River LNT: A Guide to Leave No Trace Principles for Boaters

A group of rafters prepares to setup camp in a beautiful river canyon. Photo by Cole Leishman.

Why Leave No Trace on the River?

Floating a wild river is one of the most immersive ways to connect with nature. Whether rafting, kayaking, or fly fishing, these experiences come with the responsibility to protect the river ecosystems we love. The principles of Leave No Trace (LNT) are essential for preserving our rivers for future generations of boaters, maintaining water quality, and safeguarding the wildlife that relies on these riverscapes. Popular rivers are experiencing more traffic than ever, and many river campsites are used every day throughout peak season. Consider the cumulative impacts that would quickly occur if we didn’t all do our part to leave the river better than we found it. Everyone deserves to experience the river in its natural state, including the boaters who come after us.

What is Leave No Trace?

LNT is a set of seven principles designed to minimize human impact on the wilderness. The premise is that we leave nature exactly as we found it, if not better. While LNT is widely used across all outdoor activities, there are specific practices that river-goers should follow to ensure our waterways remain clean. Below, we discuss how each of the seven LNT principles specifically applies to river recreation. Note that some of these principles will be more applicable to multi-day trips, and others will apply to all river outings.

1. Plan Ahead and Prepare

Effective trip planning is essential for your safety and for preventing unnecessary degradation to the river.

• Regulations and Permit: Research the regulations for the area you plan to visit, including permit requirements, designated campsites, fire restrictions, and human waste disposal requirements. Permits are required for many popular river floats, especially for popular multi-day trips. Obtain all necessary permits. Find a list of rivers that require permits on the American Whitewater site HERE.

• Guidebooks: Use a guidebook to plan your trip. Published guidebooks are available for most popular river floats, detailing rapids, campsites, boat launches/takeouts, river mileage, side hikes, etc., for specific stretches of river.

• Boat within Your Skills/Abilities: Choose river floats that align with your group’s skill level and abilities. Find the difficulty ratings of whitewater rivers on the American Whitewater site HERE. To assess conditions of non-whitewater rivers and learn about potential hazards (like known logjams), I recommend calling local fly fishing shops.

• Recognize River Hazards: Whether you plan to float/fish casually, or you aim to conquer big whitewater, you MUST know how to recognize and avoid river hazards, and I cannot stress this enough. Unfortunately, multiple fatalities occur on my home river every year. It has NO whitewater and incidents are usually related to log jams and high water. River hazards include but are not limited to—logs and other strainers, high water/fast flows, large hydraulics and holes, rapids, foot entrapments, seives, sweepers, cold water temperatures, impact injuries from rocks, toxic algae, etc. Note that wearing waders without a tight wading belt, drinking alcohol while floating, and not wearing a PFD when necessary are three more behaviors that can be very dangerous.

• Swiftwater Training: Before embarking on whitewater adventures, it’s important to have swiftwater knowledge and skills. Know how to read water, how to throw a throwbag, how/when to assume downstream swimmer’s position, how to recover a pinned boat, etc. Consider taking a swiftwater rescue training course and/or a whitewater paddling or rowing clinic, or otherwise have a plan to adequately obtain these skills.

• Water Levels: Research the ideal water levels and conditions for a given river float. Ensure that you’re not floating in dangerously high water, or that you don’t become stranded because water levels are too low. Check water levels at the USGS river gauge nearest your float HERE.

• Pack Appropriate Gear: While you don’t need the latest or most expensive gear to get started, there are essential items required to boat safely. This might include PFD’s, throwbags, a whitewater helmet, appropriate footwear, a drysuit, patch kits, etc. For multi-day trips, this list obviously grows exponentially. Ultimately, it’s your responsibility be sure you’re well equipped for your trip. Check out my blog, Packing for Packrafting Trips, HERE.

• Camping Plan: For multi-day trips, have a camping plan. This will help you gauge the daily river mileage you need to cover so, among other things, you don’t get stuck boating after dark. You won’t always be able to secure your first-choice campsites, so have backup options in mind. Only camp within designated campsites and on durable surfaces, like gravel bars and sandy beaches, and never camp on riparian vegetation. Guidebooks are the preferred resource for mapping out designated campsites and river mileage.

