Camp Skills
Leave No Trace
Seven principles, developed for wilderness travel and just as relevant at a state park with a bathhouse. None of them require sacrifice — they require ten minutes of attention per trip.
Why it matters
The maths of a busy campground
A popular campground hosts tens of thousands of nights a year. If one camper in fifty leaves food scraps out, that's several hundred wildlife-feeding events annually at one loop. If one in a hundred builds a new fire ring, the site widens every season. Leave No Trace isn't about your single visit being harmless — it's about your visit multiplied by everyone else's.
Principle 1
Plan ahead and prepare
Most damage outdoors is done by unprepared people improvising. A camper who didn't check the fire ban builds a ring; a camper who didn't bring a trowel leaves a mess.
In practice
- ✓Check regulations, fire status and permit requirements before you leave
- ✓Repackage food at home to cut packaging you'd have to carry out
- ✓Bring the right gear so you're not improvising with the landscape
- ✓Travel in small groups; split large groups into fours
- ✓Have a bad-weather plan so you don't end up camping somewhere you shouldn't
Principle 2
Travel and camp on durable surfaces
Vegetation and soil crust take years to recover from a single night of compaction. Established sites have already absorbed that damage — using them concentrates impact instead of spreading it.
In practice
- ✓Camp on existing sites, rock, gravel, dry grass or snow
- ✓In popular areas, concentrate use: one established site, not a new one nearby
- ✓In pristine areas, disperse use and avoid creating new tracks
- ✓Walk single file in the centre of the trail, even when it's muddy
- ✓Keep camp at least 200 feet (about 70 steps) from lakes and streams
- ✓Avoid places where impact is just beginning — that's where damage becomes permanent
Principle 3
Dispose of waste properly
Everything you bring in stays in the environment unless you carry it out. Food scraps are not compost — orange peel takes years and teaches wildlife to associate humans with food.
In practice
- ✓Pack out all trash, leftover food and micro-litter (bottle caps, twist ties, foil corners)
- ✓Cathole for solid human waste: 6–8 inches deep, 200 feet from water, trail and camp
- ✓Pack out toilet paper and hygiene products where required — most alpine and desert areas
- ✓Strain dishwater, pack out the solids, scatter greywater 200 feet from water
- ✓Use only biodegradable soap, and use it away from any source
- ✓Do a final sweep of the site with a headlamp before you leave, even in daylight
Principle 4
Leave what you find
If every visitor took one interesting rock, the place would be featureless within a decade. This applies to cultural artefacts, wildflowers, antlers and driftwood alike.
In practice
- ✓Leave rocks, plants, artefacts and natural objects where they are
- ✓Don't build structures, furniture or rock cairns
- ✓Don't carve, hammer nails into or tie rope directly around trees
- ✓Don't dig trenches around tents
- ✓Avoid transporting non-native species — clean boots and gear between regions
Principle 5
Minimise campfire impacts
Fire scars, stripped deadwood and escaped embers are the most visible and longest-lasting damage campers cause. A stove cooks better anyway.
In practice
- ✓Use a stove for cooking; keep fire for enjoyment where it's permitted
- ✓Use existing fire rings, fire pans or mound fires — never build a new ring
- ✓Keep fires small and burn only dead, downed wood you can break by hand
- ✓Buy firewood locally (within about 50 miles) to avoid moving invasive insects
- ✓Burn all wood to fine ash, then drown, stir and feel for heat
- ✓Scatter cool ash widely and dismantle any ring you were forced to build
Principle 6
Respect wildlife
A fed animal is very often a dead animal. Habituated bears, foxes and rodents are relocated or destroyed, and it starts with one camper leaving a cooler out.
In practice
- ✓Observe from a distance; never follow or approach
- ✓Never feed wildlife, deliberately or by leaving food unattended
- ✓Store food, trash and all scented items in a hard-sided vehicle, locker or canister
- ✓Control pets at all times or leave them at home
- ✓Give extra space during mating, nesting, and when young are present
- ✓Keep noise down, especially around dawn and dusk when animals are most active
Principle 7
Be considerate of other visitors
Most people go outdoors for quiet and space. The single biggest source of complaints in campgrounds is other campers — generators, music, headlights and off-leash dogs.
In practice
- ✓Respect quiet hours, usually 10pm to 7am
- ✓Keep generators to posted hours and point exhaust away from neighbours
- ✓Yield on the trail: bikes yield to hikers, everyone yields to horses, downhill yields to uphill
- ✓Camp away from trails and other groups where you can
- ✓Aim headlamps and headlights down; use red mode after dark
- ✓Let natural sound prevail — speakers stay quiet or off
Easy habits
Six things that take almost no effort
Carry a trash bag on the outside of your pack
Picking up a few pieces of someone else's litter costs nothing and leaves the place measurably better.
Repackage at home
Cardboard boxes and blister packs become wet trash at camp. Ziplocks and reusable containers cut waste before you leave.
Bring a trowel, always
Even at developed campgrounds. It weighs 2 oz and it's the difference between doing this right and not.
Use a dish strainer
A small mesh strainer over your greywater catches food solids for the trash bag in one motion.
Pack an extra stuff sack for micro-litter
Twist ties, foil corners, wrapper tears. They're what's actually left behind at most sites.
Photograph your site on arrival
It shows you exactly what to restore before you drive away.
The standard we hold ourselves to