Leave No Trace principles: a plain-language outdoor ethics guide

Principle 1: Plan ahead and prepare

Thorough preparation is the foundation of every safe, low-impact outing. When visitors arrive in the backcountry unprepared, they frequently make poor decisions that damage natural resources or result in search-and-rescue emergencies.

Before setting foot on the trail, research the specific regulations and land-use restrictions of the area you intend to visit. Public lands have varying rules regarding group sizes, designated camping permits, food storage protocols, and seasonal campfire bans. Checking trail reports and weather forecasts allows you to pack appropriate clothing, preventing hypothermia or emergency situations.

Planning ahead also involves pre-packaging your food supplies at home. Take dehydrated meals, snack bars, and trail mix out of their commercial cardboard boxes and outer wrappers, transferring them into reusable silicone or sealable plastic bags. Repackaging food at home dramatically reduces the volume of potential trash you must carry into the wilderness, eliminating the risk of micro-wrappers blowing out of your pack on a windy summit.

Principle 2: Travel and camp on durable surfaces

Trampling fragile vegetation damages plant root systems and causes long-term soil compaction. Once topsoil is stripped away by human foot traffic, rain runoff carves deep gullies, destroying surrounding landscapes.

To minimize travel impacts, always stick to designated, maintained trails. Walk single-file in the center of the path, even when the trail is muddy or rocky. Stepping around mud puddles widens singletrack corridors into broad, braided scars that take years to heal. In off-trail environments where no trail exists, disperse your group’s footpaths across durable surfaces such as solid rock outcrops, gravel bars, dry sand, or snowfields rather than creating a new herd path through delicate alpine tundra or moss.

When selecting a campsite, remember the classic rule: good campsites are found, not made. Always pitch your tent on established campsite pads, barren dirt, or gravel surfaces where vegetation is already absent. Avoid digging trenches around your tent or clearing rocks and logs, as altering a site accelerates erosion. Furthermore, establish your camp at least 200 feet—roughly 70 adult paces—away from all lakes, streams, and springs. Maintaining this buffer zone prevents bank trampling and grants wildlife undisturbed access to water.

Principle 3: Dispose of waste properly

Improper waste disposal represents one of the most visible and harmful threats to wilderness areas. The universal rule of the outdoors is simple: pack it in, pack it out. Everything you bring into the backcountry must leave with you, including empty freeze-dried meal pouches, energy bar corners, tape scraps, and fruit peels.

How to dig a cathole for human waste

Managing solid human waste takes care. When backcountry pit toilets or privies are unavailable, deposit human waste in a cathole:

1. Locate an appropriate spot: Walk at least 200 feet (70 adult paces) away from all water sources, designated trails, and campsites. Choose a sunny, elevated location with rich soil and thick tree cover rather than dry rock or shaded gullies.
2. Dig to the proper depth: According to the National Park Service, deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6 to 8 inches deep, at least 200 feet from water, camp and trails. A lightweight backcountry trowel makes digging easier.
3. Cover and disguise: After defecating, cover the cathole with the original topsoil, tamp it down firmly with your shoe, and disguise the area with natural leaf litter or stones.

Always pack out your used toilet paper and all feminine hygiene products in a dedicated, opaque zip-top bag sealed inside an odor-proof bag. In fragile alpine zones, narrow desert canyons, or heavily traveled river corridors, land agencies in some areas require visitors to carry a portable waste-bag system (WAG bag) to pack out all human waste completely.

Managing dishwater and gray water

Washing dishes directly in a natural creek or lake pollutes drinking water sources with grease, food scraps, and soap residues. Even biodegradable camping soaps contain chemical surfactants that harm aquatic life and disrupt freshwater surface tension.

To clean cookware, carry water 200 feet away from the water source in a collapsible bucket or cook pot. Use hot water and a scrubbing pad, adding only a few drops of unscented biodegradable soap if necessary. Once clean, pour the wash water through a small mesh strainer or bandana to filter out food bits. Pack the strained food particles into your garbage bag, then broadcast the remaining gray water across a wide area of dry soil away from camp.

Packing out trash and micro-litter

Never bury food scraps or toss organic waste like orange peels, apple cores, or nut shells into the brush. In temperate, dry climates, an orange peel can take up to two years to decompose. Moreover, foreign food items alter the natural foraging diets of wildlife and attract rodents into campsites. Inspect your camp thoroughly before departing, conducting a sweep for tiny micro-litter like twist ties and foil scraps.

Principle 4: Leave what you find

The natural world is filled with beautiful objects, but taking souvenirs degrades the experience for everyone who follows. Leave rocks, wildflowers, colorful feathers, antlers, and interesting pieces of wood exactly where you discover them.

