The Leave No Trace program is the product of a joint effort of the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Outdoor Leadership School. The program is headquartered in Boulder, Colo., and aims to promote and instill its core values — outlined on the Web at www.lnt.org — of minimum-impact recreational activity. Through partnerships with youth groups and education programs worldwide, the program is a kind of grassroots, word-of-mouth approach to spreading the message on wilderness ethics, one person at a time.
Half Moon Bay Kayak Co. co-owner Chris Manchester is doing his part to raise awareness about the program by training individuals on the core values of Leave No Trace. He promotes the program at his beachfront business and is himself a Leave No Trace Master Educator. As such, he is certified to lead small groups of campers on four-day educational expeditions. The instruction is hands-on.
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Manchester was a student of National Outdoor Leadership School in the 1990s when the program was in its infancy and became an instructor in 1999. He taught courses on environmentally friendly recreation practices at the school and was recently awarded the title of Master Educator.
Though the participants of Manchester’s four-day expedition are awarded the title of Master Educator themselves, they must take courses at the school to become certified to guide their own four-day tours.
During Manchester’s first expedition in June, he coached four people through the motions of the Leave No Trace principles in Tomales Bay and Pillar Point. His students were the director of the outdoor program at Northern Virginia Community College, her two students, and a National Forest Service employee.
“I got really positive feedback from the people who went on the trip,” Manchester said. “We’ll offer as many (expeditions) as we possibly can. And we’ll discuss front-country stuff as well — what you can do at your house, how you can recycle your trash, how to compost, how to drive your car on alternate fuel — so you’re seeing the big picture because you’re placing an ethic on everything.
“Then you need to practice what you preach because it shouldn’t be just in the backcountry.”
Leave No Trace, conceptualized in the 1960s, became a program in the early 1990s and has grown exponentially since then, incorporating a broad range of affiliates and partnerships to provide courses and workshops to anyone wishing to pursue a more sustainable way of life.
“For me, it’s about building this coastal relationship and letting people know,” Manchester said, “so the next time somebody’s walking down the beach and they see someone throw something on the ground they’re like, ‘what are you doing? We don’t do that in California. I don’t know where you’re from, but we don’t do that here.’”
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