by T.Hoerner

Created on: June 10, 2008

JUST PICTURE THIS

You've waited all winter for the first annual early summer kickoff camping trip! Finally, it's here. You have arrived at the most fabulous camp site your family can find. It looks from a distance, wild and full of adventures! Wow, what a great thing nature is!
At first glimpse, you see towering Pine trees and fluttering Aspen leaves. The air is rich with the perfume of black soil and wildflowers that speckle the soil with vibrant color.

Anxiously and with lots of years of practice, your family unpacks the van, each person familiar with the routine. Dish stuff goes over there, tent stuff goes herethen you see it!

"Ah!" You say out loud, "GROSS!" Litter is everywhere; in fact, the camp site hardly looks wild at all. There are bottles, cans, plastic wrappers, and lots of other assorted items scattered all over the forest floor. It is appalling and you can't imagine who could do this!

The sad truth is that the mess probably isn't the result of one careless person, but many. Often a person will think if they leave behind one thing, like a pop can, it will just disappear over time, or if they leave all the left over marshmallows on the side of the site, that the animals will love them, then just go away. Unfortunately this cannot be the case. Our waste stays and collects, the food attracts animals and often dangerous ones like bears. And this mess is what you can end up with.

Each person, big and small, has the responsibility to take care of nature. The Leave No Trace idea is a concept of leaving it better than you found it. In this case, you'd have a project, hopefully, this wouldn't be too common. However, you sure don't want to be a contributor to the problem. If each person who visited nature followed the Leave No Trace rules, the wilderness could be preserved for many, many generations yet to come. To be a part of that, start by making the habits listed below habits of yours!

Habits to remember:

1. Stay on the marked trails
2. Pick up after yourself. If you brought it with you, take it with you when you leave.
3. Don't pick the flowers, pull limbs off trees, or cut trees down
4. If you brought a dog or other companion with you, pick up after him/her.
5. Don't dump chemicals or soaps (or anything else) into the water
6. Go potty where an adult has designated
7. Do not go near or try to feed the wildlife!
8. Be very careful with fire, there is no mark like a burn!

If each person who visited nature took these habits as their own, the long term effect on the world would be spectacular. As anyone can tell, by the example above, it only takes one person with one item to leave a scar on the earth, and an ugly mess for someone else. If there weren't a single item left behind, no plant removed, imagine the difference it would make.

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