Leave No Trace

“The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” — Luna Leopold

My parents met as rangers in the backcountry. So throughout my life, my family has always been an outdoor family in many ways; farming, backpacking, traveling… I have endless memories of cleaning up camp and going around with my siblings, making sure not even a bottle cap stayed behind, which we’d collect and make art out of.
The “Leave No Trace” ethos became second nature to me wherever I went. It became so deeply ingrained that when I saw a sign at a camp which read “Leave No Trace,” I wondered why such a redundant sign would be put up. In my mind, these two things were hand in hand!

So how does this connect to you all? Well, as I got older, I realized that this approach is actually so important! Not only does it make the world prettier, it lessens one of the negative impacts of human presence in the landscape; our waste. This makes ecosystems safer for species, including the ocean, which is at the mercy of human activity on the land. Overall leaving no trace in wildlands is better for the earth system as a whole.

So what does this mean? What can you do?

A good place to start is leaving no trash, spray paint or engravings, rock dams that inhibit fish migration, excrement near trails or water sources, and not over-harvesting plants, which is also illegal in most states including California. Don’t create campsites or fire pits where there isn’t one already well-established. This list can seem daunting, and you might not know if it is alright, so here is a clue: leave only your footprints! “Make it hard for others to see or hear you and ‘leave no trace’ of your visit” (Los Padres National Forest Service).

But being a human in our landscape doesn’t mean we should have no impact, we have powerful brains and opposable thumbs for a reason—we can have a POSITIVE impact! I like to hike with a trash bag in my backpack, so I am always prepared. Even when I am not in the forest I try to leave no trace of waste. Shouldn’t we care for and protect our ‘developed’ spaces the same way we do the wild?

I don’t see a border.

-Adeline Evans, Green Valley Project Intern