VICE Magazine
America's National Parks Are Being Ruined by Human Poop
When I asked about it on a hiking and backpacking subreddit, one backpacker told me that at his campsite in Bighorn National Park, “every single large rock seemed to have human poop and dirty toilet paper on it or tossed under it.” Another hiker recounted accidentally sticking his trekking pole into a pile of human feces in the middle of a trail in the Smokies.
5280 Magazine
What it Takes to Save Conundrum Hot Springs
Tucked in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen, Conundrum Hot Springs is a beautiful oasis. In recent years, though, the area has suffered overcrowding, improperly buried human waste, and general degradation. In considering how to address these issues, the U.S. Forest Service had a conundrum of its own.
In November 2017, the agency adopted the Overnight Visitor Management Plan. The strategic plan, which officially went into effect in April, instituted a permit system that limits the number of overnight visitors allowed per night at Conundrum and required visitors to reserve a camping spot at the popular destination in advance.
Colorado Public Radio
Conundrum Hot Springs Has A Poop Problem, So You May Have To Bag Your Business
In the thick of summer, a certain smell overpowered the wildflowers at the trailhead for Conundrum Hot Springs. Armed with gloves, volunteers checked under bushes and scanned nearby campsites for the source.
By Land Podcast
So you have all the gear, a trail picked out, and you're ready to make your way up that trail. Have you thought about how your weekend excursion will impact the environment for years to come? If not, you're not alone.
On this episode, I had the pleasure of talking to Aaron and Donielle from Leave No Trace about how to properly interact with the wild places we visit. They blew my mind with the amount of science based advice they offered up! I really had no idea how much information I was missing and can tell that I could use a lot more educating on the subject of Leave No Trace.
Aspen Daily News
Even as the Forest Service was preparing to release its much-anticipated Overnight Visitor Use Management Plan for the Maroon-Bells-Snowmass Wilderness (MBSW), a traveling team working for the Leave No Trace organization came roaring into the Roaring Fork Valley with that same wilderness area on its radar.
Chico News & Review
Damage Control
Amanda Sweeney has traversed every trail through Lassen Volcanic National Park.
During her decade inside and around Lassen, Sweeney has noticed changes. Of particular note are increases in litter and erosion, established trails growing wider, impromptu trails and campsites cutting into wildlife, and more incidents of bears taking human food.
Knox Media
The Traveling Trainers leave their mark by teaching the principles of Leave No Trace.
She Explores
Donielle and her boyfriend Aaron are traveling the United States working as Subaru/Leave No Trace Trainers. They’re traveling National Parks, festivals, workshops, and everywhere in between, camping 250+ nights of the year and living (and working) out of a Subaru Crosstrek, on a mission to teach people how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.
Learn from Donielle how she went from 9-5 to a career on the road, and how she’s balancing work with adventure.
Subaru Magazine
Enjoy the splendor of your surroundings.
Leave behind what you find.
Keep the wilderness as wild as you found it, as if you were never there.
That’s the vision of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics (LNT), the Boulder, Colorado-based nonprofit whose mission is to inspire us to protect natural lands for public recreation. Since 1999, Subaru has partnered with LNT on the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer program, which consists of four groups of two educators who crisscross the country in Subaru vehicles teaching people to appreciate the outdoors responsibly.
Conservationist Corner
Living and working from the road means many things: witnessing the gradual wax and wane of the moon every night from our 1,000 Star Hotel (our tent, of course). It means hitting a trail in the middle of the workday. It means visiting national parks and wilderness areas that most people plan months in advance for.