Incorporating Leave No Trace in Environmental Education

Gabi Reyes-Acosta

Declo, ID

Programs Manager, American Association of People with Disabilities

Students collect and study macroinvertebrates in the Boise River. All creatures were returned to the river unharmed.

There is a saying that I often use when with youth outside: “Take only lessons, leave only memories.” I first heard it working as a camp counselor at a resident summer camp that I worked at through my college years, and I carried it through my time running camping and outdoor education programs. This phrase has been a guide through all of the ways I model and teach conservation practices to youth, and it is deeply connected to another guiding principle, well seven in fact: the 7 Leave No Trace Principles. 

Leave No Trace is a movement that has been present and active for decades now, born from increased recreation outdoors that led to increased environmental degradation. By the late 1980s, the US Forest service partnered with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) to formalize an educational curriculum, which resulted in the 1994 founding of Leave No Trace, Inc. Over the years, the program evolved from focusing on backcountry ethics to addressing responsible recreation in the front country. The 7 Leave No Trace Principles are vital to ensuring that our natural resources and recreation areas stay healthy, clean, and last for years to come. The 7 Principles are below, and each offer a unique opportunity for impactful lessons that can be integrated into your conservation and environmental education curriculum. 

Principle 1: Plan Ahead and Prepare

Students can write their own camping or outdoor recreation packing lists, comparing and working together to build a list of items that will keep them safe and prepared outdoors.

Principle 2: Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces

Students can look at photos of spaces that have been heavily overused by people recreating. What do they see? How can they identify that the area has been used? What would they do to restore this area? 

Principle 3: Dispose of Waste Properly

While on a field trip or outdoors, a class can do a clean up of a local area, or make recommendations as a group for how they would keep a park or outdoor space clean and litter free (would they design signs, have plentiful trash cans, or have a compost space for gardening?)

Students took apart their structure before they left to leave no trace for those who come to the area after them.

Principle 4: Leave What You Find

A photo or illustrated scavenger hunt while students are out on a field trip encourages them to write or draw what they see instead of taking it home with them items such as rocks or flowers. If a structure is build like a campfire ring or stick fort, it should be disassembled before they leave the area.

Principle 5: Minimize Campfire Impacts

Students can learn about the impact of human started fires on ecosystems and communities, and make their own plans for how they will ensure that their campfires on family trips are always completely out. 

Principle 6: Respect Wildlife

Just like Principle 4, a nature scavenger hunt or other opportunity for students to observe, track, and reflect on the animals and nature that they have seen is a good way of teaching this principle. Data on species studied can be collected through apps such as eBird or iNaturalist. Students can even make their own warning signs, letting the public and their communities know how far to stand between a bison, wolf, moose, or other animal they may encounter!

A student makes wildlife observations using iNaturalist.

Principle 7: Be Considerate of Others

Youth can work together to decide what they want the outdoors to feel like for them. Is it a welcome space? Does everyone fit in? Is it quiet enough to hear the wildlife? How do they make that happen? In an environmental education setting, students can brainstorm together how practicing consideration is connected to preserving and protecting the environment, understanding that their behavior and the behavior of others outdoors shapes the health of the world that we live in.

These ideas are only a small fraction of the many activities that can be done with students to increase their comfort level and understanding of Leave No Trace, and how its principles can be connected to other environmental education teachings. More information, along with free courses and activity guides, can be found at the Leave No Trace website.