Are Leave No Trace Principles Effective?
Leave No Trace is philosophy of seven concepts that help minimize human recreational impact on wild lands. As wilderness recreation has become more popular, and the National Wilderness Preservation System has increased its wilderness lands from 9.1 million acres in 54 wildernesses in 1964 to 104 million acres in 628 wildernesses in 19991, the need for guidelines to help reduce degradation of these lands has become increasingly important. In 1979 Jim Bradley wrote about the need for an educational approach for managing recreation impacts instead of regulations that antagonize the public rather than win their support2. Teaching good practices is more effective than imposing strict regulations because most harms done to the wilderness by recreational activities is due to lack of knowledge of a less impacting technique, and because it is very difficult to enforce regulations in large tracts of wild and remote lands.
Leave No Trace Principles:
1) Plan ahead and Prepare
2) Travel and 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
Some of the concepts have effects that are less tangible or less able to be empirically evaluated, such as: ?be respectful of wildlife, and ?be considerate to other visitors. However, these two concepts have far reaching implications, and in a sense embody the other five guidelines: ?plan ahead and prepare, ?travel and camp on durable surfaces, ?minimize fires, ?leave what you find, ?properly dispose of waste. If one is respectful of wildlife, and considerate of other visitors, then they will plan ahead and prepare so that they ...
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...ore aware of the consequences of littering, and also more aware of the positive effects of treating everything with more care and respect.
Sources Cited
1 http://leopold.wilderness.net/research/nutshell/database
2 http://www.lnt.org (History of Leave No Trace)
3 Leave No Trace North America booklet (P. 10) available at www.lnt.org
4 www.lnt.org (History of Leave No Trace)
5 http://leopold.wilderness.net/research/nutshell/llama.pdf
6 Professor Ralf Buckley, “Breakdown of Human Waste in Three Sub-Tropical Australian Ecosystems” available at www.nols.edu/resources/research/abstracts.shtml
7 Professor Michael D. Ellis “The Fate of Feces and Fecal Microorganisms in Human waste in Alpine, Temperate, and Arid Environments and the Impact of Disposal Methods on Surrounding Environment” available at www.nols.edu/resources/research/humanwaste_Mt.Rainier.shtml
The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.
To exemplify, Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" utilizes the standard English verse to shed light on the hidden "tears and sighs" (p 918,1) of African Americans, particularly slaves. As one maneuvers through the poem, he/she will notice a transition of thought, not necessarily of time. In other words, the time frame does not shift throughout the poem. The past is not a date or a mark on a timeline, it is the previously held belief of the speaker. What shifts is the speaker's perspective of the mask. He transitions from mourning the conditions of those wearing it(past view), to perhaps noting its benefits( ...
Cunningham, William P. Cunningham, Mary Ann and Saigo, Barbara. Environmental Science, A Global Concern. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY. 2005.
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For centuries scientists have used animals to study the causes of diseases; to test drugs, vaccines and surgical techniques; and to evaluate the safety of chemicals used in pesticides, cosmetics and other products. However, many scientists amongst animal- right activists forbid the use of animals in scientific research regardless how many illnesses are eliminated through the use of animals in scientific research. Amongst animal right activists, David Suzuki also raises concerns towards animal experimentation. In his article, The Pain of Animals, Suzuki argues that humans have no right to exploit animals because--much like humans--animals also experience pain. In contrast to Suzuki, Haldane, in his article, Some Enemies of Science, argues because animals are very similar to humans, scientists have no choice but to use animals in scientific experiments. Both authors greatly contrast their opinions towards animal experimentation; however Haldane has a more explanatory approach towards animal experimentation. He argues animal experimentation should be acceptable because other forms of animal exploitation are acceptable in society. Secondly, unlike other forms of exploitation which seek pleasure in killing animals such as leisure sport, scientists, most likely do not harm animals; if pain is intended on an animal it is strictly for the purpose of scientific advancement. Thirdly, although, animal experimentation may cause some extinction, it is only one of many other causes of extinction, if other causes are not condemned; then neither should animal experiment...
Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90
Many years ago, people saw the wilderness as a savage wasteland, but today, it is viewed as “the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.” (Cronon) He discusses this changed point of view by stating the difficulties that society will have rectifying environmental ailments if it stops viewing wilderness as “a dualistic picture in which the human is completely outside the nature.” (Cronon) This is understandable because humans rely on others to create opinions, and they do not know how to form their own thoughts and solutions to issues such as environmental ones. Therefore, it is with great importance that humans begin to learn how to formulate their own thoughts and share those personal thoughts with others, such as sharing solutions about environmental
Does wilderness exist? To many people, this would seem to be a very meaningless question. Of course wilderness exists. But, coming from a student who decided to enroll in a class called Humans and the Natural Environment: Impacts and Moral Obligations, this question has become one that has almost thrown my world upside down. Before we can answer the question, we must first know the definition of wilderness is this, “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man is a visitor who does not remain.” Because of my recent class periods and readings, I believe that the concept of wilderness does not exist, and that it is not useful. Throughout this essay I will explain why
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role over the life of African Americans, whom pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This ocassion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart and Miller 466). Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10).
For years now people have been using animal experimentation to create new ways to help save the human race. There are people who believe that it does help, and that it is necessary to continue, while others oppose and want to fight for the elimination of animal experimentation. Scientists fight for the cures needed to help man kind, but struggle to do so as people fight against their work in progress. But as Jennifer A. Hurley stated, “History has already shown that animal experimentation is not essential to medical progress.” Stuart W.G. Derbyshire believes “The best hopes to treat or cure any number of diseases all rely in the current animal experiments.” Both sides have evidence that can allow both to be proven correct. But there are negative arguments that can prove the other wise. The real question to ask is, Does animal experimentation really help advance medical research?
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Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, describes the suffering that blacks were subjected to in his 1913 poem, “We Wear the Mask”. In his poem, Dunbar asserts that blacks are partially responsible for the suffering of African Americans due to their belief that a deceptive “mask” was necessary for their survival.
In 1964 the Congress of the United States passed the Wilderness Act in an attempt to set aside, in the words of the act, "an area where earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man"; the lands designated as wilderness areas were to be "affected primarily by nature."
Paul Laurence Dunbar, dispatches the cold troubles of African Americans in the lyrical poem, "We Wear the Mask." In this poem, Dunbar links imagery, rhythm, rhyme, and word choice to in order to institute a connection to the reader. From reading the poem, one can infer that Mr. Dunbar is speaking in general, of the misery that many people keep concealed under a grin that they wear very well. But if one were to go further and take the time to research Mr. Dunbar’s selection of this piece and the era of which this poem was written, one would come to understand that this poem focuses entirely on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s viewpoints on racial prejudice and the struggle for equality for the African-American’s of his time period. Though this analysis is not based on the meaning of this poem, it is necessary that in order to demonstrate the sound of analysis, one must first understand the poem.
While our population continues to grow, so does the amount of waste we produce. Due to the fact that there are so many humans, a majority of the waste we produce do not get disposed of properly and it eventually ends up contaminating the la...