Human Waste Disposal in the Bush and Leave No Trace Education

In a recent post I broached the subject of human waste disposal in the wilderness, as well as in not-so-wilderness locations. I noted how I had found used Wag Bags left in the desert in a couple of different locations last summer. I also noted how I have been finding human waste, along with toilet paper, just left on the ground surface in too many locations in the past couple of summers. I asked the questions: why are people using (and leaving) Wag Bags in locations where a “cat hole” was all that was necessary for waste disposal, and why am I finding more toilet paper and waste on the ground, and a lot of this along the Escalante River no less?

I received a reply to that post from Reina Gallion of Cleanwaste, the company that makes the Wag Bag. She left me- and anyone who cares to comment on the subject-  with a question- what can we do to educate people in the use of Wag Bags, and more broadly, in Leave No Trace principles?

I know that rangers, employees, and volunteers at National Parks, monuments, campgrounds, state parks, and so on are usually tremendously overworked and do the best they can do to accomplish their daily tasks, part of which is checking in with visitors to make sure they understand the “rules” of visiting. I also know that there are many, many visitors to our parks, monuments, and wilderness areas and that there are occasionally those who slip by, for various reasons, without knowing how to properly “conduct” themselves in these locations. By this I mean how and where to go to the bathroom, and also other LNT principles such as packing out trash, not building fires outside of established rings, not chopping down trees, and (my personal favorite) keeping noise and the use of lights to a minimum. So what can we do to educate others about treading lightly, about the fragility of our wild lands, and about the ever-shrinking wilderness? These are big questions.

There are two parts to my discussion- first, some points about the use of Wag Bags in the wilderness and packing out human waste, and second, Leave No Trace principles in general. As I have written elsewhere, I have never hiked anywhere that requires packing out human waste. Of course this does not include river running. Reina brings up a few good points regarding the use of Wag Bags and packing out waste that should be kept in mind:

• Wag Bags are a solid, functional way to cleanly and safely pack out waste (durability being a concern in a comment by Doug.)
• Some wilderness areas (Reina notes Mt. Whitney in California) hand out Wag Bags and require their use. In this case there is no place to dig a cat hole even if you wanted to.
• As Reina also points out, there are places where wilderness campsites are “established”, but are not maintained. Some of the best slot canyons in the world can be found along the Escalante River. They see a lot of use. Some of the staging area campsites for the more popular slots are surrounded by catholes, many with toilet paper sticking out of them or stuck on nearby sagebrush. This I say from personal experience. (The Escalante may be a place that sees a recommendation, if not a requirement, for packing out human waste at some point. I believe Grand Gulch is another place where it has been discussed.)
• Reina also notes the possibility of the spread of disease in the case of the above-mentioned campsites for example, groundwater contamination, and also the possibility of disturbing the habits of wildlife by creating fields of catholes. Packing out human waste would render all of these issues moot.

Some of my comments to Reina on the subject of education, expounded upon here, were as follows (these go beyond just the use of Wag Bags):

