Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace Center For Outdoor Ethics

Formation	1994
Type	501(c)(3) Nonprofit
Headquarters	Boulder, CO, USA
Executive Director	Dana Watts
Staff	18
Volunteers	25,000+
Website	http://www.LNT.org

Leave No Trace refers to a set of outdoor ethics promoting conservation in the outdoors. It is built on seven principles:

These seven principles have been adapted to different activities, ecosystems and environments.

Since 1994, Leave No Trace Center For Outdoor Ethics, a non-profit organization also known as Leave No Trace, exists to educate people about their recreational impact on nature as well as the principles of Leave No Trace to prevent and minimize such impacts.

In the mid 20th-century there was a cultural shift in wilderness ethics from woodcraft where wilderness travelers prided themselves on their ability to rely on the resources of wild lands to a post-WWII ethics of minimal impact on the environment. Leave No Trace began in the 1960s and 1970s. There was a large increase of wilderness visitation following the creation of new recreational equipment such as white gas stoves, synthetic tents, and sleeping pads. This began a commercial interest in outdoor recreation which in turn caused more visitors to national parks. In those decades, the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service started to teach their non-motorized visitors how to have a minimal impact on the land. Wilderness Informational Specialists were trained to educate visitors on minimal impact camping in the different parks. In 1987 the three departments cooperatively developed a pamphlet titled "Leave No Trace Land Ethics".

Also in the 1970s, groups such as the Sierra Club were advocating minimum impact camping techniques. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) had been actively advocating training and implementation of Leave No Trace and outdoor ethics principles early in the 1970s at such places as Philmont Scout Ranch in Northern New Mexico. A pilot program in the 1980s between the BSA and the Bureau of Land Management in the High Uintas Wilderness tried to reach a wide audience.