LEAVE NO TRACE IN ACTION Q2, 2015
Cleaning Up Everything, Including the Kitchen Sink Tillamook State Forest, Oregon
Unique Science Boulder, CO
“We paddled a 6-mile section of river during our kayak cleanup. We estimate the trash collected weighed around 300 pounds!” Everyday, people seek the outdoors for adventure, kinship, exercise, solitude, and all forms of enjoyment. Yet the places we have explored and adored for years are impacted by recreational use, some more severely than others. We call these areas Hot Spots—sites that are damaged but that can recover and become healthy again after specific Leave No Trace applications. In June, Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers Jenna Hanger and Sam Ovett spent a week at Tillamook State Forest Wilson River Corridor in Oregon. The publicly owned Tillamook State Forest spans a total of 364,000 acres.
“The biggest issue we deal with is improper disposal of human waste.”
The Traveling Trainers and volunteers paddled a six-mile section of river in search of trash. Volunteers collected a kitchen sink, four car tires, a transformer, a blow-up air mattress, a car exhaust unit, six camping chairs, hundreds of feet of fishing line, 93 lures and hooks, metal fencing, rusted cans, junk-food packaging, a whole car, a rod holder, several plastic bags/garbage bags, a pair of usable scissors, and nail clippers. “We estimate that the trash collected weighed around 300 lbs, it almost capsized our rig!” said Hanger. “We had to stop and empty the trash halfway down.” Volunteers picked up 25 full bags of garbage (enough to fill two large truck beds).
-Macy Yates, Oregon Department of Forestry Leave No Trace helped minimize the three major recreational impacts the area faces: improper disposal of human waste, tree damage at campsites, and river corridor degradation. The team led a total of seven workshops for forest staff, visited elementary schools, held ‘campfire’ talks in the evenings, and conducted outreach at the Portland Rose Festival.
25 Bags of Garbage Collected
The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, in conjunction with Penn State University, is currently conducting research that focuses on effectively curbing undesignated trail use in natural areas. Representatives from the Leave No Trace Center, Penn State University, and Boulder County Open Space/ Mountain Parks (OSMP) have spent a combined effort of 35 days assessing treatment, sites, and surveying and monitoring visitors on Open Space lands in Boulder, CO. The study is unique in the Leave No Trace scientific literature because of its experimental design utilizing both visitor surveys paired with field observation of trail users responses to a suite of diverse treatments designed to keep trail users on agency-designated trails. At the close of this study, recomendations will be made to the city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks on how trail closures can be effectively communicated to park visitors in order to reduce the impact and expansion of visitor created trails.
Your Park is Hot, Make it a Spot
Hot Spot Nominations are Open ‘til August 15th Leave No Trace Hot Spots—scenic and popular gathering places on public lands across the country where people visit, recreate, and enjoy but have been severely impacted by public use. From excess litter, damage to trails and campsites, vandalism, wildlife feeding and more, these locations need help to become beautiful again. Now is your chance to nominate an area for a special week-long visit from the Leave No Trace Center for
#InEveryPark
Outdoor Ethics in 2015. Leave No Trace will be selecting 12 Hot Spot event locations across the country to benefit from these free educational workshops and event series to help recover and protect the places we cherish for future generations. Application: LNT.org/get-involved/hot-spots
Through August 15th—Share your photos of Leave No Trace (or lack thereof) at your favorite outdoor place to win outdoor gear from our partners.