Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program How To Build A Water Trail Building A Water Trail - Developing Campsites
Some water trails are created around the idea of
traveling by boat during the day and camping at night. Think about
whether campsites would add value to your water trail, who will use
them, and how frequently they will be used. There may be existing
private or public campsites you can plug into. Whether using existing
campsites or adding new ones, it will be important to minimize their
impacts on the environment.
Select An
Appropriate Campsite:
Some water trails are created around the idea of
traveling by boat during the day and camping at night. Think about
whether campsites would add value to your water trail, who will use
them, and how frequently they will be used. There may be existing
private or public campsites you can plug into. Whether using existing
campsites or adding new ones, it will be important to minimize their
impacts on the environment.
H igh-Use Areas:Generally, it’s best to select a campsite that’s so
highly impacted that further careful use won’t cause noticeable change.
In popular areas, these sites are obvious because they have already lost
their vegetation cover. It’s also possible to find a site which
naturally lacks vegetation, such as exposed bedrock or sandy areas. Encourage overnight paddlers to allow enough time
and energy at the end of the day to select an appropriate site or have
designated sites that may be “hardened” with tent pads, platforms, or
other features. Fatigue, bad weather, and late departure times are not
acceptable excuses for choosing poor or fragile campsites. On
high-impact sites, tents and kitchen areas should be concentrated on
already impacted areas. Encourage campers, when leaving the campsite, to
make sure it is clean, attractive, and appealing to other campers who
follow.
Remote Areas: Pristine areas are usually remote, see few visitors,
and have no obvious impacts. Ask campers to visit these special places
only if they are committed to, and highly skilled in
Leave No
Trace techniques. In pristine areas, encourage campers to spread
out tents, avoid repetitive traffic routes, and move camp every night. In setting up camp, disperse tents and the kitchen
on durable sites. Wear soft shoes around camp. Minimize activity around
the kitchen and places where packs are stashed. Durable surfaces such as
rock slabs make good kitchen sites. Ask campers to watch where they walk
to avoid crushing vegetation and take alternate paths to water and
minimize these trips by carrying water containers. Check regulations,
but camping 200 feet (70 adult steps) from water is a good rule of
thumb. For permanent, designated sites, check with local
and state government about regulations regarding human waste. You may
need to institute a carry-out policy, recommend the cathole technique,
or have composting facilities depending on flooding, soils, management
plans, access, etc. To learn more about managing human waste see :
Trash and Human Waste. When breaking camp, ask campers to take time to
naturalize the site. Covering scuffed areas with native materials such
as pine needles, brushing out footprints, and raking matted grassy areas
with a stick will help the site recover and make it less obvious as a
campsite. This extra effort will help hide any indication where you
camped and make it less likely that other travelers will camp in the
same spot. The less often a pristine campsite is used the better chance
it has of remaining pristine.
Campsite Signage :Signage is always a challenge, particularly at
unattended sites where vandalism can be a problem. Expensive or
negatively-worded signs are choice targets (sometimes literally) for
destruction or defacing. By contrast, neat, inexpensive signs with
positive wording frequently survive everything but the weather and will
last for several years.
Campsite
Design: A developed campsite requires careful design and
regular maintenance in order to avoid rapid deterioration. Again,
working with state agencies will benefit your effort. Their field
experts can help you with design and construction materials. A developed
site will probably include a picnic table, fireplace, and rustic toilet
at a minimum. Amenities at some will include potable water and perhaps
even showers and recreation facilities if located in a state park. For
more information see
Maintaining Facilities.
Campsites On
Private Land: A blue trail extending over a long distance may
benefit from campsites located on private property. For more information
see Providing Access.
Campfires The use of campfires, once a necessity for cooking
and warmth, is steeped in history and tradition. Some would not think of
camping without a campfire. However, fires are a major worry of
landowners whose valuable property can be destroyed by one person’s
carelessness. Furthermore, the natural appearance of some areas has been
degraded by the overuse of fires and an increasing demand for firewood. In Connecticut campfires are either not allowed or
require a permit –paddlers should be encouraged to use camp stoves only. If a campsite is on private land, landowners tend to
be more receptive to the use of their land if cooking and heating are
confined to the use of camp stoves. The development of light-weight,
efficient camp stoves has encouraged a shift away from the traditional
fire. Stoves have become essential equipment for minimum-impact camping.
They are fast, flexible, and eliminate firewood availability as a
concern in campsite selection. Stoves operate in almost any weather
condition, and they Leave No
Trace. In your consideration for a particular site it is important
to ask: is a campfire really needed here? Should you allow campfires?
The most important consideration to be made when deciding to allow
campfires is the potential damage to the area. What is the fire danger
for the time of year and the location you have selected? Are there
administrative restrictions from the agency that administers the area?
Is there sufficient wood so its removal will not be noticeable? Can the
regeneration of wood sources keep pace with the demand for firewood?
Will campers possess the skill to build campfires that will Leave No
Trace?
Minimize Impacts When Campfires Are Allowed :If campfires are allowed, select
campsites in areas where wood is abundant. Discourage campfires where
there is little wood at higher elevations or in heavily used areas.
Existing Fire Rings: The best place for a fire is within an existing fire
ring in a well-placed campsite. Encourage campers to keep the fire small
and burning only for the time they are using it. Ask campers to burn
wood completely to ash, put out fires with water, not dirt (dirt may not
completely extinguish the fire), and avoid building fires next to rock
outcrops where the black scars will remain for many years.
Mound Fire: Construction of a mound fire can be accomplished by
using simple tools: a garden trowel, large stuff sack, and a ground
cloth or plastic garbage bag. Encourage campers to collect mineral soil,
sand, or gravel from an already disturbed source. Ask campers to lay a
ground cloth on the fire site and then spread the soil into a circular,
flat-topped mound at least 3-5 inches thick. The thickness of the mound
is critical to insulate the ground below from the heat of the fire. The
ground cloth or garbage bag is important only in that it makes cleaning
up the fire much easier. The circumference of the mound should be larger
than the size of the fire to allow for the spreading of coals. The
advantage of the mound fire is that it can be built on flat exposed rock
or on an organic surface such as litter, duff or grass.
Firewood And Cleanup :Standing trees, dead or alive are home to birds and
insects, so they should be left intact. Fallen trees also provide bird
and animal shelter, increase water holding capacity of the soil, and
recycle nutrients back into the environment through decomposition.
Stripping branches from standing or fallen trees also detracts from an
area’s natural appearance. Discourage campers from using hatchets, saws, or
breaking branches off standing or downed trees. Ask campers to use small
pieces of wood no larger than the diameter of an adult wrist that can be
broken with ones hands. Ask them to gather wood over a wide area away
from camp and use dry drift wood on rivers and sea shores. Encourage them to burn all wood to white ash, grind small coals to ash, thoroughly soak with water, and scatter the remains over a large area away from camp. Replace soil where it was found when cleaning up a mound or pan fire and scatter unused wood to keep the area as natural looking as possible. Pack out any campfire litter. Plastic items and foil-lined wrappers should never be burned in a camp fire.
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