Outdoor Stewardship - Protect The Places You Love

Stewardship is about our personal responsibility to protect the outdoor trails, forests and waterways, etc. that we love. Since we love these areas we have an incentive to protect them from damage or even potential closure due to overuse. We also have a duty to preserve these favorite areas in nature for future generations. If we abuse them they can potentially be degraded for years, decades, or even permanently. There are a lot of things you can do to help improve and preserve the places where you recreate.

Practice Leave No Trace Camping and Hiking

It's crucial that we all do our part to protect the outdoors from overuse and abuse. Luckily practicing Leave No Trace skills and principles is one of the easiest ways to do that.

Leave No Trace : Outdoor Ethics & Skills For Outdoor Users

Negative Trace - Going Beyond Leave No Trace

Participate in Volunteer Opportunities

There are many ways to volunteer and give back to the outdoor community. Here are a few opportunities that happen every year.

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

Stay informed on issues affecting your local National Forests and National Parks and do your part to make your voice heard in protecting our public lands and to ensure that current protections are not weakened. There are many good Hiking, Conservation and Environmental Organizations that work on specific issues affecting our Wilderness areas, National Forests, and roadless areas that allow you to get involved in their campaigns. You can also sign up to recieve Action Alert email notifications of new or urgent issues. Local activism can make a big difference in protecting our outdoor treasures and is just good stewardship!.

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

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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