Leave No Trace Theater Proudly Prevents
Written by Paige Manges
At WisCorps, our programs are built around hands-on service opportunities but there’s no denying that our participants also enjoy some seriously cool adventures while they’re in the field.
Each year, we’re excited to welcome new faces into the outdoors. Some have grown up camping and pitching tents since they could walk, while others are still figuring out what the heck a zip fly is. Needless to day, there’s an energy in the air like none other during the first week of training.
Questions fly — Where will we shower? What will we eat? What if we don’t get along?
As much as we’re focus on building the technical skills they’ll need for future careers, our team is highly dedicated and keyed into equipping them with the necessary people skills they’ll need for life — how to work as a team, how to communicate effectively, and how to build companionship with one another and with the world around us.
One of the first ways we teach land ethics is through Leave No Trace. As a proud community partner of the organization, we’re committed to instilling the seven guiding principles as a universal code of outdoor ethics. We believe that learning how to recreate responsibly not only protects the spaces we love but also deepens our appreciation for them. Every small action taken with care strengthens our communities’ respect and relationship with nature.

This fall, we had the opportunity to extend Leave No Trace certification to our friends and neighbors through a partnership opportunity in tandem of the La Crosse Adventure Film Festival. Through the generously of a Dahl Automotive-Subaru grant, we teamed up with our partners Mississippi Valley Conservancy, to host the first of a kind “Leave No Trace Work Party”.
At this event, we invited volunteers to learn and recite the seven principles of Leave No Trace and take part in a hands-on scenario reenactment we, meaning anyone who’s been apart of our program, affectionately call “Leave No Trace Theater.”


At first, these skits can seem a little silly, but once the groups get into acting out scenarios like packing out waste encounters with animals and people on the trail, something special happens. The laughter kicks in, and so does the learning. These playful, memorable moments remind us that joy and stewardship can coexist — and that a little bit of fun helps the lessons stick.
We wrapped up the day treating invasive species at a Mississippi Valley Conservancy site, preparing the area for a controlled burn to restore the land next spring. It was a full-circle experience. A day that wove together stewardship, learning, and community in one meaningful loop.
At WisCorps, we believe that choosing outdoor adventure is choosing connection with yourself, with others, and with the natural world. The best way to explore and protect the outdoors is to become familiar with it. Learn the names of the trees. Notice the plants. Understand the ecosystems. When the natural world becomes part of who you are, it stops being just a place to simply visit, it becomes a place you belong. This is the best way to love the Earth.

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