Explainer

Leave No Trace is widely cited and thinly known. The framework has seven principles, and the ones people skip are the ones that matter most in heavily used country.

Plan ahead and prepare

Listed first because most impact is a downstream consequence of poor planning — arriving late and camping in the wrong place, running short and cutting corners, bringing gear that fails.

Travel and camp on durable surfaces

Rock, gravel, dry grass, established tread and established sites are durable. Vegetation, cryptobiotic soil crust in the desert and wet meadow are not.

In popular areas, concentrate use: camp on the existing site rather than making a new one. In pristine areas, disperse: spread out so no single spot gets established.

Those are opposite instructions and both are correct in their context.

Dispose of waste properly

Human waste in a cathole 6–8 inches deep, well away from water, camp and trail — or packed out where the rules require it, which is increasingly common in alpine, desert and river corridors.

Toilet paper burns badly and does not decompose quickly. Pack it out.

Strained dishwater, scattered. Food scraps out, including the organic ones, because a banana peel takes years and teaches animals to check camps.

Leave what you find

Rocks, antlers, plants and artefacts stay. Removing archaeological material from federal land is a federal offence with real penalties.

Minimise campfire impacts

A stove cooks; a fire is optional. Where fires are permitted, use an existing ring, burn only dead and down wood of wrist thickness or less, burn it to ash and drown it until it is cold to the touch.

Check fire restrictions first — they override all of this.

Respect wildlife

Distance, no feeding, and secure food storage. Feeding wildlife is how animals become problems and then get killed.

Be considerate of others

Noise carries further than people think, particularly across water and up valleys.

This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed, fact-checked and edited by Leonidas Clark before publication. Rules vary by agency and unit; check the managing office before you go.