Outdoor Stewardship:

How to Help Make the Outdoors a Better Place to Recreate

There are a lot of things you can do to improve and preserve the places where you recreate.

Practice Leave No Trace Camping and Hiking

Leave No Trace : Outdoor Ethics & Skills For Outdoor Users

Negative Trace - Going Beyond Leave No Trace

Participate in Volunteer Opportunities

March for Parks is the nation's largest walking event to benefit parks and open spaces. All funds raised by marchers stay in their local community and are used to fund local park projects. The National Parks and Conservation Association created the March for Parks and supports groups who want to hold a March for Parks event in their community.

National Public Lands Day is an annual volunteer program that is designed to gather together thousands of citizens for hands-on volunteer work in restoring and conserving the natural, cultural, and recreational resources of our public lands. National Public Lands Day takes place on the last Saturday of every September. Volunteers across the country will help maintain our public lands so that they will continue to be great places to recreate.

National Trails Day is the largest celebration of America's outdoors. It is organized by the American Hiking Society and is celebrated annually on the first Saturday in June. Each year outdoor enthusiasts get out on our trails to help raise awareness of trail issues and to promote the wide variety of benefits that trails provide. National Trails Day events range from maintenance projects to group hikes to bicycle races to large-scale trail festivals.

Legislation Watch, Action Alerts, and Activism

Natural Resources Defense Council Legislative Watch gives updates on environmental legislation plus the Earth Action Center has alerts on urgent issues

NPCA Action Alerts National Park current issues, news, and e-mail activist alerts

Sierra Club Outdoor and environmental issues and activism

Wilderness Society - Take Action! WildAlert action e-mail alert list for Wilderness issues

Wilderness Newsbriefs Wilderness news, current issues, and e-mail subscription

Wilderness Watch Wilderness protection and preservation issues and action alerts

More Outdoor Ethics and Stewardship Information

Fireworks: Cheap Thrills with Toxic Consequences
Heavy Metal Fallout from Fireworks Creates Needless Pollution and an Unnecessary Risk to Our Personal and Environmental Health

Doing your Part: A Guide to Basic Outdoor Ethics
Basic Outdoor Ethics for fishing, hunting, mountain biking, scenic drives, off-highway and off-road touring

The Outdoor Code
As an American, I will do my best to
Be clean in my outdoor manners,
Be careful with fire,
Be considerate in the outdoors,
and be conservation-minded.

Definition of Stewardship

Stewardship is an environmental concept of responsible caretaking for our land and associated resources.
Stewardship is an ethical responsibility for mankind to protect and manage plants, animals, and all the parts of our environment and should be guided by the principle of causing the least amount of harm possible. This includes protecting the environment by limiting pollution, through recycling and conservation, and by responsible management of our natural resources.
Stewardship is our responsibility to leave behind healthy environments for future generations.
Stewardship is putting aside selfishness and greed and doing what is right for our natural environment.
Stewardship is also referred to as environmental stewardship or outdoor stewardship.

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