Destination Elevated and Leave No Trace Challenges Outdoor Leaders to “Up” Their Environmental Game.

Destination Elevated is thrilled to officially announce it’s 2023-2024 Partnership with the educational organization and platform Leave No Trace.

Leave No Trace uses the power of science, education, and stewardship to “ensure a sustainable future for the outdoors and the planet.” Their overall impact includes 25-Million people reached, 550 site-specific training & education programs annually, and 106 areas around the country restored.

The recent partnership is in an effort to both educate the Destination Elevated Team on environmentally friendly outdoor practices and to help expand the efforts of Leave No Trace to provide community resources.

The Leave No Trace 101 Course covers a wide variety of topics for venturing into the outdoors including: Trip Planning, Where to Camp, Waste Disposal, Hiking and Wilderness exploration guidelines, “Pooping” in the outdoors, Water Contamination avoidance, and more.

The course is free and lays the foundation for more targeted education courses including but not limited to the Leave No Trace Back Country Course and Stock Use Course.

The intro course not only applies to outdoor exploration but can be used to help eliminate waste and water contamination in residential communities. Leave No Trace offers practical solutions for doing what you can to cultivate a cleaner, low-impact relationship with the environment. Efforts, however, aren’t only geared towards waste disposal—a heavy emphasis is placed on leaving the environment in tact in order to sustain and promote area wild-life.

Throughout 2024, you can expect Leave No Trace to offer education and outreach during the Trail of Colors Hiking Tour on select dates. The tour amplifies and celebrates Black & Brown folx in the outdoors and will take place across various U.S. cities.

Leave No Trace offers training programs for the “outdoorsy” folx and leaders who are looking to minimize their impact on the environment. The Trail of Colors Hiking Tour, which seeks to raise funds for select youth organizations for hiking gear and other program needs, recently decided to require interested co-host organizations to complete the Leave No Trace 101 Course to be eligible for partner status. The course is free and covers the 7 Principles of Leave No Trace. Upon completion, registrants receive a Certificate of Completion that their organization can be proud of.

Destination Elevated will also provide direct access to the Leave No Trace education platform via their Hiking Resources page on DestinationElevatedTravel.com for tour registrants and those interested in how to minimize their environmental impact. The organizers urge Hiking and Outdoor groups to take the free course and encourage their members to do so as well.

As Destination Elevated co-creator Fame Neal puts it: “When we don’t know how our actions impact the environment we can continue harmful environmental practices under the guise of ignorance. As leaders in outdoor spaces we need to educate ourselves and spread that knowledge to others. A lot of what I learned wasn’t ‘common sense’ as one would expect.”

Those who are interested in attending one of Leave No Traces courses can visit lnt.org.

For more information on this partnership or the 2024 Trail of Colors National Hiking Tour contact info@destinationelevatedtravel.com.