Leave No Trace!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Urban Hillbilly

Active member
Joined
Jul 7, 2017
Posts
30
Location
Pikes Peak Region, CO
I have recently read about some incidents of how people leave and treat natural areas when camping and RVing. After about 12 years of Scouting involvement with my son going through Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and becoming an Eagle Scout, it wasn't only him who was learning some great traits, but me as well. One of the best things is to "Leave No Trace". I've included a link to read the whole principle. It's short, but gets the point across. (http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/TeachingLeaveNoTrace/064_principles.aspx), but here's some key points:
1)Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces, 2)Dispose of Waste Properly (Pack It In, Pack It Out), 3)Sanitation, 4)Leave What You Find, 5)Minimize Site Alterations, 6)Minimize Campfire Impacts, 7)Respect Wildlife, 8)Be Considerate of Other Visitors, 9)Plan Ahead and Prepare.
And if I might add, pick up things others have left behind.
I know most RVer's are considerate of where they go and stay, but unfortunately some think they are still in their backyards. I posted this under Boondocking, but a lot of the same principles can be exercised at regular campgrounds, too.
I'm not trying to "bust" on anyone, but what we have left of our great outdoors belongs to everyone to enjoy.

 
I think the "be considerate" part is one that often gets lost when thinking leave no trace...  Usually it's thinking from the perspective of "future" visitors to that area.  It also can apply to "present" visitors as well....

For example, a subdued colored tent can be better so as not to destroy the view that others might enjoy in the area....
.. I put it this way.... imagine a beautiful mountain lake scene... nobody around for a thousand miles.....now imagine someone setting up a tent over there on the opposite shoreline... a nice blaze orange tent will work...  boom, just ruined the image, right?
  now change that tent to a olive drab color, or some other more subdued color...so that it nearly disappears....much better, eh?

RV'ers do a similar thing even in campgrounds....with huge lanterns, music blaring, large smokey camp fires, etc...
 
Good points, Urban. A good reminder to leave the site better than we found it, rather it's boondocking or at a high-end RV Resort.


blw2 said:
RV'ers do a similar thing even in campgrounds....with huge lanterns, music blaring, large smokey camp fires, etc...
LOL - reminds me of one time we were camping with a large group and one guy actually brought his lantern over to the campfire and set it on a table next to his chair. Very relaxing...NOT!
 
Ugh... Those old coleman white gas lanterns should be outlawed. They're like a sun going super nova.
Good link Urban Hillbilly. As someone who went up the ladder with my boys in scouts, I am adamant about the condition of our site when we leave. I often end up picking up the previous occupants little crap.
 
SeilerBird said:
Leave no trace? How does one do that in an RV? There are no all electric powered RVs yet, someone tell Elon to hurry up.

It's a given, an RV is not like a tent, but I've seen tent campers leave a bigger mess than an RVer and you usually drive a car to the campsite. Also, you can do things like solar to curb some of the energy issues. It's just not a perfect world, even for Elon! I agree, it does start with a considerate attitude.
 
Urban Hillbilly said:
It's a given, an RV is not like a tent, but I've seen tent campers leave a bigger mess than an RVer and you usually drive a car to the campsite. Also, you can do things like solar to curb some of the energy issues. It's just not a perfect world, even for Elon! I agree, it does start with a considerate attitude.
You missed my point. Claiming to leave no trace but then driving a vehicle is counterproductive. It is not not leaving a trace.
 
Once we get all packed up we all take a turn around the campsite. Once we're hooked up and I pull out I drive back around to the campsite and stop in front and everybody takes a good look. That way we can see it from the perspective of the folks that may be coming in behind us. We can see if we left anything under the truck or trailer.
 
BinaryBob said:
Ugh... Those old coleman white gas lanterns should be outlawed. They're like a sun going super nova.....

yep.  I've been saying the same thing since I started scouting with my son's cub scout pack.  Even the electric lanterns.... just when I start getting a little bit of night vision adaptation going, somebody with their shiny new lantern would stroll by on the way to the bathhouse or someplace.... :eek:

When I wrote my post though, i had pictured in my mind the time when we were camping in a state park.  We were in our popup trailer at the time, and the guy in the next site over had a "bucket light" hanging high in the tree above.  Must have had a 200 watt bulb, maybe more in that thing.  The whole place looked like a walmart parking lot!
 
I recall an advertisment (Do not litter ad) Featuring an Indian who walked the forest Came to a River, observed some junk (I recall a plastic bottle carrier and some other stuff) and cried.

Only problem with the ad is that he was a Forest indian, a TeePee dweller. They were nomadic, THey moved in, Destroyed the enviorment, then leaving all their junk to decay over time moved on.