• Some National Parks, National Monuments, and wilderness areas require hikers and backpackers to attend orientations. This usually means watching a short video before being issued a backcountry permit. Grand Gulch in southeast Utah is one such location with this requirement (for backpackers only, not day hikers). I feel they did an unusually good job with their video. It covers digging a “cat hole” for solid human waste, packing out used toilet paper as well as all trash, and also discusses the fragility of rock art and ruins. It does this in a matter of about 10 minutes and manages to keep your attention throughout. I think that this is an indispensable method of educating backpackers and I would like to see it as a requirement at other monuments and parks, the Escalante being one place that I think really needs it. (Disclaimer: while adding “requirements”, and thus more governance, to our already controlled lives goes flatly against my own personal libertarian (small L) “political” (in quotes) views, the wilderness and especially the southwest desert, is one of the most important things in my life and I want it to be there, and be as pristine and unspoiled as possible for all of us to enjoy.)
• Most visitor’s centers now have a television or computer, or both, which plays videos about the area- history, wildlife, and so on. Adding short videos about protecting the wilderness, either on demand, or in a continuous loop- or perhaps as part of the general videos- is another way to convey the same information.
• Focusing on younger hikers, junior ranger programs do a good job of engaging children, of teaching them about the location they are visiting. Many of these programs- the ones that my son Nico and I have done together- do include Leave No Trace principles in their requirements for gaining the junior ranger badge. At Canyon de Chelly, for example, one of the requirements was that Nico show up for his “test” and “swearing in” with a bag of trash he picked up in the park or campground. Most parks and monuments, at least in southeast Utah where it is a necessary topic, discuss the importance of not touching rock art, and of staying off of and out of ruins to help preserve them. Adding more Leave No Trace principles into the workbooks could only help. Also, “campfire talks” with a ranger (these are still done aren’t they?) is another avenue for educating young people. Parents are often part of both of these- the junior ranger badge and campfire talks- and are also being exposed to the principles.
• In my opinion, nothing is more effective than face to face communication. The ranger or volunteer at Grand Gulch that hands you a Ziplock bag and says “this is for packing out your used toilet paper” is making a very clear statement that sticks. As I noted above, rangers and volunteers are often overworked or not available, and obviously they are not going to be at every self-pay station you might find. Face to face contact is not always possible.

I fully realise that making changes  to National Park Service or BLM policies, re-creating brochures, and creating new interactive media and videos is not something that happens over night. But I think teaching Leave No Trace ethics is something that must be continued, and expanded, if we are to continue to enjoy the wilderness areas as we like them to be. If you have any comments or suggestions of your own, please post them here. I will see that Reina gets them.  

For more on our adventures in the Utah desert, visit the Desert Explorer website. For specific information on kids in the wilderness see our Wilderness Kids pages. For more information on Leave No Trace principles, visit the LNT website.

Dams and Silt, Trash Bags, and Human Waste

As the nation’s biggest dam removal project gets underway in Washington I have finally finished cleaning the silt from my boats and gear after my recent San Juan River trip. It took a while to do, but the boats are cleaned out for the winter.The remnants of Chinle Creek and Oljato Wash are now staining my driveway and nourishing the plants in my front yard. It is amazing how much silt can get trapped in the floor of a self-bailing inflatable boat. And now, with the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams coming down, the 100 plus years of silt behind them will make its way to where it should have gone long ago. I can’t help but wonder about the impact of 100 years of silt moving down river in a couple of years.

But more importantly to me, I’d like to start wondering about our own silt trap on the Colorado and when Glen Canyon might return. It only takes a second of thought on the subject and the answer always comes: probably not in my lifetime. Even if the dam was completely silted up and stopped producing power, the revenue generated would still be a huge argument for keeping the “lake” (a lake is a naturally occurring body of water, a reservoir is a man-made pool of standing water, just to clarify) in place, no matter how much water or the condition of power generation at the dam. And think about how many writers have benefited from the dam, or at least filled newspaper editorial columns and pages of free magazines ranting over the subject through the years. I’ll leave it at that and move on to …trash.

Sea To Summit Trash Dry Sack
On our recent San Juan trip I took along a few new pieces of gear, including a dry bag specifically designed to carry trash. I had been thinking about it for a couple of years. REI used to carry it, and I went there with it on my list last summer I think. But as is so often the case with items I try to get at REI, they no longer had it. Lucky for me that Sea To Summit is here in Boulder; it took a couple of days to order it in at the Boulder Army Store. I paid about 35 dollars for the 20 liter bag. The 10 liter is about 30 dollars. Both sizes are available, although many outfitters seem to carry only the 10 liter size.

The Sea To Summit Trash Dry Bag. It made packing out our trash easier than ever on our recent San Juan float.

