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Leave No Trace


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How do you all go about teaching your Cub Scouts (I have Bears) the principles of LNT? I took my little guys on a hike this past weekend and the kids aren't the only ones who need to learn this ...

 

And how do you teach adults that it is NOT okay to climb up on top of Indian Burial Mounds ... ?

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Yah, a lot of times yeh can make a point of teaching the kids when the adults are around, eh? Then they sort of pick it up by "osmosis."

 

Call a LNT Master educator or send an email to the program at lnt.org and ask 'em for any materials they have for kids that age.

 

Beavah

 

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Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories is a good start, but there's a lot more to LNT than that. But you are right, that's enough for the cubbies to absorb. When they become boy scouts, they can get the whole biscuit. Maybe some of it will sink in before they become adults.

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Of all of LNT's principles, packing out your used TP gives me the greatest heartburn. They make biodegradable TP for a reason and carrying around a bag of dirty toilet paper isn't very healthy.

 

We make a fuss about "sanitize your hands before you eat" but then we're told, "Carry a bag of e. coli in your pack."

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Remember for cub scouts we are talking front country LNT. This means plan ahead, manage your pet, trash your trash, stay on the trails, take nothing but pictures and memories, try not to leave even footprints, and one more that escapes my short term memory as I just went over this last night at my Webelos II den meeting. If you google front country leave no trace, you get some great sites.

 

 

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"Of all of LNT's principles, packing out your used TP gives me the greatest heartburn."

 

Though there is a place for that, such as in steep walled river bottoms, that practice is almost never recommended or required to follow LNT principles. It's a favorite poke at LNT by cynics, probably an attempt to discredit the entire LNT ethic.

 

We're talking about teaching little kids. Toilet paper disposal not part of it. Not for Boy Scouts either. See http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/13-032/

 

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/21-105/

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I think of LNT as the next step beyond "Leave only footprints." LNT asks you not to leave footprints, either. Footprints are a trace. Don't cut switchbacks, for example.

 

LNT is a philosophy. I think of it as meaning "Leave as little trace as reasonable." The only way to leave absolutely no trace is to not go in the first place.

 

So with kids, we just focus on the big items. Counterexamples are helpful - "look at the trash" or whatever. I like to integrate it in with some other activity, like your hike. Just sitting and teaching it can be boring. Have them brainstorm about what types of traces they might leave, and how they can eliminate them. They can come up with some good ideas among some ridiculous ones. KISMIF.

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I found staying on the established trail to be the hardest one to drum into their little heads. There are lots of good reasons for it of course, but it is so...interesting...to see just what's "over there" off the trail. If you have a group of boys like that, I recommend you get them out to some less-traveled places so that they can stay on the established trails and still feel like "real" explorers.

 

(Parents now, they're a whole 'nother breed! The ones who show up in flip flops for a hike, drop their water bottles on the ground while stamping out a cigarette butt in the patch of rare ferns next to the trail, and gabbing loudly into their cell phone as their dog chases through the underbrush after the local fauna - yup, they're a real treat. Maybe hand them a trash bag and put them in charge of the "litter patrol?")

 

Anyway, here are a couple of links that I used when doing LNT lessons with our cubs:

 

http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/13-032/

(good teaching plans for cubs)

 

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/21-117/index.html

(more detail and more hands-on activities for boy scouts, but could be adapted for older cubs too)

 

 

http://www.utahscouts.org/ssi/story.php?file=/resources/links/lnt_res-links.txt

I hope this works - it's longish - it is from the Utah National Parks Council site (if the link doesn't work, try going to http://www.unpcbsa.org/ and use their search box to find "leave no trace for cub scouts") And by the way, UNPC has about the coolest council service patch I've ever seen - a dino in a cave! May have to order myself one...

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"I found staying on the established trail to be the hardest one to drum into their little heads. There are lots of good reasons for it of course, but it is so...interesting...to see just what's "over there" off the trail."

 

That's right. All of the interesting stuff is off the trail and hard to see unless you're close up.

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Wanna get instant attention?

Purchase, read, and then hold up at your LNT training sessions:

"How to **** in the Woods" by Kathleen Meyer.

A very droll, well researched and serious book about back country hygiene. Actualities, legalities, practicalities. At your local camp store or book store or Amazon.com. Reccommend it.

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"And how do you teach adults that it is NOT okay to climb up on top of Indian Burial Mounds ... ?"

 

You don't. You lead by example. If there are written park rules that prohibit walking on the mounds, then you can remind them of that rule and hope they follow it. If they don't care, then a Park Ranger can remind them.

 

I know NLT principles would say "stay off the mound", but 99% of our world has never heard of NLT.

 

 

 

 

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