• Food Plan: For multi-day trips, have a designated food plan (i.e. know which meals you will cook on which days) and organize your coolers accordingly. This will help minimize the number of times you open your coolers, keeping food colder longer. We prefer to prep as much food at home as possible. This helps reduce the mess we make at camp, can reduce the amount of time we’re cooking with limited propane supplies, and often saves cooler space because some foods are removed from original/individual packages. Along with your food plan, consider making a camp kitchen plan—if you have multiple boaters, clearly communicate who is bringing/carrying which essential, shared kitchen items. This should also include a camp dishwashing system, as you should never wash your dishes in the river. A recommended method involves a four-bucket system: one for scraping off food residue, one with soapy water, one for rinsing, and one with a sanitizing solution, such as a bleach-water mix. Then strain your water through cheesecloth to remove all food scraps before you dispose of the dishwater.

2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

A group of river-goers use a designated campsite on Montana’s Smith River.

This principle is essential to protect sensitive, often confined riparian areas. Camping in designated campsites and on durable surfaces helps prevent the spread of damaged, de-vegetated sites along riverbanks, which can cumulatively lead to degradation of these fragile ecosystems.

• Designated Campsites: Camp in designated campsites first. Many rivers require that you only camp in designated sites.

• Durable Surfaces: Where there are not designated campsites, camp on durable surfaces like gravel bars or sandy beaches. Avoid camping on riparian vegetation (which is critically important to river health and erosion) or other delicate areas. Additionally, when walking the riverbank for other purposes, like fishing or portaging, try to travel on existing trails or durable surfaces, like rocks.

• Do Not Camp on Riparian Vegetation: Repeating this as it deserves it’s own header. It’s important but self explanatory.

• NOTE: LNT principles for camping near small streams and standing waterbodies, like alpine lakes, state that you should not camp within 200 feet of the waterbody in order to preserve water quality and not degrade shoreline vegetation. This is true, but this principle is slightly different within the corridors of high volume rivers where it is common practice to camp near the water in designated sites and on durable surfaces.

3. Dispose of Waste Properly

This one is crucial. River corridors are particularly susceptible to contamination which can have impacts on water quality and aquatic life. From human waste, to micro-trash, to food scraps, it’s incredibly important to properly dispose of ALL waste, even if it’s biodegradable. Remember that campsites on popular river floats might be used every night throughout peak season. Everyone deserves to see the river in a clean and natural state. Pack. It. Out.

• Solid Human Waste Disposal: Many management agencies have strict regulations about how to dispose of human waste within river corridors. Often, it’s required that every group carry/use approved human waste removal systems—leak proof, hard-sided containers that are large enough to accommodate all of the group’s feces over the span of a trip. The Rogue River BLM district published a helpful brochure containing commonly accepted toilet systems which you can find HERE. When using full-sized rafts, our river crew typically elects the the ammo can “groover” system. This is a 20mm ammo can that has a properly sealed insert and is complete with an attachable toilet seat. While packrafting, we use a “kayaker’s toilet,” which is essentially a WAG bag stuffed inside a capped PVC pipe. Even in areas that don’t have an approved toilet requirement, it’s still best practice to use one, or to otherwise pack out your poo in a watertight container. This helps prevent water quality degradation and/or contamination of campsites. If you elect to dig a cathole, be sure to dig it at least six inches deep, at least 200 feet from water sources, and away from campsites. Catholes should only be dug in environments that support the decomposition of feces, such as in forested areas, and never in arid or alpine environments. Unfortunately, I frequently come across human feces while recreating outdoors. If you only have one takeaway from this blog, let it be this: NEVER POOP WITHIN 200 FEET OF A WATER SOURCE OR NEAR CAMPSITES. ALWAYS PACK OUT YOUR POOP IF POSSIBLE AND NEVER LEAVE YOUR POOP/TOILET PAPER UNBURIED. Leaving unburied human feces and dirty toilet paper not only creates a literal biohazard for other river-goers, it’s disgusting to look at, it contaminates water sources, it can attract dangerous wildlife like grizzly bears, and it’s becoming a cause of camping closures.

