Federal management agences explore additional Leave No Trace initiatives

Public lands are more popular than ever and keeping the lands clean is a growing challenge.

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Rangers, land managers, and supervisors from the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management gathered in Escalante, Utah last week where they received training in ways to better implement and teach Leave No Trace (LNT) principles to the numerous tourists who visit the area’s many recreational destinations.


The program was led by Matt Schneider and Jessie Johnson, members of the Leave No Trace traveling trainer team. The Leave No Trace organization has four traveling teams which traverse the United States teaching LNT principles to interested groups. Each traveling training team conducts about 150 LNT programs each year. Some of the programs directly interface with the public such as hiking groups or school students and teach them what to do and not to do while recreating in the outdoors. Such courses typically last one to three hours.


The LNT group also has larger, longer, more comprehensive courses for outdoor professionals and land managers. The focus of these courses is to teach them how they can better spread the Leave No Trace message.


The Leave No Trace program is a code of outdoor ethic principles aimed at conserving the outdoors for future generations and users. It was created in the 1960s when large volumes of people began visiting our national and state parks, wilderness areas, forests and other outdoor places and their impacts became more noticeable and detrimental. The idea is to leave the outdoor areas as pristine as possible so that each new visitor feels as though they’re the first ones to visit the site.


The principles include such things as don’t leave trash, or fire rings. Don’t carve your name in trees or rocks. Don’t pick flowers or create new trails. Respect wildlife and don’t disturb your fellow hikers or campers.


“Every year we’re seeing a huge increase of people going outside to play on their public lands, as they should be, but the damage they can do to the area is pretty substantial if they aren’t aware of how to protect the resource,” said Johnson. “Our national parks are being visited by millions more people each year. That’s a lot of added footprints, and in many cases worse.”


Last week’s LNT course went from Monday to Sunday. The LNT instructors met with schools, recreation groups, outdoor guides, outfitters, and outdoor retailers and conducted workshops which taught them how they can spread the LNT message to their clients or the people they meet who are traveling into the outdoors.


“A lot of people are going into the outdoors or the parks for their first time, and sometimes the only information they get beforehand might come from the person at the guide shop,” said Johnson.


For many people the increased interest in traveling to exotic outdoor locations came after they saw a picture of the place on an Instagram or Facebook post. A great many of the new outdoor tourists didn’t grow up camping and may not be familiar with outdoor ethics.


“Studies show that if people new to the outdoors see other people building fires, or leaving their trash behind, they’re much more likely to do the same,” said Johnson, “whereas if they arrive at a site that’s clean, they’re more likely to keep it clean.”


Land use managers from the park service, forest service and BLM are very familiar with the LNT principles and for years they’ve been teaching them to the recreationists who visit their parks or monuments.


The LNT team came to Glen Canyon to teach their courses atthe invitation of Steven Henry, backcountry ranger and wilderness coordinator for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.


“We’re already well-versed in Leave No Trace principles,” said Henry. “It’s something we deal with every day putting out the Leave No Trace message. But we’re always looking for ways we can improve.


“One of the main reasons we wanted to work with the Leave No Trace traveling team was because this is what they do 24/7 365 days out of the year. It seemed likely that they would have some knowledge that could shine some light on what we’re doing. And we did learn a lot from them.”
The weeklong LNT program culminated with seven participants taking an overnight backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch where they could see first-hand the state of the canyon. The group included the traveling LNT instructors, Steven Henry, Jabe Beal, outdoor recreation planner for the BLM, Lance Mattson, emergency services manager for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and his daughter Elena Mattson and a journalist from the Lake Powell Chronicle.
Coyote Gulch is a tributary slot canyon of the Escalante River corridor. Located about 40 miles south of Escalante, Utah, it’s one of the most popular hikes inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. More than 17,000 overnight backpackers visit it each year. It sees more more than 60,000 user days.


Considering the large volume of traffic it receives its not in terrible shape. But neither is it pristine.  During the seven-mile hike through Coyote Gulch from one of its trailheads to their campsite, the group encountered numerous fire rings and ash piles, which they cleaned up. They picked up trash ranging from food wrappers, to toilet paper to discarded human waste disposal bags.


As a backcountry ranger Henry spends about 60 percent of his time on patrol, and half of that time in Coyote Gulch, because it’s such a popular destination. A good portion of Henry’s time is spent interacting with resources visitors, but a good deal of what he does is pick up trash, clean up graffiti and fire rings.
“The areas are doing fair, considering how many people go in there,” Henry said. “I don’t think most people are doing damage maliciously, I think they just lack the knowledge of what they should be doing.”


Keeping the canyons clean of trash, graffiti, fire rings and other damage is a very important part of the job, said Henry.


“We have to stay on top of it for that reason,” said Henry. “If new visitors come to Coyote Gulch and find fire rings and trash they’re a lot more likely to do the same.”