News Release

Arches National Park Selected as a 2021 Leave No Trace Hot Spot

Date: March 11, 2021
Contact: Keri Nelson, [phone]
Contact: Park Information Line, [phone]

MOAB, UT— In 2021, as visitation to outdoor spaces continues to grow exponentially, Arches National Park has been chosen to be a Hot Spot by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. Arches is 1 of 10 diverse and popular national, state, and local parks identified in need of leave no trace solutions. In March and September a Leave No Trace Team will work with the National Park Service to provide area visitors, land managers, volunteers and the local community with information, service work and education to reduce impacts in the outdoors and to recreate responsibly.

Leave No Trace selects Hot Spot locations each year: popular outdoor areas across the country that have experienced heavy recreational use and human-created impacts, including excessive trash, damage to vegetation, trail erosion, disturbance to wildlife and more. 

“Hot Spot areas are damaged but can recover again with a motivated community and a comprehensive infusion of Leave No Trace programs” said Dana Watts, Executive Director of Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. “By identifying and working with Hot Spots and their communities across the country, Leave No Trace can rapidly move toward recovering and protecting the places we all cherish at a time when the outdoors has proven more critical than ever,” according to Erin Collier, one of the Subaru/Leave No Trace Team members who will be onsite to lead the work.

“Our goal is to ensure visitors to Arches National Park can experience the park in the most natural state possible. By providing visitors with information on how they can protect the park we hope it will transfer over to fewer impacts to the park as well as all other public lands they visit” said Keri Nelson, Backcountry Coordinator for Arches National Park.

The Leave No Trace Hot Spot at Arches National Park will kick off in March with a series of targeted trainings for land managers, volunteers, and guides/outfitters, with additional programs for the public and Moab community planned for September.  Programs in September will be free and open to the public and we encourage people of all ages to attend. More information will be available at www.nps.gov/arch. 

About Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
Using the power of science, education and stewardship, The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics is on a mission to ensure a sustainable future for the outdoors and the planet. The Center accomplishes this by delivering cutting-edge education and research to millions of people across the country every year. Learn more at www.LNT.org, at www.facebook.com/LeaveNoTraceCenter or on Instagram through @LeaveNoTraceCenter. Media contact: Ailsa Walsh, [e-mail]

About Arches National Park
Within Arches National Park the National Park Service protects a landscape of contrasting colors, land forms, and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches and hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive rock fins, and giant balanced rocks.