Outdoor Ethics
Graham Twaddell
Committee Chair
Grand Canyon Council
gtwaddellaz@gmail.com
Outdoor Ethics and Leave No Trace are key components of all core BSA outdoor programs. Consider the combined effects of millions of outdoor visitors. One poorly located campsite or campfire may have little significance, but thousands of such instances seriously degrade the outdoor experience for all. Leaving no trace is everyone’s responsibility.
Help protect the front and backcountry by remembering that while you are there, you are a visitor. When you visit a friend, you take care to leave your friend’s home just as you found it. You would never think of trampling garden flowers, chopping down trees in the yard, putting soap in the drinking water, or marking your name on the living room wall. When you visit the front and backcountry, the same courtesies apply. Leave everything just as you found it. Hiking and camping without a trace are signs of an expert outdoorsman, and of a Scout or Scouter who cares for the environment.
A Leave No Trace Trainer course provides more advanced awareness and skills training, and develop youth and adults capable of effectively teaching these important outdoor skills and ethics. A unit with an active Leave No Trace Trainer will be better equipped to travel lightly on the land.
A 16-hour, overnight, Leave No Trace Trainer course trains adults and youth ages 14 and up to serve as Leave No Trace Trainers. It is recommended training for the Outdoor Ethics Guide troop junior leadership position.
Grand Canyon Council’s Outdoor Ethics Team goal is for every unit, within every district, to have some level of formal Leave No Trace training. By becoming a Leave No Trace Trainer, you will learn the skills and gain the confidence to host Leave No Trace awareness workshops for you unit.
Training Schedule
Grand Canyon Council schedules Leave No trace Trainer Courses the third weekend of March every year! The Catalina Council in Tucson hosts October trainings each year; either Council’s training will provide you what you need to be certified!
Click here to review available Outdoor Ethics events.
Indoor Nature Activities for Kids
Scouts and Scouters – Stuck at home? Now is the perfect time to earn the Scouts BSA Outdoor Ethics Award!
The requirements are as follows:
- Recite from memory and explain the meaning of the Outdoor Code.
- Watch the National Park Service Leave No Trace video.
It’s on the right side of the page. - Complete the Leave No Trace online course . Print the certificate.
- Complete the Tread Lightly! online course . Print the certificate.
- Participate in an outdoor ethics course, workshop, or training activity facilitated by a person who has completed the BSA outdoor ethics orientation course or is a BSA outdoor ethics trainer or master.
Complete requirements #1-4, and then have a parent or unit leader contact Graham Twaddell, Grand Canyon Council’s Outdoor Ethics Advocate, for information on an at home training activity that satisfies requirement #5.
Additionally, LNT.org has prepared a variety of indoor nature activities for youth to learn from throughout the Covid-19 social distancing period.