Day 49: Outdoor Ethics -Part 2 : Leave What You Find Behind

I was paging through an old National Geographic a while back and it showed pictures from two different sites in Petrified Forest National Park. One of the sites was one that was often visited by tourists, and it looked a lot like this:

Internet Photo

Another site, that was much more remote and received very little tourist traffic, looked more like this:

Internet Photo

It's easy to spot the difference between the two photos. All of the smaller fragments were taken as souvenirs from the more frequently visited site, and so only enormous heavy chunks of petrified wood remained. The less-visited site still had thousands of the small fragments left for all of the future visitors to enjoy.

While taking a flower or  rock, or maybe even carving your initials into a tree, may not seem like a big deal, it becomes a big deal when everybody does it and it has a tremendous impact on the landscape.

So, be sure to leave natural and/or historic objects for others to enjoy. Things like antlers, interesting stones, flowers and petrified wood add to the mood of the area and are fun for others to "discover". Also, remember that in National Parks, and many other areas, it is illegal to remove natural or historic objects!

But, on the other hand, don't be afraid to pack out garbage and litter, even if it isn't yours!

So take a picture or draw a sketch, but leave the natural wonders for everyone to enjoy and, of course, leave the landscape as undisturbed as possible so you don't interfere with natural processes (such as picking plants that are slow to reproduce or digging trenches that promote topsoil erosion).

I know this series of posts seems a little off-topic for my blog, but I think they are important topics and that preserving the natural world and its wonders is also a central part of sustainability!

What do you think?