LNT 14 - Planning Planning
This posting lays out a few thoughts on the LNT Principle:
Plan Ahead and Prepare
If we do this one at the start of a LNT presentation it can be a REAL
sonofagun . At the end, once we all know what we are preparing for, it
gets a BUNCH easier!
By now, we all know what we want to do to help protect our backcountry:
learn how our actions can harm the backcountry;
become committed to doing as little harm as possible;
go do it (or don't do it, as the case may be ); and,
don't be a wuss about getting fellow backcountry users to join in!
Obviously, the better prepared we are before we go, the better we can do
all the above!
One way to plan and prepare (p&p) is to do just what we have been doing for
the last thirteen LNT messages...looking at the LNT "big picture." "LNT
15- Wrap up!" includes a short bibliography which can help get us all into
LNT a LOT deeper than this simple set of introductory messages.
The next p&p step is for each of us to take a hard look at our intended use
of the backcountry. There are a LOT of variables that come to play when we
start considering all the various ways that we "users" like to interact
with the many different backcountry ecosystems during the different
seasons.
As climbers, bikers, hikers, x-country skiers, cavers, hoss folks...(and on
and on), we all have widely differing ways that we like to use the
backcountry. We each need to become familiar with the good LNT-type
thinking that has already been done by the heavy-hitters in our particular
sport(s). It is a rare backcountry sport nowadays that hasn't added LNT to
it's bag of tricks...and the few that haven't are likely to be simply
calling it something else (low impact, minimum impact, Ghost Riders,
ethical use, soft use, Tread Lightly!, etc.).
Once we get pretty sharp on the kinds of LNT questions that we should be
asking, we can start to research the specific backcountry ecosystem(s) that
we plan to visit. There are a LOT of documents published about most of the
popular backcountry areas...and the managing agencies WILL fall all over
themselves to help us understand the special LNT considerations that might
be peculiar to the areas they care for.
Once we (really!) know the range of conditions that we can expect during
our backcountry visit...and we have decided on our personal/group LNT
approach toward meeting those conditions...we can start to plan the details
of our trip. Do we take stoves, use tarps, follow trails, visit pristine
areas, go in big groups, stay in one camp for days, make campfires,
(yaddata, yaddata)....are all these choices "optimum" LNT practice?
I dunno - there is NO WAY that I could know...it's the responsibility (and
the privilege!) of each person heading out into the backcountry to
evaluate:
the skills/attitudes of the particular individuals involved;
the particular equipment and camping "style" that will be used;
the particular ecosystems involved;
the particular climate possibilities involved;
the particular use-rates of the areas involved; and,
the particular "official" rules/restrictions/constraints involved.
Tough task for somebody not involved...easy task for those that are .
We ARE getting more help to integrate this type of "heads-up" planning into
our Scouting adventures (see the new "Passport To High Adventure", BSA pub:
4310). This type of sophisticated and ethical/idealistic analysis is
EXACTLY up the alley of our older Scouts...and it dovetails nicely with the
rest of a full Scouting program!
Our sharp youth-leaders doing the p&p job DO have a lot to think about!
We in Scouting are in the biz of growing kids (check out the Aims!) and we
have discovered a pretty doggone well-defined way to do it that REALLY
works (check out the Methods!). Our stock in trade is to recruit
absolutely neophyte campers (youth and adults) and to provide a program
that teaches them how to be safe, to be good outdoor citizens, and to have
huge fun in the backcountry. The simple little fact that this outdoor-use
allows ALL the Methods to come to life in a wonderful and highly effective
OJT educational/growth program can be our little "secret"!
Scout units don't go to the woods just to have fun...we visit the
backcountry to do good Scouting! By definition, our program is based on
teams (Patrols) and on skilled older youth passing important (and highly
relevant/practical!) skills down to the new guys.
We can reasonably expect a certain amount of "extra" impact to the
backcountry ecosystem when new campers are learning very basic camping
skills. We can expect even more impact when we choose to do this sort of
training in teams (groups). We can expect even MORE impact when we choose
(for important program reasons) to allow youth leaders to learn/practice
their own leadership skills as they pass on the basics of camping. All of
this adds up to some pretty heavy-duty impacts caused in the name of doing
good Scouting!
Do we want to try to design an outdoor program that completely stops all
impacts? We could easily set up LOTS of detailed "rules", do adult
dictatorships instead of youth leadership, force the groups to be smaller
than our designated teams, impose severe penalties if impacts are
caused...and on and on .
Or...we can just get a tad smarter about where we choose to do our outdoor
Scouting program!
Believe me, our sharp youth leaders are PLENTY capable of finding and
planning trips to those "bombproof" backcountry locations where we can do
the hi-impact parts of our outdoor program (Scout camps, private property,
backcountry locations set aside for such use by the managing agencies,
etc.). We CAN...easily...run an outdoor program that still allows new
campers (and new young leaders!) to learn by doing...and sometimes
failing...in backcountry areas that CAN absorb this kind of hi-impact use.
Hey...we then get to "graduate" these trained/practiced/skilled young
Scouts into having huge fun visiting (and still doing good Scouting!) in
all those beautiful hi-use/fragile public wildlands out there! The Scouts
"win" because they become welcome visitors to some incredibly beautiful
(world-class!) backcountry locations, the backcountry locations "win"
because a significant chunk of users are truly able to visit with
little/minimum impact, and Scouting as a whole "wins" because we are
EARNING back our reputation as expert outdoorsmen!
This p&p stuff really IS pretty doggone simple:
get smart about LNT, get smart about our sport, get smart about where we
plan to visit...and then play smart .
Piece of cake!
The last little bit to add to our p&p "smarts" is our need to be smart
about getting help as we try to stem the tide of destruction to OUR
beautiful backcountry that we are heading out to enjoy. We can't do it
alone...and we all think that the effort IS worth doing...or we wouldn't be
heading out!
Meet you at "LNT 15- Wrap up!"
See you at "LNT 15- Wrap up!"
- Charlie Thorpe
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