Low Impact Camping - Suggestions, inclinations, items to consider
For the love of the land, the water, and the wild, we maintain some basic methods, approaches, and techniques to help us camp with a lower impact on the ecosystem. There are very few laws in place to protect the earth from campers like us - it’s up to us, each individual and group, to set our standards of care. These are guidelines, really, and are not the only way to do things. Outlined below are simply the ways that we have found work well – mostly discovered through a combination of experience, conversation, workshops, and reading. We will talk about all of this as we plan our trips, open it up for discussion, and figure out the best ways for each group to stay as clean, tidy, healthy, and untraceable, as possible.
Food: We’ll be neat and tidy as we prepare food and eat. Dishes will be washed away from the shoreline, to keep little food bits from floating into the lake, thereby reducing confusion in the ecosystem. When the dishes are done, we’ll bury the dishwater 6 inches deep and at least 100 feet from the shoreline. Any organic leftovers will be packed-out with us.
Drinking water: To purify lake water, we use the most appropriate of the following: ceramic hand pump water filters, UV light purifiers, and Pristine chorline treatment. Each of these methods are effective at preventing the contracting giardia and other undesirable water-born ailments.
Grey-water and Waste: All grey-water and any human waste occurring away from an outhouse shall be buried 6 inches deep. This is a good depth for the earth’s decomposition of organic material - shallow enough to be in the highly active layer of topsoil and deep enough to keep other animals from digging it up and getting sick.
Shelter: Tents are best pitched on designated areas to avoid crushing delicate plants and mosses.
Trails: That’s why it’s good to stick to marked trails, too.
Bathing: We’ll bring and use biodegradable soaps. Soap suds will be kept away from the lake, and soapy water will be buried 6 inches deep.
Burning: Wood and some organic materials can be burnt (depending on how hot the fire's blazing), but not plastics. If we burn cans and metals to clean them, they should be removed from the fire pit once the fire is doused.