Honoring Black History Month: Green Camping

In honor of Black History Month, this week we’ll be sharing excerpts of the new book Blacks Living Green: Small Smart Steps, written by Dr. Sharon T. Freeman with a foreword by Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director.

From the section called "Tips for Eco-Friendly Camping":

"While campfires are fun and comforting, remember to burn only fallen wood. Don't cut down branches from a living tree. Don't clear a new piece of ground to make a fire. Some campgrounds provide you with a place to build a fire. Look for previously cleared places and reuse those if possible."

Comments

[jessica]

sadly, if you aren't aware of this you should not be allowed to go camping...
:)

[Brian]

I agree with jessica. Leave No Trace is the way to go. I like to think of myself stealth camping and like to leave my campsite in a condition where you can't tell I was there. Even if I used a campsite that was already there.

[Mary Ann]

Make sure the wood is dry too. It will smoke less and heat better. Fallen wood can be punky and damp. Good dry wood should give a solid, deep, almost ringing sound when you thump it.

[Don Masterson]

The easy on the land concept is the way to go. In some National Forests or Parks, they don't even want you to pick up fallen wood, the reason being the campers remove all available material for 100-200 feet around the campsite.
In some areas you have to bring in your own firewood.

[Anni]

Actually, to be truly Eco-friendly, we shouldn't have any campfires at all. We know that fires create a LOT of pollution. Now imagine the 10s of 1000s of people camping & each having a campfire. That's a HUGE amount of pollution for absolutely no reason. We've camped for decades & I rarely see anyone actually use the fire for anything except to stare at it. We need to work on eliminating campfires. Maybe only have 10% of a whole campground with campfires & they should all be in the same area. Require an extra fee for the clean-up and wood for those sites. I'd like to breath clean (what ever that means now-a-days) air, not polluted by campfires. We have this notion that campfires are required when one goes camping, that's "old school" as people say. We need to educate ourselves & stop this very polluting habit. (Is it different than banning smoking?)

[Jay]

I agree, but isn't it funny that when an animal clears a section of forest it's considered beneficial, but when we do it it's destructive?

[Jay]

I agree, but isn't it funny that when an animal clears a section of forest it's considered beneficial, but when we do it it's destructive?

[rita]

The forest have survived far better over the millennia from animal activity than from activity by human animals.

[Angela]

What kind of fire can you get with freshly cut (known as "green") wood, anyway? That's the WORST kind of wood to try to make a fire with.

[MARILYN]

Isn't the concesus of opinion that 'animals are dumb'? Well. Can they build a house, mow a lawn, shop in a supermarket? NO. They have to survive the best way that they can; HOWEVER, human beings are 'intelligent' enough to know how to build a house, mow their lawn and shop in a supermarket (to name only a few things that we can do that animals cannot.

This is 2009. We don't need fires in camp grounds. Grow up and realize that you're an adult and camp fires are not good for your lungs AND a tree is also a leaving thing. I'll never understand why 'human beings' can't understand that it's best to NOT have a camp fire. Leave the trees and the animals alone. We don't need to hurt the trees OR the animals.

[carol]

I know campfires are bad for the environment. Regardless, one should not lightly suggest that we never have them. There's a reason we stare into them, and it's very related to our connection to nature and our souls. Once we lose that connection, we likely won't care what happens to the environment. My suggestion is we light campfires on a limited basis. Use the experience to remember on a gut level what our relationship to the Earth and our need to preserve it really means.

[Chris in Baltimore]

As the illustration shows, most people build a ring of rocks around a fire site and then (as already discussed) denude the area of wood. The result is circles of blackened rocks, and an area denuded of fallen wood (which is habitat for beneficial insects).

A green camper will leave behind a camp site that is indistinguishable from the natural forest he/she encountered.

Use a cook stove.

[Lisa]

How dumb is this--"Blacks Living Green"? Are there different CFLs for black people than for others? The camping reference would apply to everyone; why are blacks (and other "minority groups"), as usual, singled out as "special", seemingly deserving of "special treatment", or "exempt" in some way? Do they have more, or less, responsibility than everyone else to reduce their consumption, to recycle more, to take public transportation and/or carpool? Give me a break! Stop encouraging divisiveness. We are all inhabitants of this planet, and ALL of us, regardless of color, race, nationality, gender, religion, etc., need to work TOGETHER toward common goals for our common problems. People need to stop singling others, or singling "their people," out as "special." None of us is any more "special" than the rest of us, and we all have an equal hand in solving the problems that face us, and an equal responsibility to make positive changes that affect us all.

[Lisa]

How dumb is this--"Blacks Living Green"? Are there different CFLs for black people than for others? The camping reference would apply to everyone; why are blacks (and other "minority groups"), as usual, singled out as "special", seemingly deserving of "special treatment", or "exempt" in some way? Do they have more, or less, responsibility than everyone else to reduce their consumption, to recycle more, to take public transportation and/or carpool? Give me a break! Stop encouraging divisiveness. We are all inhabitants of this planet, and ALL of us, regardless of color, race, nationality, gender, religion, etc., need to work TOGETHER toward common goals for our common problems. People need to stop singling others, or singling "their people," out as "special." None of us is any more "special" than the rest of us, and we all have an equal hand in solving the problems that face us, and an equal responsibility to make positive changes that affect us all.

[Amanda]

Growing up as a Girl Scout, we always made sure to leave our camp site cleaner than when we arrived. It taught me a valuable lessen in respecting our earth. I love camping!

[alagu sundaram]

That's great share,I agree, but isn't it funny that when an animal clears a section of forest it's considered beneficial, but when we do it it's destructive?

[Parvez]

We are all inhabitants of this planet, and ALL of us, regardless of color, race, nationality, gender, religion, etc., need to work TOGETHER toward common goals for our common problems. People need to stop singling others, or singling "their people," out as "special."

[free government grants]

hmmm...,
could be interesting

[instant payday loan]

Growing up as a Girl Scout, we always made sure to leave our camp site cleaner than when we arrived.

[Swine Flu]

Eco friendly camping is good concept..however more awareness has to be generated for it..

[Patricia]

This kind of new camping will be a fun as it will be due to some good cause.

[christopher]

nice tips for those who don't know the way of proper camping. some campers have fun, but leaves trash / destroyed some of the plants.

Debt Help

[Gas Gift Cards]

camping like this will always be very fun

[Tee Skull]

Well is another way to camp. For sure it's going to be interesting!!!

[Ways To Pay Off Debt]

Great Stuff Thanks.