Leave No Trace: The Seven Principles That Protect Wild Places
Leave No Trace describes the practices that allow millions of people to use wild places without collectively degrading what makes those places worth visiting. Understanding them is not a compliance exercise — it is understanding why specific behaviors matter in wild environments.
Plan Ahead and Prepare
Hikers who get lost cause search-and-rescue operations that damage trail environments and risk rescuer safety. Hikers who don’t know campfire regulations may create fire risks in drought-prone landscapes. Planning ahead — researching regulations, checking weather and trail conditions, carrying adequate supplies, knowing your limits — reduces the probability of emergencies and associated impacts.
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Stay on established trails. Camp on previously impacted sites or on rock, sand, and dry grasses in areas without established sites. Don’t shortcut switchbacks — the erosion created by off-trail shortcuts accumulates across thousands of boot contacts until the shortcut becomes a permanent gully. Camp at least 200 feet from water to protect riparian ecosystems most sensitive to disturbance.
Pack It In, Pack It Out
Everything you carry into the backcountry comes back out. This includes food packaging, food scraps including apple cores and banana peels — which take months to decompose in cold, dry mountain conditions — and human waste properly managed in a cat hole six inches deep and 200 feet from water sources and trails. The cumulative visible impact of discarded so-called biodegradable food on heavily used trails is significant and entirely preventable with minimal effort.
