Teaching Kids Leave No Trace

I am certain that 20 years from now when my kids are on their own, I will find fossilized Cheerios jammed in the farthest crevices of my truck and Anne's car.  Earlier this week I came home from work and it looked like the Tasmanian Devil visited our house even though Anne just spent hours cleaning that same morning.  Kids seem to leave a path of destruction comprised of food crumbs and missing Lego pieces wherever they roam, so as a parent or grandparent you might ask how do I even approach teaching them Leave No Trace Principles?  Kids just want to get dirty and dig holes!  Luckily with a few simple ideas, you can make it enjoyable and a learning experience that will grow old with them.


In my last blog post I discussed the large increase of visitors which is taking place to our Parks and Wildlife areas.  How do we minimize the impact of this trend and conserve these spaces for generations to come?  It starts with educating ourselves and teaching our kids.  When I was a kid, Leave No Trace (LNT) was a rough concept taught in the Scouts or taken as common sense, "Don't shoot a can of silly string into a rabbit hole for their supper" and of course making sure you use scissors to cut up every single one of them plastic 6-pack holders.  Well, turns out it is more complicated than that, thankfully The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has categorized it into 7 Principles for us to remember.


  1. Plan Ahead & Prepare
  2. Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces
  3. Dispose of Waste Properly
  4. Leave What You Find
  5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
  6. Respect Wildlife
  7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Here are my simple tips to use for teaching your kids LNT on your next outdoor adventure!
  1. Tell them the 7 Principles! - This seems simple, but especially for kids Kindergarten age and above, read them the 7 Principles.  Kids are much smarter than we give them credit for.  Cael spent a lot of 2nd grade learning about biology.  He knows way more than me it seems on plant and animal life.  He has also gotten really interested in rocks and gems.
  2. WHY? - Tell them the effects of not practicing each principle.  Does your 3 or 4 year old wear you out asking why all day, well to them they want to know why they do what they do or why something is the way it is.  A few examples:
    1. We shouldn't move or take rocks from the park because their are small insects and critters which use that for shade or shelter, and larger animals need the small ones for food to survive.
    2. If we leave this plastic bottle in the woods, it will take at least 450 years to decompose.
    3. Let's walk on the trail instead of the shortcut through the woods so we don't trample and kill those beautiful ferns.
    4. That is a beautiful rock you found, let's make sure to leave it there so others behind us can see it too!
  3. Games - Kids love to turn things into friendly games.  This has worked really well for our kids,  as we explain LNT to them on the trail we play little games.  "See who can walk closest to the center of the trail"  LNT Center for Outdoor Ethics has a great activity book for kids.  You can download a PDF here.
  4. Accountability - Siblings love to "tattle" on each other.  We have found our kids do the same with LNT.  Hazel is not leaving no trace!!!!  Cael picked up a rock!!!!  They have become their own policing force for LNT, hope this works for your kids with siblings.
  5. LNT Reference Cards - I just recently bought each of the kids a reference card from LNT that is designed specifically for kids.  It was only $0.25 and is great for them to put in their backpacks and pull out when boredom sets in.  They have many other topics for adults too!

The Leave No Trace has lots of detailed tips and programs for you and your family.  I suggest you check out the Leave No Trace for Every Kid and how they are trying to reach out to our youth.  If you are involved in Scouts, Education, or other Youth Programs take a look at what they have to offer and consider a session on LNT in your educational programs.

Until next time, get out there and keep your kids exploring!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clearwater, Canoes, and Covid - 2020 BWCA Trip

Image
Clearwater, Canoes, and Covid .....a tale of a family's 2020 BWCA trip The day awakens at Clearwater Lodge Our family's trip planning started on the drive home from the last trip in June 2019.  My parents were retiring to North Carolina and we would be losing our home base on the Ely side of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).  2020 was going to provide an opportunity to try something new and the Gunflint Trail was calling our name.  As an avid listener of the Tumblehome podcast , I was intrigued by the Eastern side of the BWCAW and new places to explore.  We booked a cabin at Clearwater Historic Lodge for 3 nights and planned for 4-5 nights of overnight in the BWCAW from Clearwater Lake (Entry Point 62).  We locked the permit in when the 2020 permits opened in January.  The plans for an amazing trip were set, or so we thought...... Covid... It struck and week by week the closures and cancellations rolled in yet there was hope that by Summer we would have slowed
Read more

2019 Superior 100 miler - Rugged, Relentless, Remote

Image
  The Journey Begins If you take a rubber band and pull it apart quickly, it will probably break.  Yet if you take that rubber band and slowly pull it, you just might be surprised what you can do with it.  Just like the rubber band, the human body if stretched too quickly can break, but if you slowly push your boundaries, it will surprise you.  Superior 100 certainly pushed my boundaries in training and during the race with great suprises. The sun sets on day 1 at Superior as Manoj paces & helps me settle in for a long night. (Photo courtesy of Tone Coughlin Photography , Duluth, MN) Disclaimer: This is a fairly in-depth race report for me to reflect on the race and to help runners looking to one day run Superior.  I am grateful for those who wrote race reports before me which helped my preparation mentally and physically.  Now sit back and enjoy a tale from the Northwoods of Minnesota. Superior 100 is one 10 original 100 mile races in the United States; numbers h
Read more

BWCAW 2019 - Kids on Kawishiwi

Image
BWCAW 2019 - Kids on Kawishiwi BWCAW EP 32 - South Kawishiwi River The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is a 1.1 million acre wilderness area with over 1,100 lakes in the NE corner of Minnesota.  It contains some of the purest wilderness in the world and the water is so clean many paddlers dip their water bottle in the lake as they paddle across.  You won't find roads, buildings, or cell phone towers, but you will find peace in nature as you immerse yourself in a trip to the BWCAW. After a successful trip in 2018 for Anne and I with a Stuart River to Moose River loop across Iron Lake, it was time for the kids to experience their first wilderness trip in 2019.  Planning started last Fall with decisions on where to go accounting for the kids not being able to paddle or portage long days.  We decided the South Kawishiwi River area outside of Ely, MN.  It offered easy access, short portages, fishing opportunities, beautiful campsites, and protection from the winds
Read more