I only plan to use this on the river- I wouldn’t want the extra weight on my back while packing. And after a 9 day trial on the San Juan I am completely satisfied with it. The bag is pretty simple- it is a silcoth drybag with a roll-top closure, no different from other Sea To Summit bag designs. But this one also has daisy chain loops up both sides and added strips at the top edges to hold a trash bag liner in place. In the first few days we had it about a third full of trash (remember, this is the San Juan and we took along a cooler). We dumped that bag at Mexican Hat and had another about half full by reaching clay hills. There were no problems at all with it. The high points of the item are the trash bag liner inside making it easy to empty, and the loops down both sides. The loops allow for easy attachment anywhere on the boat you may have room for it.

Speaking of Waste…
A topic I have been meaning to write about all summer is that of human waste and its disposal. I know that many people think that when they go into the bush, their bathroom can be just about anywhere they choose. They feel that they are out there in the wilderness and it is just natural to squat behind a bush and do their business. Unfortunately some people think this way when they are on the river, walking down a busy trail, or in a well-used camp outside of Moab. Obviously there are a few problems with this notion.

First, “wilderness” is a subjective term. When we visit Moab for example, we camp about 20 minutes from town. To those who make one or two weekend camping trips a year, this may qualify as camping in the wilds. To me this is the suburbs of Moab, used by hundreds of campers a month. It is not a few days walk from nowhere- it is a place where someone else will camp in a day or two. Unfortunately camps like this are being trashed with human waste, diapers, beer cans, and every other type of trash you can imagine scattered through the desert (especially around Moab). Granted, this is not the case with most people who visit the area. But there are enough who consider these parts of the desert, or wherever it is they are found, a place to tear up, burn up, and leave trash. And this summer while in the Escalante I began finding the same situation along the river. As I made my way down the river from Moody Canyon I found countless places where people had defecated directly on the ground, possibly the same person/group of people, based on various tracks and sign. I found locations where groups of people had gone to the bathroom,waste on the ground, toilet paper blowing in the breeze. This is a river, with the usual river rules- pack out trash, human waste, no fires (on the Escalante), and common river runner courtesy. I wondered, in the parlance of our times, WTF?

Used Wag Bag outside of Moab. I found it as you see it, lying on the ground surface. Someone got the first part of it right- they used the bag. But then they left it here in the desert.

 And then it gets even  stranger. River runners all know about Wag Bags. Visitors to Moab are introduced to them at the visitor’s center in the middle of town. I am wondering if a little more education is in order regarding their use? Maybe something about the disposal part- the concept being to use the bag, take it back to town with you, and place it in a trash can. The bags are not meant to be left on the ground where they are used. Granted, I would expect to find something like this around Moab, based on the number of people who visit there, language barriers, and so on. But I found the same thing in the Escalante.

On my last day of walking on my recent trip there I found a slight trail down a steep wash, then some recently carved moki steps, and a cairn on the other side of the main wash while crossing Middle Moody canyon. There aren’t a lot of places to get across it and I was happy when I found this crossing after about an hour of searching, just as night was falling. As I climbed out the other side, right there in front of me, eye level next to the cairn, were a couple of used wag bags with a rock on top of them. Again, I felt a little disgusted at the site for various, obvious reasons. And the logic of those who left them is lost on me- first,why are people using Wag Bags in the middle of nowhere in the Escalante when a hole in the ground is all that is needed? And why are they leaving the bags at a cairn along a “trail”? 

So what do you do in a situation like this? I could collect them and pack them out (which I did not), I could call the Escalante visitor’s center and let them know that there are stupid people in the world (not much use in that), and then I could write about it here. Of course writing about it here is just “preaching to the choir” as they say. I am fairly certain that most of the people reading this blog don’t need a lesson on the use and disposal of a Wag Bag, or when it’s okay to dig a hole. In the end I guess it is up to us to convey our knowledge to others less enlightened than ourselves. Be sure to tell them to wash their hands when they are done.

For more about the Utah desert and our adventures there visit the Desert Explorer website.