“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” ― Chief Seattle
Food and more generally litter have a tremendous negative impact on wildlife. Any rubbish you leave behind may end up being mistakenly eaten by or plainly harming animals ([GM09], [BK09]).
Besides accustomization leading to change of wildlife behavior, including creating problem animals that will later be euthanized when they are deemed too dangerous for humans (which inevitably happen), it also triggers diseases, physiology disruptions, physical entanglements, and what not [BJ16].
Whether it’s food or straight litter, never leave anything behind. And yes that organic apple core too! Why? Because we treat our food with chemicals when they are not genetically modified; but also because an apple in a habitat that does not have apple naturally is an invasive species.
Even better: always have a garbage bag with you that you can carry for a long distance so as to help remove your trash (and even others’) along the way.
We recently stumbled upon this cool blog that demystifies the LNT Ethics, Check it out!
Previous Wild Rule — Next Wild Rule
Home / Engage / The EwA Wildness Etiquette / 14 – Leave No Trace
◊ The references mentioned in this page are listed in the Extended Bibliography.
