Case study of
#00093 Leave No Trace education and a 'pack it in, pack it out' ethic
Appalachian Trail, USA
#00105
OngoingRegion
Implementer
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Location
Appalachian Trail, USA39.3256, -77.7397
Description
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy applies Leave No Trace principles along the ~2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, one of the most heavily used long-distance hiking trails in the world. It teaches hikers to pack out all their own waste and encourages them to carry out litter left by others.
Lessons learned
- Pack-it-in/pack-it-out can be sustained even on a very long, high-traffic trail through consistent messaging to a self-selecting hiker community.
- Encouraging hikers to remove others' litter turns trail users into a distributed cleanup network.
Documented Jun 26, 2026