Leave No Trace is not a set of abstract environmental ideals — it's a practical framework for keeping Ontario's backcountry usable and beautiful for every person who comes after you. On the Canadian Shield, where the soil is thin, the growing season is short, and the recovery from damage is measured in decades rather than seasons, these principles matter more than in most landscapes. What you do on a single trip can leave marks that persist for twenty years.
The seven principles of Leave No Trace were developed by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and adapted for Canadian conditions by Leave No Trace Canada. Below, each principle is applied specifically to Ontario's backcountry conditions — the realities of Shield country camping, portage travel, boreal forest, and the lake systems that define wilderness travel in this province.
1. Plan Ahead and Prepare
Proper planning is the foundation of low-impact travel. When you're well-prepared, you make better decisions in the field — you don't need to build impromptu shelters, create new fire rings, or cut live branches because you forgot a tent pole or ran out of stove fuel.
Know the regulations for your area. Ontario's provincial parks have specific rules about campsite use, fire locations, food storage, and waste disposal. Crown land has different (and generally more permissive) rules, but the ethical obligation to minimize impact remains the same. Check with Ontario Parks for current regulations before every trip.
Plan your meals to minimize packaging and food waste. Repackage food at home into reusable bags and containers rather than carrying commercial packaging into the backcountry. Every wrapper, can, and container you bring in has to come back out — reducing packaging at home means less garbage to manage in the field and less weight in your pack.
Prepare for weather and conditions so you don't have to improvise in ways that damage the environment. Carrying a stove means you don't need to build a fire when bans are in effect. Bringing a proper tent eliminates the need to cut branches for a shelter. Adequate rain gear means you won't strip birch bark to start a fire out of desperation.
2. Travel on Durable Surfaces
In Ontario's Shield country, "durable surfaces" means rock, established trails, gravel, and compacted soil. The thin organic soil layer on the Shield — sometimes just a few centimetres of humus over bare granite — is extremely vulnerable to trampling. Moss and lichen on rock surfaces can take 20 to 50 years to regrow once worn away. Soil compaction kills root systems and prevents regrowth.
On portage trails, walk single file on the established path, even when it's muddy. The temptation to walk around mud holes widens the trail and creates parallel tracks that expand the zone of damage. Wear appropriate footwear, accept that your feet will get wet, and stay on the trail. Portage trails that see heavy traffic — like the heavily used routes in southern Algonquin — already show significant widening and root exposure. Every time someone walks off-trail to avoid mud, the problem gets worse.
At campsites, use established paths between the tent area, cooking area, kitchen, and waterfront. Resist the urge to explore every corner of the site or create new paths through vegetation. Concentrate your activity on areas that are already impacted rather than spreading the damage to undisturbed ground.
When paddling, choose rock or sand landings over vegetated shorelines. Pulling a loaded canoe up onto a mossy bank strips vegetation that took years to establish. If a rock or sand landing isn't available, carry gear from the canoe to shore rather than dragging the boat up through vegetation.
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
This is the most visible Leave No Trace issue in Ontario's backcountry, and the area where many trippers fall short.
Pack out everything you pack in. This includes all garbage, food scraps, fruit peels, tea bags, coffee grounds, and micro-trash like twist ties and candy wrappers. Orange peels do not biodegrade quickly in Ontario's climate — they can persist for two years or more. Apple cores attract animals. Eggshells last indefinitely. If you carried it in, carry it out. Designate one dry bag as your garbage bag and seal it tightly to contain odours.
Human waste. This is the topic nobody wants to discuss, but it's one of the most significant sanitation issues in busy backcountry areas. In Ontario, the standard practice is the cathole: dig a hole 15 to 20 centimetres deep and at least 60 metres from water, trails, and campsites. Do your business, and cover it completely. In areas with thin Shield soil, you may need to search for a deeper soil pocket — checking between rock outcrops and in forested areas with more organic buildup.
On bare rock sites where cathole depth is impossible, WAG bags (Waste Alleviation and Gelling bags) are the responsible option. These double-bagged systems contain chemical gelling agents that neutralize waste. You pack them out and dispose of them in regular garbage. They're not glamorous, but on popular Shield campsites with thin or nonexistent soil, they're the only option that doesn't leave human waste baking on rock for the next group to find.
