Leave No Trace

Destination Door County’s Leave No Trace Tuesday events drew a wide range of volunteers who pitched in to help with outdoor projects at different locations eight times throughout 2021 and 2022. The program will be expanded in 2023, in partnership with Peninsula State Park. Source: Destination Door County.

Volunteers help Destination Door County to help Door County, and this year, the organization will partner with Peninsula State Park on a Leave No Trace Spotlight program.

The term “Leave No Trace” originated as a set of ethics promoting conservation of the outdoors in response to ecological damage caused by wilderness recreation. Leave No Trace messages became institutionalized in 1994 with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, and these words, ethics and programs have since spread across the country and world, including within Door County – specifically, with Destination Door County’s (DDC) Leave No Trace Tuesday program. 

“Leave No Trace Tuesdays were born as a post-pandemic evolution of DDC’s member mixers,” said Morgan Rusnak, DDC’s community engagement manager. “We moved them outside, invited the community and added a service element to them, which added a level of hands-on action to our Care for Door County initiative.” 

DDC has held eight of these events since the program launched in 2021 – a different project and different location each time.

“Projects ranged from mulching beds and trail maintenance to trash pickup to pulling invasives,” Rusnak said. “While there were a few staff members and board members who made most of these events, the beauty of them was that there was an entirely different group of folks who showed up to each one, depending on what community we were in. We had teachers, environmentalists, bartenders, engineers, students, even vacationers joining us for these. So many people were looking for ways to give back to their ‘local,’ and this gave DDC the opportunity to have some really organic conversations with our community.”

For 2023, DDC has teamed up with Peninsula State Park as a host for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics’ 2023 Spotlight Program (lnt.org).

“The Spotlight Program is a multiday outreach event to highlight community conservation, to spread education and to build momentum and inspire involvement for the future,” Rusnak said.

Peninsula State Park’s Spotlight is scheduled for June 8-10, when social, educational and outreach events will be held throughout Peninsula State Park with support from the Leave No Trace team. The three-day event will culminate in a parkwide stewardship project on Saturday, June 10, which is also National Get Outdoors Day.

“No matter where or why you get outside, it’s yours to protect. It’s Your Nature.”

— Leave No Trace Mission Statement