Leave No Trace

[Goin camping]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, I don't think we need to belong to any group or organization to do the right thing; We all know what is right and wrong, so just do it. Clean up your darn mess; Or better yet, don't make one!

Some folks were never taught how to behave in the wilderness. For them this campaign can be very educational. It never hurts to bring awarness to the unaware.

Those stickers, commercials and pamphlets etc. do bring that awarness.

[SilverCabin]

Originally Posted by Action

For the most part I believe the thoughts outlined above are good. Howver in my opinion some are a little extreme and frankly I doubt my children would follow because I would be hard pressed to enforce.

Leave rocks where you find them?
My 2 yo loves to throw rocks. And she is for the most part considerat of others and does not throw them at any one or anything.

Walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when wet or muddy
If the trail is wide enough and there are not others using the trail why?

I believe in leave it as you found it however there are limits to that practice in my opinion. Humans are part of the planet.

>>>>>>>>>>>Action

As a member of the Florida Trail Association, we as a group subscribe to the LNT principals and practices. I especially appreciate the be considerate of others and wish some of the locals around here would leave the Boom Boxes at home.

Throwing a few rocks into a river or pond--yeah, who's going to take the fun out of being a kid, not me. I still like to skip a stone across the water now and then. The point of that guideline though, is that if you discover an artifact (petrified wood, lava, fossil, etc.) if you take it, you remove it from its context. That "kills" the item and prevents anyone else from having fun making the same discovery. That's really the intent.

Walking the trails here in Florida, you're guaranteed to encounter water. It's really hard to stay on trail when your boots are dry and the you can see dry land at the edge of the trail. And that's all I want to say about that.

Lastly, at Falaluminum last year, the lake was down about 20 ft due to the severe drought in north Georgia. It seemed like 40 trailers draining their gray tanks 200 ft away from the lake might have been the best thing we could do, but we didn't and hauled our Blue Boys to the dump station. I use soapy water around my house to control plant pests. If it's truly gray water free of spaghetti o's then it should be harmless and beneficial when drained 200 ft away from any natural water.

Good discussion here from everyone.

Randy

[pmclemore]

It's hard to reconcile "leave no trace" and "dumping gray water on the gound" in any meaningful way.

Pat

[Jaxon]

Nothing worse than arriving at a campsite only to find you have to clean it up prior to setting up because some"entitled" folks were oblivious.

Alot of things to us that camp and get out are self evident. But to those who have just warmed to the concept of "RV'ing or camping", might have never even considered these things. Haven't heard before, haven't thought about it (not in their lexicon) before... Dang! Didn't exist before them!

Ain't nothing wrong in restating the obvious or in some cases, the process. Remember, we all learned it somewhere...

However, lets be realistic. Man has camped MILLIONS of years before LNT, Sierra Club, etc., etc., let's keep things in perspective and not try to "out-ecologize" each other.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by Jaxon

Nothing worse than arriving at a campsite only to find you have to clean it up prior to setting up because some"entitled" folks were oblivious.

Alot of things to us that camp and get out are self evident. But to those who have just warmed to the concept of "RV'ing or camping", might have never even considered these things. Haven't heard before, haven't thought about it (not in their lexicon) before... Dang! Didn't exist before them!

Ain't nothing wrong in restating the obvious or in some cases, the process. Remember, we all learned it somewhere...

However, lets be realistic. Man has camped MILLIONS of years before LNT, Sierra Club, etc., etc., let's keep things in perspective and not try to "out-ecologize" each other.

Oh yes....we have run into a few, "Icampbetterthanyoucamp, neighbors,

of course, they weren't Streamers

[ScrapIrony-2]

This thread is GREAT...hope we're not preaching to the choir...If even one learns, it's successful...I think ther may be a few more than that...has anyone bothered to follow the info Kevbo left tracers to?...pretty amazing amount of info...K-WHERE do you find the time?
mike

[SilverCabin]

Originally Posted by pmclemore

It's hard to reconcile "leave no trace" and "dumping gray water on the gound" in any meaningful way.

Pat

Pat,

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating dumping gray water on the ground, nor do I do it. We do use a sink strainer and biodegradable soap in the Airstream, but 22 gallons of gray water is more than what a backpacker would be disposing of in any one place.

Not everyone would be as careful with their gray water as we are, and I wouldn't ever like to find spaghetti o's on the ground around a campsite. I don't even like to find that at a dump station.

Randy