Toilet paper should be packed out, not buried. Buried toilet paper in shallow soil gets dug up by animals and scattered. Carry a ziplock bag for used toilet paper and dispose of it with your garbage at home.
Washing. Here's a truth that surprises many paddlers: biodegradable soap doesn't belong in the lake. "Biodegradable" means the soap breaks down over time in soil — it does not mean it's safe for aquatic ecosystems. Even small amounts of biodegradable soap in a lake alter water chemistry, affect aquatic invertebrates, and can promote algae growth.
Carry water from the lake in a pot, wash yourself and your dishes at least 60 metres from the shoreline, and scatter the grey water over a wide area on land. Use as little soap as possible — hot water alone handles most dish cleaning. For personal washing, a quick dip in the lake without soap is fine; soaping up in the lake is not.
4. Leave What You Find
Leave natural and cultural features as you find them. Don't build structures, cairns, furniture, or trail markers. Don't strip bark from birch trees (living or recently dead). Don't hammer nails into trees for hanging gear — use rope and existing branches instead.
Ontario's backcountry contains archaeological and historical features — Indigenous pictographs, old logging camp artifacts, pioneer homestead remnants. These are protected by Ontario's Heritage Act. Look, photograph, and appreciate, but don't touch, collect, or disturb. Rock paintings (pictographs) are found on Shield cliff faces throughout the Precambrian region and are irreplaceable cultural artifacts, some thousands of years old.
Resist the temptation to "improve" campsites by building benches, tables, or drying racks from found wood. These structures accumulate and make the site look progressively more developed and less wild. If previous occupants left structures, you're not obligated to dismantle them, but don't add to them.
5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
Fire is a significant source of backcountry impact in Ontario. Improperly managed fire rings, fire scars on rock, and the gradual stripping of dead wood from campsites are visible problems at popular locations across the province.
Use existing fire rings when they're available. Don't build new fire rings when an established one exists at the site. If you're camping on Crown land at an undeveloped site, consider whether you need a fire at all — a stove is faster, cleaner, and leaves no trace.
If you do build a fire where no ring exists, build it on bare rock or mineral soil, keep it small, and clean up completely when you're done. Scatter cold ashes widely (not into the lake), remove any charred wood, and leave the site looking as natural as possible.
Gather only dead, downed wood. Never cut or break branches from living or standing dead trees. Gather wood from a wide area rather than stripping everything within reach of the fire ring — this avoids the "halo effect" where the area around popular campsites becomes bare of dead wood while the rest of the forest is normal. Use small-diameter wood that burns completely to ash rather than large logs that leave partially burned chunks.
6. Respect Wildlife
Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow, approach, or feed animals. Store food properly to prevent habituation. The details of wildlife interaction are covered thoroughly in our Wildlife Awareness guide, but the Leave No Trace principle deserves emphasis: your interaction with wildlife shapes their behaviour toward every human who follows you.
A chipmunk you feed from your hand becomes a chipmunk that chews through the next camper's pack. A bear that finds your improperly stored food becomes a problem bear that threatens everyone on that lake. A loon nest you disturb may be abandoned, reducing the breeding population on that lake. Your choices have consequences beyond your own trip.
7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors
Ontario's backcountry is shared space. On busy summer weekends in Algonquin, you may share a lake with multiple groups. Even in remote areas, you'll encounter other paddlers on portages and at campsites.
Keep noise levels reasonable. Sound carries extraordinary distances across water — your campfire conversation, your music, and your shouting across the lake reach much further than you think. Many people come to the backcountry specifically for quiet. Respect that.
Leave campsites clean for the next group. This goes beyond picking up your own garbage — pick up any garbage you find, even if it isn't yours. A culture of stewardship depends on everyone taking responsibility for the shared resource, not just their own impact.
Yield the trail on portages. Don't block landings with your gear. If you're taking a break on a narrow portage trail, step off the path. Share information with other trippers — trail conditions, weather observations, wildlife sightings — and maintain the community of respect that makes backcountry travel in Ontario the experience it is.
Leave No Trace is ultimately about humility. The backcountry is not yours — it belongs to the land, the wildlife, and every person who will visit after you. Travel lightly, clean up thoroughly, and leave it better than you found it.