This principle is especially vital when encountering cultural, historical, or archaeological artifacts. Indigenous petroglyphs, pottery sherds, stone projectile points, and historical mining cabin ruins are protected by federal law under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. You may examine and photograph these artifacts, but never pick them up, move them, or take them home.

Additionally, avoid carving your initials into trees, constructing unauthorized rock cairns, or hammering nails into live trunks. Modern cairns should only be built by park rangers and trail maintenance crews to mark critical navigation points across confusing granite slabs. Building personal cairns confuses hikers and moves stones that provide vital micro-habitats for alpine insects and reptiles.

Principle 5: Minimize campfire impacts

While sitting around a glowing campfire is a traditional camping ritual, campfires cause significant ecological impacts. Gathering firewood strips surrounding forests of decaying organic matter that enriches soil, while escaped campfires have caused catastrophic wildfires across public lands.

When to use a camp stove instead of a fire

Whenever possible, rely on a lightweight backpacking canister stove for cooking and a headlamp or lantern for light. Stoves cook food faster, consume no natural resources, leave zero ash scars, and operate safely during moderate fire restrictions.

Safe wood collection and fire ring use

If you decide to build a campfire and conditions permit:

• Only build fires where campfires are permitted. Leave No Trace guidance says to use established fire rings, fire pans, or mound fires. Avoid building a new ring in an undisturbed location.
• Keep fires small and manageable. A small fire that produces hot cooking coals consumes far less wood and remains under control.
• Collect only dead and downed wood found on the forest floor that can be snapped easily by hand. Never cut branches from standing trees, whether alive or dead, as standing deadwood (snags) provides nesting habitat for birds and small mammals.
• Never burn aluminum cans, plastic wrappers, glass bottles, or foil-lined packaging in a fire pit. Campfires do not burn hot enough to consume these materials, leaving toxic ash and sharp debris behind.

Extinguishing fires completely

Before heading to sleep or packing up your camp, you should extinguish your campfire completely using the drown-stir-feel method:

1. Drown: Pour generous amounts of water over all burning wood and coals.
2. Stir: Use a stick or trowel to stir the ashes and coals thoroughly, breaking up chunks and ensuring water reaches the bottom of the fire pit.
3. Feel: Hold the back of your bare hand directly above or gently against the wet ashes. If the fire pit emits any residual heat, repeat the drowning and stirring process until all coals are cold to the touch.

Principle 6: Respect wildlife

Wild animals perceive humans as potential predators. Approaching wildlife stresses animals, burns vital caloric reserves needed for winter survival, and provokes defensive charges that endanger human lives.

National Park Service viewing distances

The National Park Service wildlife viewing guidance says many parks require these minimum distances, and that distances vary by park, so check the rules of the park you visit:

• 100 yards (300 feet): Stay at least the length of a full football field away from predators like bears and wolves.
• 25 yards (75 feet): Maintain at least four car lengths of separation from most other wildlife.

The rule of thumb for distance

If you are unsure whether you are standing a safe distance from a wild animal, use the simple rule of thumb:

Extend your arm straight out in front of you, raise your thumb upward, and close one eye. Align your thumb with the animal you are watching. If your thumb completely covers the animal from view, you are at a safe viewing distance. If the animal is visible around the edges of your thumb, you are too close and must back away slowly without running. Always carry binoculars, a spotting scope, or a telephoto camera lens to enjoy close-up views without encroaching on wildlife space.

Securing food and scented items

Never feed wild animals under any circumstances. Feeding wildlife causes food conditioning, teaching animals that humans represent easy meals. Habituated bears and aggressive rodents frequently damage campsites and gear, often forcing rangers to euthanize problem animals. Store all food, toiletries, sunscreen, and trash securely, for example in a bear canister or a trailhead storage locker. Canisters are required in some parks and areas, so check the park’s own food-storage rules.

Principle 7: Be considerate of other visitors

People visit public lands to seek peace, quiet, and solace in natural surroundings. Respecting fellow trail users preserves the community quality of outdoor recreation.

Practice standard trail etiquette on every hike:

• Yield to uphill hikers: Hikers moving uphill under heavy packs have the right of way, as maintaining their climbing pace and rhythm requires significant energy.
• Yield to pack stock: When meeting horses, mules, or pack trains, step off the trail on the downhill side. Standing downhill makes you appear smaller and less threatening to stock animals while preventing you from startling them from above.
• Step aside for equestrians and mountain bikers: Stay alert and step off to a safe, durable shoulder to let larger or faster users pass smoothly.

Finally, keep noise levels low. Avoid using Bluetooth speakers on public trails; listen through personal headphones instead or enjoy natural sounds like birdsong and wind through pine needles. Keep your pets leashed at all times where dogs are permitted, and pack out all pet waste. By following these seven principles, you preserve the beauty, tranquility, and ecological health of the backcountry for everyone. Review our comprehensive camping checklist and day hike checklist to ensure your gear list aligns with these practices.