Leave No Trace

[AZDirtyTaco]

Just curious, how many of you practice leave no trace ethics? Also, what are some examples of things do you do while you're camping, backpacking, hunting, etc?

Couple of things we do to minimize evidence of our stay:

1. dig our firepit as reasonably deep as possible and cover it up before we leave
2. disperse all unused firewood and spread out the smaller remnants of the woodpile
3. breakdown old firepits when camped in an already used site
4. nothing more than paper products ever get thrown in the fire to burn
5. dig catholes for human waste
6. avoid adding artificial materials to freshwater sources aside from funky a** feet...
7. when in high use areas we'll all spend 10min walking the area picking up any trash

I've always been disappointed to see how badly the land is treated. Firepits are one of my largest gripes when I see how much trash people throw in the fire. Copenhagen and Skull folks are my favorite offenders!!! A couple of years back I broke down a large firepit in one of the wildernesses that had a personal record of 23 tins found in it.

I think we as hunters have even more skin in the game when it comes to preservation and I see a lot of places that hunters are some of the worse offenders. With all of the extra traffic in the woods this year, I think it's a good conversation to start. I'd love to hear what the CWT community is doing to help take care of this joint and preserve our wild spaces.

[standman]

On Apache sitgreaves National Forest this past weekend

[AZDirtyTaco]

9 minutes ago, standman said:

On Apache sitgreaves National Forest this past weekend

That post is somewhat what inspired me. I will say that as bad as that is, I'm grateful those pigs at least used garbage bags and the crapper to contain everything. WAY better than using firepits to burn their garbage and/or leaving it all on the ground. Judging by the looks of the woods, the toilet paper shortage was a hoax... I went to the Apache Maid area for the 1st time a couple of weeks back and the site we camped had a past tenant that had left their Homer Bucket toilet in the ground and stashed 3 medium-sized trash bags behind rocks on the hill FULL of their waste. The whole area along the north looked rough with trash. Super sad.

[DUG]

 People are pigs. I almost always have a garbage bag with me on outings into the woods. I can easily fill a tall kitchen bag if I wanted to. Unless there is a designated garbage can somewhere at one of our stops somewhere I take everything with me and then some and dump it at home. 

[Will K]

That's sad. Some people are such slobs.

[NOTAGS]

That J John is horrible!  Who Does that?

[n2horns]

My hunting partner and I pick up more of other peoples trash than our own and bring it home.  I have seen GnF and Forest Service look thru campsites and find evidence of who it was ie., name on tag, receipts etc.. and go log the info for tickets.  Rare, but it happens.

When we leave a site, we police it to make sure it is cleaner than it was.

[jdown]

I tell you one more thing that drives me nuts and just gives hunters a bad name.. take your hides for a drive or at least a walk. We pulled into a camp 2 years ago on a rifle cow hunt the Thursday after the youth hunt and 6 (yes 6) hides laying in camp.  Just disgusting to be that lazy and leave that for someone else to pick up or worse, more ammo for someone on the fence..  But yes, people are fkn pigs with their garbage and sh!t wipe. 

[AZDirtyTaco]

22 minutes ago, jdown said:

I tell you one more thing that drives me nuts and just gives hunters a bad name.. take your hides for a drive or at least a walk. We pulled into a camp 2 years ago on a rifle cow hunt the Thursday after the youth hunt and 6 (yes 6) hides laying in camp.  Just disgusting to be that lazy and leave that for someone else to pick up or worse, more ammo for someone on the fence..  But yes, people are fkn pigs with their garbage and sh!t wipe. 

That's a good callout man.  Would seem pretty obvious, but obviously not for some...

[n2horns]

I am sure that many of these are discussed in Hunter Education, if not they should be.  I do know there are instructors that teach this common sense stuff. But again, you can't fix stupid, even with a few tickets.

[northAZarcher]

My issue is fires.  Have had to put out roaring fires numerous times of people that have just left and didn't drown out the fire.  One had flames over 2 feet high when my buddy and myself used our water and shovel to put it out. 

[wildwoody]

I here that. No common sense.. Its getting bad

[HuntHarder]

Disperse all unused firewood?  That's how I figure out which campsite to camp in.  I love finding a nice pile of fire wood waiting for me when I arrive.  

Pretty much common sense is all it takes. . Pick up your trash.

[muledeerarea33?]

My Copenhagen cans get thrown in a trash bag or in the back of my truck. I always bring trash bags but I usually just toss trash in a bucket in the truck bed. I pick up liquid container seals all the way up to beer cans. I won’t pick up others shoot paper or baby diapers! Smokers who bury there butts is my pet peeve. I’ll leave a fire pit (drowned, stirred, out, and rocks covering it) only because there should only be one pit per site. Everyone knows what a camp site is, marked or primitive. Usually someone has been there before. Might as well leave a pit so another one isn’t dug. I ALWAYS! leave wood! It shows the next guy where to put his fire since I try to build them in the most sensible areas. I’ve come upon dispersed fire pits that weren’t out yet and had to distinguish 15’ of fire. I’d rather they leave it in the ring/pit.

[AZLance]

I hang all my extra hide pieces on the nearest barbed wire fence...always some hillbilly from Payson or Showlow that will come and take it!