Are Leave No Trace Principles Effective? Essays -- Environment Environ

Are Leave No Trace Principles Effective? Leave No Trace is philosophy of seven concepts that help minimize human recreational impact on wild lands. As wilderness recreation has become more popular, and the National Wilderness Preservation System has increased its wilderness lands from 9.1 million acres in 54 wildernesses in 1964 to 104 million acres in 628 wildernesses in 19991, the need for guidelines to help reduce degradation of these lands has become increasingly important. In 1979 Jim Bradley wrote about the need for an educational approach for managing recreation impacts instead of regulations that antagonize the public rather than win their support2. Teaching good practices is more effective than imposing strict regulations because most harms done to the wilderness by recreational activities is due to lack of knowledge of a less impacting technique, and because it is very difficult to enforce regulations in large tracts of wild and remote lands. 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 Some of the concepts have effects that are less tangible or less able to be empirically evaluated, such as: ?be respectful of wildlife, and ?be considerate to other visitors. However, these two concepts have far reaching implications, and in a sense embody the other five guidelines: ?plan ahead and prepare, ?travel and camp on durable surfaces, ?minimize fires, ?leave what you find, ?properly dispose of waste. If one is respectful of wildlife, and considerate of other visitors, then they will plan ahead and prepare so that they ... ...ore aware of the consequences of littering, and also more aware of the positive effects of treating everything with more care and respect. Sources Cited 1 http://leopold.wilderness.net/research/nutshell/database 2 http://www.lnt.org (History of Leave No Trace) 3 Leave No Trace North America booklet (P. 10) available at www.lnt.org 4 www.lnt.org (History of Leave No Trace) 5 http://leopold.wilderness.net/research/nutshell/llama.pdf 6 Professor Ralf Buckley, â€Å"Breakdown of Human Waste in Three Sub-Tropical Australian Ecosystems† available at www.nols.edu/resources/research/abstracts.shtml 7 Professor Michael D. Ellis â€Å"The Fate of Feces and Fecal Microorganisms in Human waste in Alpine, Temperate, and Arid Environments and the Impact of Disposal Methods on Surrounding Environment† available at www.nols.edu/resources/research/humanwaste_Mt.Rainier.shtml