• Urination: In “high volume” rivers (above 500 cfs) it’s best to urinate directly into the river. Around low volume streams or standing water, be sure to urinate at least 200 feet away from the water. Again, pack out your toilet paper.

• Micro Trash: It’s obviously important to pack out all of your trash. This applies to micro trash, too, such as tiny bits of packaging. When fishing, be sure to collect and dispose of fishing line/tippet clippings. Remember, many rivers see a lot of traffic—it takes a collective effort from all of us to prevent cumulative impacts. Leave it better than you found it!

• Food Scraps: Never dispose of any food scraps in or near the river, as it can cumulatively pollute waterways and habituate wildlife. Pack out ALL waste, even biodegradable waste like food scraps.

• Clean Up Pet Waste: Prevent your pet’s waste from impacting water quality or negatively affecting the experience of subsequent river-goers. Bag it up and pack it out. Pro tip—I often carry a sacrificial Nalgene bottle that I stuff dog poo bags into. It’s watertight and smell proof.

4. Minimize Campfire Impact

While campfires are often revered as a traditional part of the outdoor experience, their impact on the environment can be significant.

• Follow Fire Regulations/Restrictions: Look up current fire regulations in the area you are floating. Never start a fire during a burn ban. Be aware that many river areas have misc. fire regulations restricting wood gathering, requiring use of fire pans, allowing fires in designated fire rings only, etc.

• Designated Fire Rings: Where fires are allowed, elect to use designated fire rings. Be aware that in some areas, fires are only allowed in designated fire rings. Designated fire rings are most often the ones made of metal. Fire rings previous campers constructed with stacked rocks are not necessarily designated fire rings.

• Fire Pans: Where fires are allowed and designated fire rings are not available, it is best practice to use a fire pan. Fire pans help minimize the impact of campfires on the riverbank by elevating the fire off the ground, preventing scarring/damage to soil and vegetation, and allowing for easier collection of ashes.

• Camp Stoves: Consider skipping the fire altogether and use a propane camp stove for cooking.

• Firewood: Follow local wood gathering regulations. Even where firewood gathering is allowed, consider bringing your own firewood. Avoid collecting firewood in areas where wood is not plentiful, such as in arid or alpine environments. Be aware that firewood is a common carrier of invasive species. It’s ideal to use firewood sourced from within the same ecosystem you’re camping.

• Keep Fires Small: Keep fires small and manageable. It is recommended to use small pieces of wood (no thicker than an adult’s wrist).

• Don’t Leave Fires Unattended: Self explanatory.

• Put Fires Out Properly: Burn fires down to ash, then thoroughly “drown, stir, and feel.” Be 100% sure embers are no longer hot and cannot reignite.

• Pack Out Ashes: In river corridors, ashes should be collected and packed out to prevent water quality changes. Note that this is different from uplands, where it is acceptable to scatter ashes over a large area.

5. Leave What You Find

Respect the river by preserving its natural state.

• Leave Things As You Found Them: Appreciate cultural or historic structures and artifacts, such as pictographs, but leave them undisturbed. Leave rocks, plants, and other natural objects as you found them.

• Don’t Build/Dig Structures: Don’t build structures like rock dams, trenches, or rock stacks. When constructed in the river, these can disrupt normal hydrological processes and trap aquatic life.

• Invasive Species: Avoid spreading invasive species. Clean, drain, and dry your boat between trips. Clean and dry other gear, like wading boots (especially felt), between trips. Source firewood from within the same ecosystem you’re camping.

6. Respect Wildlife

An angler ethically handles a brown trout on Montana’s Smith River by keeping it in the water. Photo by Cole Leishman.

