The 7 Leave No Trace Principles for Campers

You make dozens of small choices at a campsite. Where to step. Where to set the trash bag. What to do with dishwater, a pretty rock, a fire, a loud laugh at 9 p.m. None of them feels big. Together they decide whether the next camper finds a clean, quiet place or a worn-out one.

Leave No Trace is a set of seven principles that turn those small choices into habits. The National Park Service (NPS) teaches them on its own pages, and many campground rules echo them. This article gives a plain-English summary of each principle with a campground example. It is a starting point, not a replacement for the official wording or for the rules of the place you visit.

Read the table first. Then jump to the sections that match your trip.

The seven principles at a glance

NPS lists the principles by the names in the first column. The second column is a short summary written for first-time campers.

Principles 1 to 3: before you leave and while you set up

1. Plan ahead and prepare

NPS asks you to learn the regulations and special concerns of the area, prepare for extreme weather, hazards and emergencies, and avoid high-use times when you can. It also suggests small groups, repackaged food to cut waste, and a map and compass or GPS instead of marking paint, rock cairns or flagging.

One NPS example shows why. A visitor arrives at a park and finds the favorite trail closed for nesting birds. With no backup plan, the day falls apart. A second trail on the list would have saved it. For camping, planning means reading the campground page, checking the forecast, and keeping a list. The first camping trip guide and the Planner help you start one.

2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces

NPS names maintained trails, designated campsites, rock, gravel, sand, dry grasses and snow as durable surfaces. In a developed campground the managers already chose the site, so your job is to stay on it. Keep the tent, table and cooking inside the site, and keep walking on the trails.

NPS also says to walk through a muddy puddle instead of around it. A detour tramples plants and slowly widens the trail. Wear footwear that handles mud, or wait for the trail to dry.

Away from developed campgrounds, NPS says to camp at least 200 feet (61 m) from lakes and streams and to keep the campsite small. Rules for dispersed camping vary by place, so check with the land manager first.

3. Dispose of waste properly

“Pack it in, pack it out” covers all trash, leftover food and litter. NPS asks you to check the campsite and food areas for spills before you leave. Use a toilet when one is available. Where there is none, NPS describes burying human waste in a hole 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) deep, at least 200 feet (61 m) from water, camp and trails, and packing out the toilet paper. The details change from place to place, so pack it in, pack it out covers them and tells you whom to ask.

Principles 4 to 7: how you act at camp

4. Leave what you find

Rocks, plants, shells, feathers and historic objects stay where they are. NPS says to photograph cultural and historic structures and artifacts without touching them, to avoid carrying non-native species between places, and to skip building structures, furniture or trenches. Leave what you find covers the laws and the exceptions.

5. Minimize campfire impacts

NPS suggests cooking on a lightweight stove. Where fires are allowed, use the established fire ring, keep the fire small, and burn wood down to ash. Put the fire out completely before you leave it. Where gathering wood is allowed at all, NPS limits it to dead and down wood that breaks by hand. Many campgrounds have their own firewood rules, and fire bans can close every fire in an area. Check campfire rules and fire restrictions before you plan a fire-based dinner.

6. Respect wildlife

Watch animals from a distance, never feed them, store food and trash securely, and keep pets under control. NPS says feeding harms animals’ health, changes their behavior and makes them used to people. It also asks you to give animals space during mating, nesting, raising young and winter.

Distances and food-storage rules differ by park. Wildlife at the campsite shows how to find the ones that apply to you.

7. Be considerate of other visitors

NPS asks you to protect the quality of other people’s visit. Be courteous, yield on trails, camp away from trails and other visitors when you have the choice, and let nature’s sounds win over loud voices. In a campground this mostly means quiet hours, low lights and respect for the next site’s boundary.

Common mistakes

• Treating the principles as a trail-only idea. They apply in a campground with numbered sites too: trash, noise, wildlife and fire.
• Memorizing the names and skipping the local rules. NPS tells you to learn the regulations of the area. The principles do not replace them.
• Leaving food scraps behind. NPS says leftover food goes home with you.
• Walking around the mud. A new path forms fast.
• Taking “just one” rock. NPS notes that parks get over 300 million visits a year. If everyone took one thing, the place would change.
• Assuming a rule is the same everywhere. Parks, forests and state parks each set their own.

Frequently asked questions

Who created the Leave No Trace principles?

NPS says the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics established them. They build on work done in the mid-1980s by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, and on research in recreation ecology.

Are the principles laws?

The principles are guidelines, but parts of them match real rules. NPS says it is illegal to feed, touch, tease, frighten or intentionally disturb wildlife in a park. It also says leaving archeological items alone is the law on federal lands.

Do the principles apply in a campground with a picnic table and fire ring?

Yes. A developed campground has more people on less land, so trash, noise, food storage and fire matter more, not less.

Where can you find the official wording?

Start with the NPS page listed under sources. The Leave No Trace Center holds the copyright to the principles, which is why this article summarizes them in its own words.

Next step: pick three habits for your first trip

Choose three principles to practice, such as trash, noise and wildlife. Write them at the top of your checklist in the Planner, then add one rule from your campground’s page for each. When the list is short, it gets used.