Free Leave No Trace Workshops at Acadia

Date: June 14, 2016
Contact: John Kelly, 207-288-8703

The National Park Service invites the public to join Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and its Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers for a free workshop to learn how to help protect resources at Acadia National Park while enjoying the outdoors. The workshop will take place on Monday, June 20, from 10 am to noon at Acadia National Park headquarters in Bar Harbor, and repeated on Friday, June 24, from 2:30 to 4:30 pm at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (Moore Auditorium) in Winter Harbor.

The Leave No Trace is program with a set of seven principles that visitors to natural areas can use to minimize their impact on the environment and fellow visitors. Each workshop will be activity-oriented with slideshows, games, and information on the Leave No Trace program. Participants will walk away from the workshop with the tools necessary to teach others how to reduce impacts on our favorite outdoor places. A sampling of topics covered during the workshop includes:

• Interesting skills to minimize impacts in the great outdoors
• How to cook, clean, camp, interact with other visitors and wildlife
• Interactive games to teach the Leave No Trace Seven Principles
• How to help others develop a sense of environmental stewardshi
• How to get more involved with the national education program
• Quick tips to use and share Leave No Trace at home, at work, and in your community

"We are thrilled to work with the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers to help educate our park staff and raise awareness on how visitors can enjoy Acadia National Park in ways that help protect it for the future," said Superintendent Kevin Schneider.

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics in a national nonprofit organization that protects the outdoors by teaching people how to enjoy it responsibly. The Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers are mobile teams of educators that visit 48 states every year delivering Leave No Trace programs to over 15 million people. The National Park Service and Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics have joined forces to highlight this need by naming Acadia National Park a Leave No Trace Center "Hot Spot" for the week of June 20–27. Hot Spots are areas that have experienced heavy recreational use and visitor-created impacts including excessive trash, damage to vegetation and trees, trail erosion, and disturbance to wildlife.The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics received 68 nominations for Hot Spot events for 2016, and chose 16 geographically and ecologically diverse sites nationwide.

The Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers will be in Acadia National Park during the week conducting workshops and raising awareness for the public and park staff. The public is also invited to join the them on a volunteer work project in the park on Thursday, June 23, from 8:30 am to noon; listen to the them on WERU's Talk of the Town on Friday, June 24, from 10 to 11 am; and visit with them at a display table at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center on Saturday, June 25, from 9 am to noon.

For more information about the Leave No Trace workshops and other events, please contact Charlie Jacobi at 207-288-8727 or [e-mail].