Minimum-impact camping in the front woods - includes techniques for minimum impact camping - Environmental Literacy at Camp

Camping Magazine, Jan-Feb, 1994 by Curt Schatz

Most camps offering a trip or wilderness component recognize the importance of minimum-impact camping skills. But backwoods camping techniques may also be applied in the "front woods,' where most organized camp activities take place. Since minimum-impact techniques are intended to help preserve the natural character of natural environments, all camps, no matter what their program focus, would do well to adopt them.

The Minimum-impact Philosophy

Minimum-impact camping is, more than anything else, an expression of a philosophy of respect for the natural environment. Although expressions of this philosophy will differ from individual to individual, and from locality to locality, some basic principles apply.

Two forms of impact must be minimized: environmental impacts, which affect all indigenous members of the land community, and sociological, or social, impacts, which affect recreational users of the area.

Social impacts include the intrusions one group makes on another's experience through sights, sounds, smells, unwanted or unwarranted contacts, and any number of other human-to-human interactions. While social impacts might result from a lack of respect and consideration for the rights and privileges of other groups, a more common cause is a lack of awareness of the possible effects of a group's activities.

Environmental impacts include the effects that group activities have on the wildlife, plants, soil, and other living parts of the environment, as well as the air, water, and other non-living members of the environment. Anything a group does that affects one of these components is an impact, whether it obviously "hurts" the environment or not. Some impacts might seem harmless, but the cumuhtive effect of even small changes to a localized animal-plant-land community can result in significant environmental degradation.

Littering, carving names into trees or rocks, uprooting plants, and vandalizing campsites all have obvious visual impacts, and are generally not problems in organized camping programs. A number of less obvious impacts, however, are sometimes not dealt with as effectively.

* Hiking, biking, or horseback riding off of designated trails can compact the soil and destroy plants' root systems. Further damage can also occur, because when plants and the organisms that depend on those plants are killed through compaction, erosion can become a problem.

* Carving names in, breaking branches off of, or peeling bark from a tree can open it to all sorts of fungal infestations or insect parasites that can, eventually, kill the tree.

* Improper toilet procedures can contaminate a lake or river with giardia or coilform bacteria.

* Improper use of soap may alter the plant, oxygen, and fish populations of a lake.

The minimum-impact camping techniques listed above are applicable in most of the forest or prairie environments of North America. While the list is not comprehensive, it does address most of the central concepts that underlie the minimum-impact philosophy. Almost all of these concepts, if not the specific techniques, can be applied in the front woods of a traditional camp as well as in the backwoods. Each section of the list is further explained below.

Group Size and Group Behavior

Two basic tenets of minimum-impact camping are that small groups have less of an impact than large groups, and that group behavior is central to minimizing impacts. These principles can be easily applied in organized camps.

To help each individual enjoy the highest quality experience while minimizing their impact on the camp setting, it is appropriate to keep group sizes small whenever possible. Individuals in smaller groups tend to act more responsibly, and so have considerably less impact than larger ones. In addition, keeping groups small within the camp helps ensure that each participant receives attention from staff members, which allows opportunity for appropriate role modeling.

Groups should also be kept separate to ensure that each group can define its own experience, thereby reducing the need for large-group games and activities. Using small groups also makes it easier to develop and harden play and instructional areas against environmental impacts. A group of six or ten campers requires less space for activities that a group of sixty or one hundred.

When large-group activities are a necessary part of the camp program, they should be restricted to appropriate environments. All-camp games can, for example, be held indoors, or can be limited to a playing field covered with blue grass - and kept out of the more delicate forests or meadows.

Keeping a low profile helps minimize each group's impact on other groups, and, to a much lesser degree, helps minimize disruptive impacts on the animals living in and around the camp setting. Avoiding bright, distracting colors, not intruding on other groups, and keeping group activities separated so that one activity doesn't interfere with another all serve this purpose. Similarly, it is important for camp groups to remain reasonably quiet, to ensure that one group's activities don't disturb another's and to ensure that no group's activities disturb the local fauna.