Science and Nature news
A dropped bag of Cheetos dramatically disturbed a delicate cave ecosystem in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, according to a Facebook post from park officials on September 6.
This cavern is almost entirely cut off from the outside world so introducing anything alien can be catastrophic. “The cave has 90 to 100 percent humidity so things get soggy pretty quickly,” says park guide Ashley Parsons. The mushy snack attracts microbes, encouraging mold growth. Soon, critters—like crickets, spiders, and bats—swoop in to feed, spreading contamination.
Rangers found the Cheetos within four or five hours. “But that can be all it takes,” says Parsons. “I’m sure some cave crickets got a bit of a snack,”
With more than 500 million people visiting American public lands each year, there are countless opportunities to harm our wild places. “When you look at the scale, it’s incredible,” says Dana Watts, executive director of the Leave No Trace Center in Colorado.
Visiting a park without leaving a trace isn’t just about keeping nature clean—here’s the science behind why it protects wildlife.
Don’t leave food waste
While the discarded chips were quickly removed from Carlsbad Caverns, food waste can take a long time to decompose, especially in certain environments. “It takes much longer for an apple core or banana peel to decompose in a desert versus a wetland area or boreal forest,” says Clara-Jane Blye, assistant professor of sustainable tourism at the University of Utah and board member of Leave No Trace Canada.
Packaging is even worse. “If we drop things like plastic bags or metal cans or other trash into the ocean, the decay times might be centuries to millennia,” says Carlos Duarte, professor of marine science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
Leaving waste introduces animals to an unnatural diet and changes their behavior with sometimes catastrophic consequences. When birds or fish mistake plastic for food, it fills up their stomachs so they can’t eat. “They basically starve to death,” says Blye.
Bears who get a taste for garbage and become a ‘nuisance’ to humans may have to be put down. “Bears can become habituated to human food in three weeks,” says Watts. “Everybody loses in that case.”
Biological waste is also problematic. Dog feces introduce new pathogens into the ecosystem and the trace of this predator disturbs ungulate species, like deer and elk. Meanwhile, human excrement and toilet paper introduces e-coli into water sources. “It can make us very, very sick,” says Blye.
Experts recommend relieving yourself into a ‘WAG bag’ and taking it with you when you leave. “I know it sounds really strange to poo into a bag,” she says. “But it’s weird to go into a hole, too.”
Stay on the designated trail
In national parks, designated trails are carefully designed to avoid sensitive areas. Stepping off the trail, even for a quick photo, can scare wildlife away. “They stop foraging, they leave really good nesting and denning sites, they’re less likely to return,” says Blye.
Cumulative impacts from many visitors results in long-term damage to nature and wildlife. But people don’t think of that when they see the perfect photo opportunity. “It’s just such a hard thing to resist,” she says.
The risk to sensitive ecosystems, like desert crust, can’t be seen with the naked eye.
“It’s pretty easy for us to be like, oh, there’s wildflowers over there. I shouldn’t step on that,” says Blye, but these inconspicuous biocrusts are full of microscopic organisms essential to desert life.
These tiny ecosystems provide many benefits, including reducing the risk of erosion and helping absorb rainfall, and can take hundreds of years to return to its original state.
Leave souvenirs behind
When visiting ocean environments, it’s important to consider “how do we get there? How do we depart?” says Duarte. Boats can leach oil or toxic chemicals into the water and dropping anchor can smash up coral reefs.
Tourists themselves can introduce harmful chemicals—“We cover ourselves in a sunscreen lotion that has also been proven to be toxic, not just to the corals but to ourselves,” says Duarte—or damage corals by kicking or touching them. Accidentally breaking a tiny piece of coral, “might be doing damage that will last for decades,” he says.
“Probably the most challenging principle for a lot of people, is leaving what you find”, says Watts, because people love to keep souvenirs. But taking a memento strips the ecosystem of its resources. For example, mass tourism has made it harder to find seashells.
For Watts, experiencing nature is good for people’s mental and physical health but the Cheetos’ incident “illustrates the need for people to understand their own impacts.”
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