What Is Leave No Trace?

Leave No Trace is seven habits for reducing damage to soil, water, plants, wildlife, and other people's visits. The names below are the organization's list. This page gives each one a single example and a single mistake. Leave No Trace for Families and Beginners is how to practice one of them on an outing. It does not repeat the list.

Plan ahead means you know the route, the rules, and the weather before you lock the car. Check whether dogs and fires are allowed, how long the loop is, and whether the hourly forecast includes thunder. National Weather Service lightning guidance treats thunder as a sign that lightning is close enough to strike, and the safe places are a substantial building or a hard-topped vehicle. The mistake is choosing the trail in the parking lot and starting anyway.

Leave No Trace's line is to stick to trails and durable ground so plants and soil can recover. The example is a walker who stays on the tread through the mud, or turns around, instead of stepping into the plants at the edge.

The mistake is a line of people walking around the puddle until the edge becomes a second trail. Rock, gravel, a maintained path, and an existing campsite are the durable choices. Flowers, wet soil, dunes, and a restoration sign are the places feet do not go.

Pack it in, pack it out. Leave No Trace includes food scraps and pet waste in that line, not only wrappers. The example is an orange peel and a tissue in the same bag that held the snack, carried home when the bin is back at the trailhead.

The mistake is leaving the peel because it is "natural," or burying a wrapper under a rock. Food on the ground feeds animals and teaches them to look for people. Pet waste in a bag still comes out with you unless a signed bin says otherwise.

Take a photo or make a sketch. Leave rocks, plants, and artifacts where they are. The example is a shell, a cone, or a flower that stays in the picture and on the ground.

The mistake is "just one," a pocketed feather, or a stack of stones left as a cairn. Feathers, nests, and living plants stay even when you are unsure of the rule. Sorting legal from protected is a bad job to do on the trail. If a sign allows a specific kind of collecting, follow that sign. If you did not read one, the object stays.

Use a stove when you can. When a fire is part of the trip, Leave No Trace says keep it small, contained, and legal. The example is a day walk with no fire at all, or a fire in an existing ring where fires are allowed, put dead out before you leave.

The mistake is a new ring of rocks on a beach, a viewpoint, or a patch of grass, built because the evening seemed to ask for one. A family walk does not need a fire to be finished. If you cannot keep it in an existing legal ring, you do not have one.

Watch from a distance and never feed wild animals. That is the Leave No Trace line. National Park Service watching-wildlife guidance matches it: leave animals alone, with no touching, no feeding, and no harassing, and keep your distance. The example is a bird or a deer that keeps doing what it was doing while you watch from the path.

The mistake is stepping closer for a photo, holding out food, or following an animal that has started to move away. If its behavior changes because of you, you are too close. Back up until it settles, or leave. How to Respect Wildlife While Exploring is the longer version of this principle.

Keep noise down, yield on the trail, and leave room at the view. The example is a group that steps aside on a wide spot, lets a faster group pass, and keeps music in headphones.

The mistake is a speaker on a narrow path, a picnic spread across the only overlook, or a dog whose leash blocks the tread. Trail Etiquette for Beginners covers who steps aside. This principle is why that page exists. The pocket card is the short copy of all seven for a pocket, not a second explanation.