The Cedar Mesa Project

Leave No Trace

"Do not bathe in desert pools, natural tanks, tinajas, potholes. Drink what water you need, take what you need, and leave the rest for the next hiker and more important for the bees, birds, and animals - bighorn sheep, coyotes, lions, foxes, badgers, deer, wild pigs, wild horses - whose lives depend on that water."
Abbey, Edward, The Journey Home, E. P. Dutton, New York, 1977. p.19.

• The increased usage and easier accesses to the Cedar Mesa area intensify the deterioration of irreplaceable resources. Let's each of us make the choice to care!
• Please stay on the trails, rocky surfaces, or on sand even when it is muddy to avoid widening impact areas. Avoid cutting new switchbacks to prevent erosion. Avoid soft charcoal-stained soil, i.e., the middens, or prehistoric trash heaps, which are most often located immediately down slope from ancient Puebloan cliff ruins.
• Cryptobiotic Soil is composed of living organisms. Avoid impacting it by walking, resting, and camping on slickrock, grass and sand. Keep your group size small.
• Wildlife live in the canyons too; please respect their living space and habitat.
• Keep dogs under physical and/or voice control.
• Artifacts, historic signatures, and rock art tell a story of a previous legacy; leave for future scientific research and for others to appreciate. Please avoid touching rock art or historic signatures. Oils and dirt from fingers and hands increases deterioration. Leaning, sitting, or standing on ancient walls loosens the bonding and eventually destroys them. To reduce impacts, the use of technical climbing equipment to reach sites is prohibited.
• Weather conditions may change quickly. Flash floods can occur and rock falls can be a hazard. Water in springs is not always available, and must be treated.
• Please camp 70 paces (200 feet) or more from water, trails, and archaeological sites. Use existing campsites. Camp on slickrock, grass or sand to minimize impacts. Use portable stoves for cooking and sheltered candles for light rather than open wood fires.
• Potable water sources are very limited. Soaps, sun screens and lotions, etc. in potholes and streams pollute water sources for everyone. Wash and dispose of water at least 200 feet (60 meters) away from water sources.
• Bury human feces in soil 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) deep. Pack out your toilet paper, etc. Bring a small bag to carry out all refuse including food scraps and garbage - yours and others.
• Please respect the solitude and back country experiences of others.
• Before you leave, take one last look. Most of us will be returning in body and/or spirit again and again.

Have you done your best to LEAVE NO TRACE ?

For more detailed information about this program, see: Leave No Trace, http://www.lnt.org/

The Cedar Mesa Project Network.
A grassroots citizens group working in cooperation with the Canyonlands Natural History Association and Bureau of Land Management.

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Return to Cedar Mesa home page.

URL of this page: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/environment/cacv/cacvtrac.htm

Revised '9-Jun-2001,11:10:14'

Copyright ©1996, 1999 SCCS.