As an experienced outdoorsperson, you're aware of the rules. After you've enjoyed a hike, camping trip or some other excursion, you need to make sure you've left an area the same way you'd like to find it.

That respect is at the core of the Leave No Trace principles that protect the natural beauty of wild spaces.

Topics: LNT, Environmental Stewardship, leave no trace, education

Topics: camping, leave no trace, winter, backcountry skiing, snowboarding, splitboarding

Photo by Matt Heaton.

You’re the type of person who will eat a noodle that fell in the dirt, shudder when you think about “surface pooping,” and march right through mud puddles on the trail rather than around them. You’re a master of Leave No Trace.

It can be hard to know how to bring your dedication to LNT to your daily routine. So, I asked around at NOLS Headquarters to find out what NOLSies do to keep LNT alive in their daily routine.

Take a look and see if there are any ideas you can fit into your lifestyle.

Topics: Behind the Scenes, leave no trace, Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability

Maybe it’s something about disposing of orange peels, or letting your friend wash the dishes by the lake at the end of a long day. No matter what, you’ve probably heard of at least one of these popular Leave No Trace myths—and maybe even believe some of them yourself!

Topics: LNT, camping, leave no trace, myth

As the snow begins to melt from the mountains, there is another season approaching as we transition into spring: mud season.

Topics: Expedition Prep, LNT, leave no trace, education, wilderness, backcountry

Editor's note: Guidelines from the fourth edition of NOLS' Soft Paths, by Rich Brame and David Cole.

Let's talk waste. When we go somewhere to camp out, we're going to produce garbage and human waste. It's inevitable. What's not inevitable is the way we clean up after ourselves. After all, you wouldn't go into your neighbor's backyard, have a barbecue, and leave all the trash behind, right? (Maybe it depends on how well you get along with your neighbor...)

Topics: Expedition Prep, Backpacking, outdoor education, leave no trace, backcountry

At NOLS, we work hard to make sure that each of our locations does its part to promote sustainable practices that will give our students great experiences and care for the amazing wild lands in which we operate. For Earth Day 2015, we're going to show you a day in the life at our location in Ranikhet, India, so you can see how we integrate sustainability and conservation into our everyday practices...

Topics: leadership, Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship, leave no trace, NOLS India

Students who turn to NOLS for their semester abroad treasure the experience. Wendy Cirko and Cory McDonald both took NOLS semesters as their semesters abroad last year. Both Spring Semester in New Zealand graduates, shared their reflections on the experience and the education with us recently, and we had to share. Learn more about upcoming semesters in New Zealand here.

Topics: Semester abroad, listen, NOLS, leadership, academic credit, self confidence, Behind the Scenes, Semester, outdoor recreation, graduates, active learner, navigation, sailing, future, college, first aid, National Outdoor Leadership School, feedback, communication, Semester of campus, natural resource recreation management, New Zealand, university credit, risk management, Backpacking, environmental studies, kayaking, life-changing, self-awareness, perseverance, degree, outdoor education, wildlife, leave no trace, philosophy, route planning, team member, college credit, education, Salisbury University, wilderness, backcountry

Here at NOLS Headquarters, we all know and love John Gans, NOLS executive director for the past 16 years. He is the sort of leader who remembers the interns’ names and every staff member’s latest venture. He brings a passion to what we do at NOLS every day when he walks through the door. We’ve long known he’s a hero who leads our effort in changing the world for the better.

Topics: NOLS, leadership, Champions of Change, Behind the Scenes, White House, National Outdoor Leadership School, leaders, Environmental Stewardship, leave no trace, wilderness, John Gans

This awesome photo was taken on a NOLS LNT Master Eductor course at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The inspiration was the durable slick-rock the course had been traveling and camping on during the course. Thanks, Larry Glickman, for the creative photo!

Topics: LNT, Environmental Stewardship, leave no trace

NOLS’ Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Department is happy to announce the release of the first annual Sustainability Report. This report tells the story of NOLS’ path to formalize environmental sustainability at the school in the context of its educational mission.

Topics: nols sustainability report, report, LNT, nols report, green, Environmental Stewardship, Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, leave no trace, 2011, sustainability

Fifth and Sixth Graders from Lander’s South Elementary (Home
of the Sharks)
joined the Rocky Mountain Interns, our jefe Ann
Schorling, and NOLS Instructor extraordinaire Clair Parrish for an LNT tutorial
in Sinks Canyon last week.

Topics: south elementary, Lander, LNT, Wyoming, learn, Environmental Stewardship, middle school, leave no trace, games, student

Here are a few recent videos uploaded to YouTube from recent NOLS grads. For more student-made videos, check out our Student Videos YouTube playlist.

Topics: NOLS, Wind River Wilderness, Waddington Range, pizza, Expedition Prep, LNT, WRW, backcountry pizza, youtube, video, leave no trace, student

"I'm just going to pee in that little creek."

Topics: NOLS, camping ethics, LNT, National Outdoor Leadership School, Environmental Stewardship, outdoor ethics, leave no trace

Where did you get your start in outdoor education?
I got my start in outdoor education in rural Pennsylvania. As a little kid, my parents would shoo me out the back door with nothing more than a brown paper lunch sack containing a PB&J sandwich, carrot sticks, and a juice box. I'd spend entire days exploring the quiet woods, fishing the clear lakes and streams, and building secret tree forts behind my house.

Topics: NOLS, leadership, matthew lloyd, skiing, accomplishment, insructor, matt lloyd, Educators Notebook, leave no trace, stewardship, winter, backcountry