Not like the Pubelo dwellers of the Dessert regions.  (NOTE: Confirmed with a genuine Pubelo Dweller, the daughter of a Tribal Leader no less, when I was in AZ some years back)

But then.. She was amazed I knew the differene  (I am often amazed at how little some people know.. But then I like to read, and when you read..... You learn).
 
Firepits are not garbage pits. It seems many RVers like to toss their crap in the fire pit for the next person to clean out.

I travel with a long handle picker-upper because I don't like all the little bits of garbage I find all over most campsites I go to set up on. Straws, beer caps, cig butts, plastic crap from juice box straws (really hate that system!) and so on.

I seem to spend an hour just cleaning up a site so I am not ashamed to be seen camping on it.

When I leave, I doubt if anyone could find anything wrong with the way I leave the camp. I would say that 99% of the time I leave it in far better shape than I found it.

I am appalled at the cavalier attitude towards garbage and the laziness in hauling it out or disposing of it properly. I have even found entire garbage bags full stuffed in the fire pit for the next hapless camper to deal with.
 
Boy, I'd love to follow y'all when I camp but unfortunately, I too get the pigs who leave all the garbage behind. Can we start shooting the litterers? Seems that is the only thing that will stop them. Oh, and don't shoot to wound!

Keith
 
We have one of only a few active lifetime camping/hunting access permits left for a 400 acre tree farm in the Adirondacks owned by a large paper company. When we were there for a week last summer, the senior forester for the company came by to introduce us to a new summer intern. The intern was first out of the truck, and he immediately started in on us ranting about the sewer hose that he thought was running out on ground. When the forester caught up with him, he started laughing, making the intern even madder. Once the intern finally calmed down, the forester asked him to go over and see where the end of the hose went. The puzzled look on the interns face when he found the elbow screwed into a PVC pipe fitting was priceless. The forester finally told him that the little clearing we were in was where the forester had lived in his trailer 30 something years ago while he was building a cabin to live in a few miles away. While he was in the trailer, he had a 500 gallon septic tank and leach field installed at the clearing, and had showed us the inlet long ago so we could use it too. When we're preparing to leave, the fireplace rocks are scattered with the wet down ashes raked out, and the sewer inlet covered with brush. Anyone coming by would be hard pressed to know that anyone had been camping there at all, much less in a 34' motorhome.
 
OK, I gotta say this.  First, I also spent around 10 years coming up through the Boy Scouts with my kids, and have been on tons of camp outs with the Scouts.
 
I've spent the last 2 summers camp hosting outside the park at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Without a doubt the worst campsites I've had to clean up were sites occupied by Boy Scout troops.  Not sure what they're teaching the kids these days, but it's sure not "leave no trace".
I've seen sites where a bunch of guys were drinking and piling the empties on the picnic table that were cleaner when they left than sites with Boy Scout troops. 
Even the leaders have trouble following simple things like the parking rules for the sites and fire rules.  Had a troop this year that showed up during a period of red flag conditions that even banned fires in the campgrounds.  They hadn't brought any kind of stoves to cook their food, so were starting fires even though it was posted in several spots around the campground not to.
When I asked them to put out the fires, it was, "how are we supposed to cook our food?"  Hey, when I was a scout leader we brought Coleman stoves with us to cook on if we needed to.  Whatever happened to "be prepared"?
 
 
Good grief!  No brains I guess.  The Girl Scouts taught all that and more when I was one.

ArdraF
 
A couple of years ago, the Rangers had a Boy Scout troop pack up and leave in the middle of the night at a local state park here.
 
It seems like beach state parks tend to be the worst.  Sand, sun and for some people their only foray into the outdoors all year.  I pick up around my camspites and neighborhood.  I like when I see others doing the same.
 
Old_Crow said:
OK, I gotta say this.  First, I also spent around 10 years coming up through the Boy Scouts with my kids, and have been on tons of camp outs with the Scouts.
 
I've spent the last 2 summers camp hosting outside the park at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Without a doubt the worst campsites I've had to clean up were sites occupied by Boy Scout troops.  Not sure what they're teaching the kids these days, but it's sure not "leave no trace".
I've seen sites where a bunch of guys were drinking and piling the empties on the picnic table that were cleaner when they left than sites with Boy Scout troops. 
Even the leaders have trouble following simple things like the parking rules for the sites and fire rules.  Had a troop this year that showed up during a period of red flag conditions that even banned fires in the campgrounds.  They hadn't brought any kind of stoves to cook their food, so were starting fires even though it was posted in several spots around the campground not to.
When I asked them to put out the fires, it was, "how are we supposed to cook our food?"  Hey, when I was a scout leader we brought Coleman stoves with us to cook on if we needed to.  Whatever happened to "be prepared"?

As an Eagle Scout all I can say is I'm appalled at what you experienced. My leaders were perfect examples for us. Terrible that all leaders are not like that!
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,735
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom