If you love the outdoors and witnessing Mother Nature like I do, then you'll appreciate and take to heart what the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics is trying so hard to uphold.

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and inspiring responsible outdoor recreation through education, research, and partnerships. Leave No Trace builds awareness, appreciation, and respect for our wildlands. Practicing Leave No Trace Ethics when you visit the backcountry ensures that the area you visited will be as pristine for the next person as it was for you, not to mention for the creatures that make that place their home.

Leave No Trace is about respecting and caring for wildlands, doing your part to protect our limited resources and future recreation opportunities. Once this attitude is adopted and the outdoor ethic is sound, the specific skills and techniques become second nature. America's public lands are a finite resource whose social and ecological values are linked to the integrity of their natural conditions and processes.

Seven Leave No Trace Principles:

Plan Ahead and Prepare Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you'll visit. Prepare for extreme weather, hazards, and emergencies. Schedule your trip to avoid times of high use. Visit in small groups. Split larger parties into groups of 4-6. Repackage food to minimize waste. Use a map and compass to eliminate the use of marking paint, rock cairns, or flagging.

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces Durable surfaces include established trails and campsites, rock, gravel, dry grasses, or snow. Protect riparian areas by camping at least 200 feet from lakes and streams. Good campsites are found, not made. Altering a site is not necessary. In popular areas, concentrate use on existing trails and campsites, walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when wet or muddy and keep campsites small. Focus activity in areas where vegetation is absent. In pristine areas, disperse use to prevent the creation of campsites and trails and avoid places where impacts are just beginning.

Dispose of Waste Properly "Pack it in, pack it out." Inspect your campsite and rest areas for trash or spilled foods. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter. Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6 to 8 inches deep at least 200 feet from water, camp, and trails. Cover and disguise the cathole when finished. Pack out toilet paper and hygiene products. To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water 200 feet away from streams or lakes and use small amounts of biodegradable soap. Scatter strained dishwater.

Leave What You Find Preserve the past: examine, but do not touch, cultural, or historic structures and artifacts. Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them. Avoid introducing or transporting non-native species. Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.

Minimize Campfire Impacts Campfires can cause lasting impacts to the backcountry. Use a lightweight stove for cooking and enjoy a candle lantern for light. Where fires are permitted, use established fire rings, fire pans, or mound fires. Keep fires small. Only use sticks from the ground that can be broken by hand. Burn all wood and coals to ash, put out campfires completely, and scatter cool ashes.

Respect Wildlife Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow or approach them. Never feed animals! Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors and exposes them to predators and other dangers. Protect wildlife and your food by storing rations and trash securely. Control pets at all times, or leave them at home. Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter.

Be Considerate of Other Visitors Respect other visitors and protect the quality of their experience. Be courteous. Yield to other users on the trail. Step to the downhill side of the trail when encountering pack stock. Take breaks and camp away from trails and other visitors. Let nature's sounds prevail. Avoid loud voices and noises.