Field Ethics

These are not suggestions — they are the ethical framework for using shared wilderness. Every camper who ignores them degrades the experience for everyone who follows. This section covers the actual rules and what they mean in practice.

1. Plan ahead and prepare

Know the regulations before you arrive. Permit requirements, fire restrictions, camping zones, water source locations, and bear storage rules vary by location and season. Ignorance is not an excuse and is frequently expensive. Check with the managing agency (NPS, USFS, state parks) for current conditions within the week of your trip.

• Download offline maps and mark water sources, campsites, and bailout routes
• Know the weather window — afternoon thunderstorms are predictable and avoidable with early starts
• Repackage food to minimize waste — remove cardboard, leave excess packaging at home
• Plan for waste: pack out all food waste, wrappers, and gray water solids

2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces

Hike on established trails. Camp on established sites or durable surfaces (rock, gravel, dry grass). The 200-foot rule applies to water: camp, cook, and dispose of waste at least 200 feet from any lake, stream, or water source. In heavily visited areas like the Smokies and many western parks, camping is restricted to designated sites — know which sites you are permitted to use.

• Don’t cut switchbacks — erosion from shortcutting damages trails permanently
• In popular areas, concentrate impact on existing sites rather than creating new ones
• In pristine areas, disperse impact — don’t camp in the same spot twice
• Keep camp small — minimize the area you disturb

3. Dispose of waste properly

Pack it in, pack it out. Everything. Food wrappers, orange peels, apple cores, nut shells — all of it goes in your trash bag and comes home with you. Organic food waste is not natural in ecosystems where it didn’t originate and disrupts wildlife behavior.

• Human waste: cat holes 6-8 inches deep, 200 feet from water, trails, and camp
• Toilet paper: pack it out in a sealed bag — do not bury it, it does not decompose quickly
• Gray water: strain food particles, scatter 200 feet from water, pour small amounts
• Never wash dishes or yourself directly in a stream or lake

4. Leave what you find

Do not take rocks, plants, antlers, artifacts, or anything else from public land. Do not build cairns, carve trees, dig tent sites, or move rocks to make your camp more comfortable. Leave the place exactly as you found it — ideally slightly better.

• Avoid introducing or transporting invasive species — check and clean gear between ecosystems
• Do not disturb cultural or historic structures
• Leave natural objects for the next person to find

5. Minimize campfire impact

Fire restrictions change seasonally and by location — check current conditions before building any fire. In high-use areas, fires cause lasting impact even in established rings. A canister stove is always acceptable; a campfire is not always appropriate.

• Use established fire rings only — never build a new ring
• Keep fires small — only burn wood that can be broken by hand
• Burn all wood and coals to ash, drown completely with water, stir, drown again
• Never leave a fire unattended — not even for five minutes
• Pack out all unburned trash — do not burn food wrappers or packaging

6. Respect wildlife

Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not approach, feed, or attempt to interact with any wild animal. Feeding wildlife — including leaving food scraps — habituates them to humans and is one of the primary reasons bears are destroyed. A fed bear is a dead bear.

• Store all food and scented items in bear canisters or proper hangs every night and when away from camp
• Give large animals (bears, elk, moose) wide berth — 100 yards minimum
• Do not camp near obvious wildlife travel corridors or water sources at dawn and dusk
• If a bear enters camp: stand tall, make noise, do not run, give it a path to leave

7. Be considerate of other visitors

You are sharing the wilderness with other people who also worked hard to get there. Noise, campfire smoke drifting into neighboring sites, letting dogs run loose, and monopolizing water sources are all real impacts on other people’s experience.

• Yield to uphill hikers on the trail
• Keep noise low, especially at night — voices carry far in quiet wilderness
• Dogs must be leashed in most parks — check regulations and respect them
• Limit group size — large groups create disproportionate impact
• Step aside for pack animals and give them the right of way

8. Have fun

None of this matters if you forget why you are out here. The checklists, the protocols, the weight math, the knot practice — all of it exists to remove friction so you can actually be present in a place worth being present in. A well-prepared camp is not the goal. It is what makes the goal possible: a cold beer at sunset, a fire you didn’t have to fight for, a morning where you wake up dry and rested and the coffee is ready in five minutes. The work of camping is front-loaded so the experience of camping is effortless. If you find yourself optimizing gear instead of watching the river, you have lost the plot. Get the systems right, then put the manual down and go outside.