1. Beware the Fragile Trail
People consider hiking a healthy activity, one in which they pay attention to the environment. Hikers often don't realize that the environmental impact they have isn't necessarily a positive one. While one irresponsible hiker doesn't cause much damage, repeated actions to the environment-even walking- can destroy a fragile ecosystem. The key to minimizing the ecological impact of hiking is awareness of your impact. Hike in small groups, walking in single file. Choose constructed trails, don't blaze your own. Constructed trails are already compact and built to handle foot traffic. However, when you hike on trails of your own choosing, you compact the soil under your feet, harm vegetation and contribute to soil erosion. Protect soil by walking on special trails lined with sand, gravel or rock.
2. Limit Campfires
Hikers and backpackers occasionally use campfires for cooking, but sometimes they're used just for overnight camping ambiance. Leave the dead wood for the wildlife. You may see a fallen branch as fuel for a fire, but that branch contains nutrients for animals and plants in wooded areas. Fires quickly can spread out of control, killing plants and animals for miles around. If you must have a fire, keep it small and fuel it with small pieces of wood in a pre-existing fire ring, if possible. Better yet, use camp stoves for cooking.
3. Hike Protected Areas
Park rangers monitor the ecology of the national and state parks they protect. Follow posted regulations designed to protect an area. In some areas, this means limiting the number of hikers. The animals you encounter on the hiking trail are wild. They don't want to be petted or bothered, and human food isn't good for them. People who teach animals to trust humans endanger those animals even further.
4. Don't Leave Your Ecological Footprint
Carry out whatever trash you carry in; if left behind it can harm animals. Human waste is another concern; make sure it doesn't contaminate water sources and make other hikers and animals sick. Seasoned hikers and scouts know to pack a trowel in their backpack. Dig a hole away from trails and water to use as your toilet. When you're finished, bury or cover up waste.
5. Leave No Trace
"Leave No Trace" is a set of principles designed to minimize the impact of hiking and camping on the environment. To sum it up, leave no trace means that the people who travel in the same place after you won't be able to see evidence that you were there. This includes leaving things where you found them, even rocks. Everything in nature has a purpose, and does not include souvenirs for hikers. "Leave No Trace" is an important principle of ecology in scouting programs as well, and many scout troops take it further by leaving camping and hiking sites in better shape than they found them by picking up litter. Respect the land by limiting ecological impact.
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