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How Would You Leave No Trace?
Leave No Trace is about using your best judgment to apply these seven principles in a way that’s good for the land and makes sense for the situation at hand. For more information on this outdoor ethics program, visit www.LNT.org or call (800) 332-4100.
Try applying LNT to these scenarios:
Leave No TracePrinciples
1. Plan Ahead and Prepare
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
4. Minimize Campfire Impacts
5. Leave What You Find
6. Respect Wildlife
7. Be Considerate of Others
1. You’re staying with a group of friends on the Gunflint Trail. Today you’ve split up: five to hike a section of the Border Route Trail, while you and four others rent a couple of canoes. Now it’s midday and you decide to take a break from paddling and check out the Stairway Portage. What do you consider as you head toward the several canoes piled up on at the Stairway landing?
A. They all look so much alike – will somebody else take your canoes by mistake?
B. How many canoes are there?
C. Is there a place to pull your canoes up where they won’t be crushing shoreline vegetation, and so there is space left for others to portage through?
D. Is that family milling around onshore portaging toward the next lake or coming this way?
E. Are there rocks such that you can get out without getting your feet wet?
Answer: B, C, and D. You are in the BWCA Wilderness, and as it explains on the back of the day use permit you picked up where you put in at the West Bearskin landing, four canoes are the most allowed in a group. Why? It doesn’t take much soil compressing and plant crushing to open up an area, and once vegetation is gone, erosion happens. This wide landing was once a narrow opening in the forest. The Stairway Portage, long a busy canoe route, has become a popular destination for day visitors, and heavy use has had an impact. Even though your group includes only two canoes, consider waiting. If that family is finishing their portage and about to paddle this way, give them time and room to load up and put in.
2. As you near shore, you hear a familiar voice call across the water: "Come on up – we’re going to the overlook for lunch – you coming?" The Border Route intersects this portage, and your hiking friends have just arrived. What do you do?
A. Count people.
B. Ask them what they have packed for lunch.
C. Think about what kind of experience you want to have today.
D. Consider what kind of experience that family might be hoping for.
Answer: A, C, and D. Again, refer to the permit. No more than nine people can be together in the wilderness. Smaller groups have less impact on the land – and on other people. Especially at busy places like Stairway, it’s important to be considerate of others. If any of you, or the paddlers of these other canoes, are hoping to experience the great silence of the northwoods, or contemplate in solitude the old trail of the voyageurs from the lookout above Rose Lake, or watch uninterrupted as the osprey hunts for fish, now isn’t the time for a noisy reunion. When you get together at dinner tonight, each group will have different stories to swap.
3. Back on Duncan, you catch a nice lake trout but with plans already made for dinner, you decide to release it. Which of the following applies to successful catch and release technique?
A. Vertical for pictures.
B. Slowly
C. Gently
D. In the water.
Answer: C and D. To give the fish its best chance for survival, handle gently, quickly, and in the water if possible. Hold in a horizontal position for pictures.
