Leave No Trace and Scouting

[Ridgewalker]

Leave No Trace has recently been emphasized by the BSA in Scouting and Venturing. What is the reponse to LNT in your units. Have you heard about? Will you use it in your outdoor program?

 

 

[Mike Long]

I have personally been using LNT methods for many years and have been pushing the principles in our troop from the moment I became involved with it six years ago.

 

Scouting has always taught boys to "Take only pictures leave only footprints" Really LNT is nothing new to Scouting it is just that only recently that the BSA has allied itself with the No Trace organization. http://www.lnt.org/ We just didn't call it Leave No Trace we called it being a good camper. The only big difference is that we now have a solid written set of guidelines.

 

I have to say, ALL troops need to follow LNT ethics. It's just good Scouting to not trash our outdoor classroom and playground. How many of us have gone someplace to camp and when we got there the place was trashed? You know, garbage overflowing the firepit and scattered through the brush, the entire area stripped of deadwood, trees stripped of limbs to above arms length, most of the vegatation trampled, and everything that can't move has So-in-so loves what's-his-face carved in it. Everyone (unless your blessed) should have your hand up now. To top it off (being the fine Scouts you all are) how many of you spent a big chunk of the time allocated to your program with cleaning up the mess? Once again I hope everyone's hand is up. If more people practiced the simple coutrtesy of the LNT ethics, situations such as that will become rare.

 

After several trips that became service projects, some of our boys have become militant in spreading the LNT message. All they want is a nice place to camp. One of our Troop mottos is "We didn't put the mess here, but we won't leave it here." I hope you all take LNT to heart and make it a fundamental principle in your unit.

 

[Stan Riddle]

We have done a few LNT specific trips, especially w/ the younger boys, but I agree that Scouting has for many years now supported minimum impact camping. IMHO there's a difference between minimum impact and LNT. LNT goes to the maximum as far as packing out your poop, NO fires, eating over your ground cloth so crumbs don't hit the ground, wearing Tyvek suits so your skin cells don't flake off into the cave, etc. LNT teaches some very good principles, and we try to follow most of them. I believe that Scouting has followed much of it for many years now.

 

About 30 years ago (when I was in the smaller unforms), I remember that every camping trip began with clear cutting a half acre or so of forest, trenching tents, and lashing together every stick you could get your hands on. That's how we got the reputation "The Hoods of the Woods".

 

We've come a long way.

[Ridgewalker]

Thanks for the responses.

 

I took the LNT course at Philmont Training Center this fall, so I'm obviously a believer. However, in my training courses, whether for LNT or anything else I teach, I emphasize "Do Your Best" rather than Do It Perfect or Not At All.

 

Sure, I carry the poop out of pristine wilderness areas, but I also maximize my impact in already impacted areas rather than spreading out and creating many new minimally impacted areas.

 

Once environmental degregation begins it's hard to stop, and 90% of BSA camping occurs in already heavily impacted areas. The trick is to minimize your impact no matter where you camp.

 

If you're teaching LNT principles, end your presentation with Woodie Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land' it really brings the point home.

 

And, start teaching at the Cub level. By the time they are Scouts many of their camping habits are already developed and hard to change.

 

 

[Ridgewalker]

Hello out there. According to the little number in the corner, over 60 people have read this forum, but only two have replied.

 

Are the rest of you indifferent, confused, hostile? Or, just busy?

 

Can't have much of a forum if I'm mainly talking to myself.

 

 

[bobwhite]

LNT is a great program, and like one of the posters we have tried to never leave a mess behind, even if it was there before us. However, I consider cooking over a wood fire, firebuilding and campfires all to be important parts of a well rounded Scout experience. Naturally the locations and impact for these have to be considered carefully and discussed with your Troop, so that they understand the reasons and hopefully, as adults, will be able to pass on these skills and judgements. Some of the extreme criteria advised by the LNT hardliners regarding the choice of tent and clothing colors also need to be weighed according to your own situations. I would much rather see a purple tent camped in a field whose owner leaves nothing behind than an earthtone shelter surrounded by "artifacts". Guess I'm just funny that way.

[eisely]

We have not made a big deal of LNT camping in our troop. It is just part of the way that we do business. Many of the designated wilderness areas available to us in California have tough requirements regarding sanitation. It will be interesting to see how our scouts take to that.

 

I agree with Bob White about the tent colors and clothing colors. Frankly I want bright colors to make it easier for others to find us if there ever should be a need.

[Mike Long]

Bob, campfires, firebuilding and cooking over fires are all important parts of a well-rounded Scout program and should never be removed. We just need to teach the boys to understand when fires are and are not appropreate (sp?.) Campfire knowledge is very necessary if at least as a survival skill. I personally prefer to cook on campfire coals rather than my stove. (ash adds a certain zest to scrambled eggs in the morning.)

 

LNT does not impose harsh rules of conduct it simply asks you to think about your impacts more than we normally do and restrict your wear and tear to areas and items that can handle the wear and tear a little better. Like Eisely we don't make a big dael out of LNT either, it's just the way we do things. Wilderness areas in the southeast don't have as strict of guidelines as areas out west, but just you wait, they are coming. Not to be nasty but get with the program folks or eventually you will be forced to.(This message has been edited by Mike Long)

[Blaine]

I started teaching LNT skills to my Troop as soon as I found out about the program. The program just seemed to put into words much of my own philosophy of how to behave in the woods. This past October, my Venturing Crew staffed our Fall Camporee which was a LNT teaching camporee.

Irecently stated an email list on egroups for a "continuing discussion of LNT teaching and issues", if you are interested in subscribing, and sharing some knowledge, send a message to subscribe to: LNT-OutdoorEthics-subscribe@egroups.com

[Blaine]

Ridgewalker, is the LNT course at Philmont a Master or a Trainer course?

[Ridgewalker]

The Philmont LNT course was basically a Master Educator course without some of the Wilderness Medicine emphasis.

 

We originally expected that there would be a NOLS trainer, but BSA decided not to have one for some reason.

 

Participants are registered with LNT as Awareness Trainers qualified to train Scoutmasters, SPLs and others to present LNT to their units.

 

I have given presentations to adults at our day-long Rendezvous adult training event in November, plus to Roundtables. I do not give them to individual units, that is the responsibility of the unit leaders.

 

The Philmont course is still evolving, so if you are interested in this year's course content you should probably talk to PTC yourself.