From the Appalachian Trail Conference
August 1999
Leave No Trace Inc. of Boulder, Colo., has announced changes in the principles of the Leave No Trace program, designed to educate users of America’s recreation lands in minimum-impact camping and travel techniques. Since its inception in the late 1970s, the Leave No Trace education program has used six principles that seek to minimize the natural- and cultural-resource impacts of recreation. The principles have been promoted nationally through the work of Leave No Trace Inc. and through the endorsement of the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Leave No Trace Inc. announced changes in the language of the principles and the addition of a new principle earlier this year. The changes are intended to better address current issues on America’s recreation lands, such as impacts of visitors on wildlife and the social impacts of visitors on each other, in addition to refining some of the language for clarity and simplicity.
Original Leave No Trace Principles:
1) Plan Ahead and Prepare
2) Camp and Travel on Durable Surfaces
3) Pack It In, Pack It Out
4) Properly Dispose of What You Can’t Pack Out
5) Leave What You Find
6) Minimize Use and Impact of Fires
Revised Leave No Trace Principles:
1) Plan Ahead and Prepare
2) Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
3) Dispose of Waste Properly
4) Leave What You Find
5) Minimize Campfire Impacts
6) Respect Wildlife
7) Be Considerate of Other Visitors
Two of the revisions are minor. The change in principle two, “Camp and Travel on Durable Surfaces” to “Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces,” better reflects the order in which people participate in the activities, i.e., traveling before camping. The revision to “Minimize Use and Impact of Fires” is also relatively minor. It has been revised to read “Minimize Campfire Impacts,” an attempt at simpler language for the same idea. Some of the other changes are quite significant. The addition of principles six and seven are an attempt to revise the Leave No Trace message to address topics not previously covered. Principle six, “Respect Wildlife,” combines many messages about keeping safe distances from animals, not feeding wildlife, handling food appropriately to avoid nuisance animals, avoiding soap use in streams because of impacts on aquatic species, etc. Before the revision, it was difficult to use the Leave No Trace principles to communicate those important messages to the public. Similarly, principle seven, “Be Considerate of Other Visitors,” was added to increase people’s awareness of the impacts that they may have on other recreational users. Again, under the old principles, educators found no easy vehicle to communicate important information about group size, noise, sharing of shelters and facilities, and other issues in heavily used recreation areas, such as the Appalachian Trail. The addition of two new principles created strong pressure to eliminate or combine others to keep the message concise and easy for the public to remember. Principles three and four were the natural choice. Leave No Trace opted to combine “Pack It In, Pack It Out” with “Properly Dispose of What You Can’t Pack Out” into the new third principle, “Dispose of Waste Properly.” One alternative was to retain the popular phrase “Pack It In, Pack It Out.” However, many felt that this wording implied packing out human waste, a rather extreme position for many outdoor-recreation activities. The Appalachian Trail Conference was given the opportunity to comment on the proposed revision in its draft form. ATC endorsed the changes and felt that addition of the new principle of “Be Considerate of Other Visitors” was crucial to making the LNT program work on the Appalachian Trail. Based on the revised principles and the endorsement of the program by our federal land-owning agency partners, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, the Board of Managers adopted a policy at its November 1998 meeting that made Leave No Trace the preferred minimum-impact message of the Appalachian Trail.
