lake National Park!

This part of Oregon, surrounded by the marks of volcanic legacy, has a wealth of National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and Crater Lake National Park. We spent a day with some of the top-notch personnel from the US Forest Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service. It was great to talk with them about some of the issues they are dealing with in the area and asked some tough questions of us. Chatting about interactions between different user groups, people making unauthorized markings on trails, and the ever-present human waste issues, we got to cover a lot of territory. Not content to just talk about the backcountry, this group was really focused on how to get this information to the frontcountry users they see throughout the area. Whether supplying outdoor information to new visitors or working backcountry Nordic ski patrol, they want to make sure everyone gets to learn about Leave No Trace!

Quinn teaches Girl Scouts about catholes!

No Leave No Trace blitz is complete without a little trail cleanup, so on Saturday we teamed up with a stellar group of Girl Scouts to help out at a local park. Before we grabbed our trash bags and gloves to put in a little service work, we talked about all seven Leave No Trace principles with a variety of games and demonstrations. One highlight was when the girls were really excited to learn about digging catholes! These young campers are going to be lifelong environmental stewards. After our cleanup, we all enjoyed some smoke-free s'mores -- graham crackers, Nutella, and fluff. An awesome alternative to having a campfire while still enjoying one of the most fun things in the outdoors!

Rogue River Ramblin',

Quinn & Frank

Back to Winter for the Spring Solstice

Quinn on skis! At a yurt!

Arriving in Tahoe after their best snow of the season, the e-tour made its way to Hope Valley Outdoors for an event with some local elementary school children. Hope Valley Outdoors is a backcountry ski yurt that provides rentals, guiding, and school outreach. Along with Joyce, who runs the yurt, we introduced kindergartners and fifth graders to the Leave No Trace principles. We talked about Trashing Your Trash and how to protect our favorite wild places and wildlife in the winter wonderland of Tahoe. We romped around in the snow playing a frigid version of Okay/No Way where the students ran to through a foot of powder to answer questions about appropriate outdoor behavior. After we were done teaching them, these students taught us a few things about how to cross-country ski! Thanks for the trade!

As the season winds down, it's important for everyone to keep in mind Leave No Trace when adventuring in winter environments. One great resource is the new winter recreation plastic reference card from Leave No Trace. As winter transitions into spring, it's a very sensitive time for ecosystems. While a deep layer of snow creates a durable surface that protects vegetation below it, while it melts it creates muddy conditions where trails and plants are vulnerable to damage. So make sure that you are extra careful to not trample budding flowers when you head outdoors and be sure to Plan Ahead and Prepare so you know the conditions of trails before heading out!

Happy Spring,

Quinn & Frank

In the Zone in 'Zona

From Flagstaff to Phoenix, we spent the better part of this week working with youth from school groups to the Girl Scouts! In a state with such a wealth in public lands, it was awesome to see young people so excited about the outdoors and knowledgeable about how to protect them using Leave No Trace!

Quinn and Bigfoot drop some Leave No Trace knowledge!

Our first stop was with the Alpine Leadership Academy in Flagstaff. This innovate magnet middle school focuses on outdoor learning. All of their students know about Leave No Trace from working with the local Forest Service and even Northern Arizona University Outdoors. Every student there goes on at least one four-night trip with the school. They excelled at one of our favorite PEAK games, Step On It! The students battled over which surfaces were more durable for travel in three aggressive match-ups. After we left they even were planning on taking Leave No Trace and using it in a writing assignment the next day. Nice work team!

In Phoenix, we stopped by Orangewood School to talk to some high-achieving eighth graders. In their class they have talked extensively about trash decomposition and were old-pros when it came to figuring out how long items lasted in the outdoors. After school, some of these students are involved in a legendary environmental club. One of their activities is collecting trash on the school's outdoor basketball court every two weeks, categorizing it, weighing it, and graphing the results. Sounds like the kind of research that would be useful for the Leave No Trace Center in Boulder. What an epic crew of young researchers!

Girl Scouts learn how to keep a safe distance while viewing wildlife with the Rule of Thumb!

Finally, on Saturday we kicked it with the Girl Scouts from the Cactus-Pine Council for Thinking Day! This year, on the 100th Anniversary of the GSA, the theme for Thinking Day was Friendship Around the World. These girls and their adult leaders were psyched to learn about Leave No Trace for their many campouts. As an added bonus, there was a Bigfoot sighting at the event! Before he snuck off to find some shade in the Arizona sun, he posed for pictures with Troops, dished out highfives, and showed off some epic dance moves. Way to go, Girls!

Stompin' on Durable Surfaces Like a Boss,

Quinn & Frank

‘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.

Poll Answer: Dirty Dishwater

Thanks to everyone who participated in our most recent poll:

What is the best way to dispose of dirty dishwater while camping?

Over 80% of the participants chose "B: Strain Out Particles and Scatter the Dishwater", which was the correct answer! In our last poll we discussed wildlife habituation, one of the causes being access to human food.

Even the little bits of pasta left in dishwater can be enough to attract wildlife, so straining out those particles (and treating them as trash you'd pack out) is the best practice. You can be creative about straining too; an actual strainer is great, but pantyhose, bandanas and socks have been known to do the trick as well.

Scattering is important because of the element of dispersal. The left over water is sure to carry some food smells, so dispersing it is preferred, as opposed to concentrating it in one place.

A number of poll participants chose A: "Use it to put out your campfire." While the intention is great (always make sure to put out your campfire), again, the concentration of all those food smells in the middle of a campsite will attract wildlife, which starts that process of habituation.

Thanks again for following our blog poll! Stay tuned for another question in the coming weeks.

Poll Answer: Wildlife Behavior

A visitor uses a zoom lens to view a coyote from a safe distance.


Thanks to everyone who participated in this last Leave No Trace Poll! The question was:

"Of the learned responses that wildlife may exhibit around visitors, which is the least desirable?"

Answer choices included:
A. Avoidance
B. Attraction
C. Indifference
D. Fear

This was a tricky question and though many respondents choice "B" (Attraction) the correct answer was "C" (Indifference). Indifference is a result of wildlife habituation. Habituation, by definition, is the point when an animal stops responding to a stimulus, in this case, humans.

Habituation is a process of learning; an animal is exposed to a stimulus for a long enough period of time (again, humans) that it becomes indifferent to it. Habituation has many different levels, the most profound being a change to the animal's nervous system, by which the signals to the brain activating the "fight or flight" response stop functioning.

Thought attraction is not a desirable, indifference is the least desirable behavior because "fight or flight" is a survival technique for all animals.

The good news is, humans can be proactive in decreasing the possibility of wildlife habituation!

Respect Wildlife: Maintaining a safe distance from animals, not feeding them, making sure to pack out trash and being smart about camping/picnicking spots are several ways that we can enjoy wildlife in their natural habitat without compromising their safety or our own.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns; stay tuned for another poll in the coming weeks!