• Keep Your Distance: Observe wildlife from a distance. Do not follow or approach them. Yellowstone National Park recommends staying 100 yards away from bears and wolves and 25 yards away from all other animals.

• Food Storage/Don’t Feed Wildlife: Feeding wildlife harms them. It alters natural behaviors, habituates them to humans, and can encourage aggressive behavior. As they say, “a fed bear is a dead bear.” Properly store all food so that it is not accessible to wildlife. Use animal resistant containers or properly hang food.

• Bear Awareness: When in bear country, practice proper bear awareness protocols. Carry bear spray. Properly store food at least 100 feet away from camp. Use bear resistant canisters or hang your food. To properly hang food, use durable sacks and about 100 feet of rope. Hang the food sack from a sturdy branch that is at least 10 vertical feet off the ground and at least 6 horizontal feet from the trunk of the tree. When in grizzly country, don’t cook or eat in camp—cook at least 100 feet away from where you will be sleeping. Make plenty of noise while walking through uplands to avoid startling a bear. Don’t leave behind any food scraps or strong scents that could attract bears and endanger the next campers.

• Fishing Ethics: When fishing, follow all fishing regulations. When catch-and-release fishing, practice best fishing ethics—Minimize the amount of time that fish are held out of the water (ideally less than five seconds). Never drag fish onto dry ground. Wet hands before holding fish and never hold fish with gloves or against cloth. Use a rubber, knotless landing net. Use barbless hooks. Don’t fish over spawning fish and be able to recognize and avoid fish redds. Don’t squeeze fish and never put your fingers in the gills.

• Control Pets: Control pets at all time and do not allow them to chase wildlife.

7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Rivers can become crowded, especially during peak season. It’s essential for everyone to do their part to facilitate a positive and cohesive wilderness boating experience for all.

• Boat Ramp Etiquette: Before backing onto the boat launch, do as much organizing, rigging, and loading as possible in a staging area away from the launch. This helps facilitate quick and efficient use of the ramp and minimizes congestion. While this is more difficult when launching for multi-day trips with loads of gear, it’s easier for day trips. Move cars and trailers off of the ramp and move boats clear of the ramp as soon as possible to allow space for other boats to launch. If staging/rigging in a launch area (assuming you are already clear of the main ramp), maintain as small of a footprint as possible by keeping your gear organized and keeping your group together.

• Rafting Etiquette: Maintain a courteous distance from other rafting parties or pass them quickly when in a safe area. Allow faster boaters to pass by giving them space when it is safe to do so. Verbalize your intentions when passing other parties. Don’t attempt to pass or crowd other boats in unsafe spots, like rapids.

• River Camp Etiquette: When there are multiple campsite options, allow larger groups to have larger campsites. Within your own group, always help with shared camp duties, such as setup and breakdown.

• Give Anglers Space: When passing anglers, give them as much space as possible. Typically, this means going to the side of the river furthest from them, if it is safe. Sometimes, if an angler is wading deep into the river, you can pass behind them/on the inside of the river. It’s a good idea to verbalize your intentions or ask the angler what they prefer. If possible, take gentle and quiet oar/paddle strokes when passing an angler to avoid spooking fish. Avoid fishing the same hole another angler is already occupying—give them plenty of their own space before you begin fishing.

• Minimize Noise Disturbance: Be mindful of how your noise level might affect others who seek tranquility on the water. Loud noises can also disturb and displace wildlife. Be aware of how close you are to other campers.

Additional Resources

• Leave No Trace Foundation Home - https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/

• Leave No Trace: The Paddler’s Footprint - https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/stewardship:lnt

• Keep Fish Wet Principles - https://www.keepfishwet.org/principles

Final Thoughts

As boaters, we have an obligation to be good stewards of the rivers we use. While our individual actions might feel insignificant, collectively, they can quickly impact the river ecosystems that make our adventures possible. It’s not just about preserving the natural beauty for ourselves, but about ensuring that the next group of boaters can experience the same wild and unspoiled environment. The river’s health and vitality depend on all of us doing our part. Happy boating, and keep our rivers clean!