Outdoor Ethics - Leave No Trace

[frogfish]

Hi!

I think one of the main question is: Do I some harm?

That is in my opinion correlated to the quantity of people using a spicific area and the time it takes to regrowt. And of course which plant I use, how spread is this particular plant here?

It is a big difference if I cut down a small tree, light a warm fire and get a bunch of green branches for my bed in the middle of the lappland wilderness where there probably will be no other hiker in the next few months or if I´m doing the same thing on the main trail in one of the crowded nationalparks in the USA or New Zealand which sees mayby hundred hikers a day...

Once more, if I´m felling a small pine-tree among thousends of pine trees in an area where the next road i several kilometers away and where I´m the only human beeing I think I do no harm, but...

...I´m feeling beeing part of nature, able to use the provided recourses. Not an astronaut taking all what he needs with him because he´s in an hostile environment.

Being part, not a stranger.

cheers, Heiko

 

[crazydave]

if you want lnt then you should try doing close observation training - what goes in comes out even the digested stuff

scouts aren't the worst but like most kids they have no respect for the enviroment - you should try doing d of e with the chavs. they also lack imagination so they tend to exhaust the nearest resource. story of mankind really.

I dont tend to light fires if I can help it - as long as I know how to is the main thing. I just enjoy the woods to try not to upset anyone when living in the trees.

as to woodpire saga - the old indian saying of 'red man make small fire keep warm, white man make large fire keep warm collecting wood' springs to mind

 

[black_kissa]

One good way to practice leave no trace is to choose one place as your core area, and try to learn everything you can there. Map it, find where the deer live, where the voles are, where the fox... Learn the trees, the birds, the plants. Map it, enjoy it, learn from it, love it.

The longer you go there, the more you become part of it and it becomes part of you. And LNT will come naturally, because if you litter the place, you'll come across it next time and see what effects it has on the environment.

Traveling far and wide to ever new places is an easy way not to see your own tracks

Live and Love,
Anneke

 

[dommyracer]

I think LNT sometimes gets taken a bit far, and I can think of nothing worse than going on a course telling me "how to do it".

I see nothing wrong with using natural resources, in a responsible way.

You would be hard pressed to find evidence of any fire I have had, or any green wood that I cut.

 

[boisdevie]

Leave no trace is fine as an idea but surely it really depends on how busy the area is. If one person visits a wooded area of say 1 hectare in the course of a year and they have one fire and cut wood for shelter and heat then at the end of that year it would be hard to see that they had ever been there.
But if 20 people do the same thing every week then it's a different story.

 

[dwardo]

I do like the idea of LNT but i think like a lot of other extreme forms of outdoors/survival stuff it ends up more about avoiding stepping on bugs than enjoying the outdoors. I would not cut down anything green but some times it is needed for cooking sticks etc. I would try to avoid a natural bedding in well used areas as its just as easy to take a roll mat etc. I never leave trace of a fire but if you started digging around you may find a small black mark under some earth and leaves

I see it as something to work towards but some people seem to need to take things to extremes and thats cool also i guess. Just be sensible and think of not just the next person but every person that may visit that site and its sustainability.

I like to cal this kind of more extreme stuff the "nettle undies" side of things

 

[John Fenna]

If I eat the local vegetation, roots, leaves, seeds etc am I not leaving trace by not allowing these items to flourish?
I think it is al la matter of degree - no one likes to find an obvious fire pit full of cans but I for one would love to find a clean fire pit with wood left by the previous users hung in the trees around ready for the next fire. leaving an obvious, but clean, fire area avoids multiple fire sites cooking multipul root systems in one area.
In well used areas minimizing damage, while using resources, be it fallen timber (insect habitat/firewood) green wood (new trees/coppicedbuilding resource) plant food (new plants/food) water (hydration for plants/drinking water) is always a balancing act. Do not trash an area of natural beauty but the best way to avoid damaging an area is to stay in the concrete jungle - and I for one will not do that!
John

 

[Ogri the trog]

I must admit to having some reservation about the LNT ethics. Cooking on a meths/parafin/hexy etc burner is implying that there is a massive hole in the ground somewhere, with the petro-chemical industry leaving big trace on your behalf. I think I side with John Fenna here, burn local fallen wood without denuding the local area. Eat forraged foods without destroying every plant and gather materials for your projects whilst not preventing the next visitor from doing the same thing. Man has been using the wilderness for millenia, I don't see sufficient reason to stop using it, wisely - either now or in the future.

Ogri the trog

 

[addyb]

For me, I try to leave a campsite in exactly the same condition as it was when I got there. And that may mean doing a lot of cleanup. But in the end, it's worth it because I know the next person will enjoy it just as much as I did.

Adam

 

[dommyracer]

If I eat the local vegetation, roots, leaves, seeds etc am I not leaving trace by not allowing these items to flourish?
I think it is al la matter of degree - no one likes to find an obvious fire pit full of cans but I for one would love to find a clean fire pit with wood left by the previous users hung in the trees around ready for the next fire. leaving an obvious, but clean, fire area avoids multiple fire sites cooking multipul root systems in one area.
In well used areas minimizing damage, while using resources, be it fallen timber (insect habitat/firewood) green wood (new trees/coppicedbuilding resource) plant food (new plants/food) water (hydration for plants/drinking water) is always a balancing act. Do not trash an area of natural beauty but the best way to avoid damaging an area is to stay in the concrete jungle - and I for one will not do that!
John

Very good points. I understand in Scandinavia for example it is more common to find established fire sites?

 

[Rod]

One good way to practice leave no trace is to choose one place as your core area, and try to learn everything you can there. Map it, find where the deer live, where the voles are, where the fox... Learn the trees, the birds, the plants. Map it, enjoy it, learn from it, love it.

The longer you go there, the more you become part of it and it becomes part of you. And LNT will come naturally, because if you litter the place, you'll come across it next time and see what effects it has on the environment.

Traveling far and wide to ever new places is an easy way not to see your own tracks

Live and Love,
Anneke

totally agree with you on this Anneke

 

[gregorach]

It's pretty common in Scotland too...

[Edit] Finding established fire circles, that is.