Home is Where the Heart Is

I think the hardest question to answer when teaching Leave No Trace is simply, "why?". Why does anyone need to be reminded of simple, common sense steps in the backcountry? Why should I be concerned with the small impact of one person when the Earth is such a dynamic series of systems? Surely it can absorb my footprints, as it has the millions of footprints that have come before me? Why does the responsibility of lessening a global impact fall on my shoulders?

These are all completely legit, and while perhaps not verbatim, commonly expressed questions. And often, they leave me tongue-tied.

In a nutshell, the answer is easy -- because not everyone cares about the natural world and it's processes, so somebody has to pick up the slack, or the people who do care won't have anything left to care about. Sounds an awful lot like getting shafted, I know.

As a teacher, I often struggle to find more eloquent ways to ornament this bleak answer. I use images of alpine valleys and fragile deserts to evoke protective emotions; I tell stories of lone bears making a last stand and elusive fish forever swimming icy streams to drum up feelings of respect and fear. I demonstrate alternative methods and equipment to pique curiosity and I lead people out into our natural lands in hopes that their surroundings will give them the motivation and energy to go the extra mile.

But still, all this talking never really gets at the real, complex, constantly-evolving answer to "why": because the natural world is our home, and that is truly where my heart is. None of us -- no matter our immediate environment, decor, location, or mindset -- are outside of nature. We all rely on the planet's cyclical generosity for our lives, literally the very air we breathe, and this is all happening right now, right this very second.

My goal with this blog is to explore the often overwhelming emotions I have for this natural world, and eventually translate them into a better tool for teaching the principles of Leave No Trace in the Pikes Peak Region.

I also invite other LNT Master Educators, Trainers, or students to submit your own thoughts, photos, poems, teaching concepts, recipes, gear reviews, meteorological predictions, soap-box rants, baby pictures, what-have-you, to kristen@pikespeakleavenotrace.org . I hope that we can create a compendium of LNT-ish thoughts and ideas that we can all use to further the conversation.

Looking forward to it...

Kristen