Leave No Trace, Ranger Program

My name is ranger Julie Coleman. I'd like to welcome you to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area at Lake Powell on behalf of the National Park Service. We've got a great little program today. Where are you all coming from? KIDS>> Kentucky, Georgia, Chicago. RANGER>> Guess who's coming from Georgia? KID>> You? RANGER>> Yes! RANGER>> Now, has anyone ever heard of Leave No Trace? KIDS>> No... Maybe... RANGER>> Well, it's a pretty simple idea here. When you're out doing things in the National Park. You should leave no trace. And what that means is, you don't want to leave anything. You don't want to leave trash. You don't want to leave things that make it seem like you were there, and disturbing the area. You only want to walk on designated trails. You want to minimize all the things you might possibly do. When you are out in a National Park. How many of you have visited other National Parks? Did you notice trash anywhere? Did it ever look really bad? And how did that make you feel? Yeah, maybe not so good. So who do you think is in charge of taking care of all the land that we visit? KIDS>> We are. RANGER>> Exactly, everyone's in charge. Now, do we want to do a little activity where we have to stand up? RANGER>> So I need you all to do some teamwork here and line up in order in the order that you think these will break down, and disappear from the environment. So on this end, if you think your item takes the longest time to break down, or disappear, I need you to stand on this end. If you think your item will break down or decompose, very soon. Stand on this end. Do you all understand? Alright. So starting on the end here. How long do you think it takes that apple to break down or decompose in the environment? KID>> Not a long time. RANGER>> Not a long time? Do you have a guess? Weeks or months? KID>> Months. RANGER>> Well, actually it takes about two to four weeks, so far you're good. You're correct here. Apples were first. So next.. as we move down. Oh! - You happen to be correct. We have a milk carton. So how long do you think that might take to break down? RANGER>> Weeks or years or months? KID>> Well... It's paper... but it has wax on the outside. KID>> So... A month or two? five years.Did you imagine that it would take that long? And I think that you all may have taken a look at this paper before hand, because you're exactly in order here. And, next... I just need you all to switch. Now we have the steel can. Now, we're going to take a big jump in time here. So how long do you think that might take? KID>> 50 years. RANGER>> 50 years? Take a bigger jump. KID>> A hundred? RANGER>> Yes! 80 to 100 years for that to break down. Alright, and I'm going to give you another hint. For that aluminum can, we're taking an even bigger jump. KID>> About 200 years? RANGER>> Yes! 200 to 400 years. Is what we're guessing. So what do you have? A plastic bottle? KID>> Yeah. Um, like... I don't know. A thousand years? RANGER>> A thousand years? I could take that depending on where it's at. This is showing at minimum, 450 years. So, all these, years and months and weeks that we are saying, that's just at minimum. So it could take even longer. Alright, so what's the next item? KID>> Um... A glass bottle. RANGER>> A glass bottle. Alright. And you all defiantly were in the right order. Because glass bottle was next. So any guesses? This is going to be an enormous jump in time. KID>> Thousands of years? RANGER>> Yes, thousands to millions of years for a glass bottle to disappear. Styrofoam. What is your guess? KID>> Um... 5 million years. RANGER>> 5 million years? Well, I don't know if you knew this, but there is no guess on how long it would take. Because we think that it might never ever disappear from the environment. What that means is. We're starting out with an apple. The reason that's going to disappear. Is because it decomposes. It's biodegradable. So it's just going to go back into the land. But something like Styrofoam, that's never going to disappear. It just keeps breaking down into smaller, and smaller, and smaller pieces. KID>> Until you can't see it. RANGER>> Yes, until you can't see it. KID>> It "technically" goes off the Earth, but really it doesn't. RANGER>> But do you ever see just one tiny piece of Styrofoam, or do you see a bunch of trash always together? KID>> A bunch of trash together. RANGER>> There's a lot of trash together. So, on of the reasons why we want to do this type of project is because this is a Recreation Area, and lots of people come here. Lots of people go hiking on the trails or camping out in the open. When you turn around, you can see this is all Glen Canyon. And if you take a look at Lake Powell. There are tons of people that go on their boats on Lake Powell and camp out on the beaches.And you can find all types of garbage on the beach. Now it's not very nice for the lake, and its not very nice for the people that want to go there It's not nice for the people that have to pick it up.So now you have a better idea of how long these things take to disappear. They don't just disappear in the course of a day. Sometimes they take a couple of weeks maybe. Sometimes thousands of years, and sometimes they never break down.