by Christine C. Brubaker
Please take this pledge for yourself and to educate others. Please silently sign a NO WHITE SNOW pledge in your heart and mind.
Plan A: Women, in particular, please pledge to never take toilet tissues into the woods and on hiking trails without a container for your soiled toilet tissues.
Plan B: Please pledge to take a cotton bandanna for use and reuse as a cooling neck gaiter and/or toilet wiper and keep it in your hike pants pocket.
ALL: Please pledge to not allow your fellow hikers/XC skiers to start a trip without a toilet plan that does not include white snow offenses.
I just returned from the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland, Canada, and encountered few or no White Snow trails. I ask you: what Leave No Trace Principles do the Canadians understand that KTA can teach themselves and the KTA Trail Ambassador Program for kids? What public messages can KTA lead other state hiking/XC ski clubs to pledge? Please make this mostly female- and child-related topic transparent and changed for the better. We cannot keep adding user-friendly public trails and not address this trash issue.
I really want personal responsibility to become a transparent issue. If US and Canadian clubs show leadership that promotes a focus on hiking courtesy and principles, then everyone gains a return to natural beauty.
Copy this memo to other clubs. Ask them to publicize the White Snow Pledge! For a fund raiser, create a White Snow Pledge bandanna.