Leave No Trace for Canadian Shorelines, Lakes, and River Camps

A shoreline campsite can look durable—bare rock, packed sand, a well-used fire ring—but the strip between land and water is often one of the easiest places to damage. Roots, thin soils, reeds, nesting habitat, and shallow-water vegetation all take repeated pressure from tents, feet, boats, soap, food scraps, and poorly placed waste.

The useful goal is not to make camp look untouched for an evening. It is to avoid leaving impacts that make the next group spread farther into vegetation, create another fire ring, or inherit a contaminated water source. On a canoe route, river trip, or lakeside overnight, that usually means concentrating use at established sites and moving your mess, washing, and toilet routines well away from the water.

Before choosing a shoreline camp
Confirm the current rules for the park, conservation reserve, Crown land area, or waterway you will use. Check whether camping is limited to designated sites, whether fires or firewood are restricted, where toilets are provided, and the required method for human-waste disposal. Also review current fire restrictions, water conditions, and wildlife guidance through the responsible land manager or provincial/territorial authority.

Start with the site that already carries use

Where designated campsites exist, use them. They concentrate wear in places selected or maintained for it, often with a tent pad, thunder box, bear-proof storage, privy, or established landing. Creating a new camp simply because an existing one feels busy or untidy usually expands the overall footprint.

At a well-established site, keep your use within the hardened area. Put your tent on bare durable ground or an existing pad rather than pushing into grass, moss, lichen, or low shrubs for a flatter view. Avoid clearing sticks, moving rocks, cutting vegetation, or trenching around a tent. A modest slope is usually preferable to a newly altered campsite.

This is especially important on Canadian Shield routes. Thin soil pockets and lichen-covered rock can take years to recover from repeated tent placement and trampling. In sandy river corridors, fragile banks and dune vegetation can be just as vulnerable, even when the open beach itself appears tough.

If you are camping outside designated sites

Some areas permit dispersed camping, while others do not. Where it is allowed, choose a durable surface that is already resilient and keep your party’s impact small. Bare mineral soil, gravel, dry grass that will not be crushed repeatedly, and solid rock can be appropriate in some settings. Avoid shoreline vegetation, soft ground, wet meadows, fragile alpine terrain, and places where another campsite would visibly expand an existing informal cluster.

For groups travelling together, spreading out is not always lower impact. A group that fans into several tent spots, cooking areas, and paths can damage far more ground than one compact camp on a suitable durable surface. In pristine places, avoid repeatedly using the same spot and do not leave evidence that invites the next party to settle there.

Give the water’s edge some breathing room

The shoreline is not just a scenic boundary. It filters runoff, provides cover for fish and small animals, and supports plants that hold soil in place. Camping directly at the edge turns the bank into a pathway, kitchen, dish pit, swimming entrance, and toilet route.

Set your main living area back from the water where terrain and site design allow. Use one durable route to the landing or swimming area instead of creating several parallel paths. When landing a canoe or kayak, choose an existing access point, rock shelf, or firm bank rather than dragging boats through reeds, sedges, or aquatic plants.

Keep boats out of vegetation when possible. Repeatedly hauling a loaded canoe across the same soft bank can shear roots and widen a narrow landing into an eroded cut. If the only available access is fragile, land carefully, unload efficiently, and avoid treating that location as a long-term mooring area.

Avoid improving the site

It can be tempting to build a little dock of rocks, line a path with logs, excavate a better landing, or make a windbreak. These changes alter drainage and habitat, and they often encourage more use. Leave natural materials where they are. A log at the water’s edge may be shelter for insects, a perch for birds, or part of the bank’s erosion control.

The same goes for furniture. Do not build benches, tables, lean-tos, or stone structures. If a site is uncomfortable, it may be the wrong site for your group or the conditions that night—not a project waiting to happen.

Cook without feeding wildlife or the lake

Choose a compact kitchen area on durable ground, away from both the water and sleeping area where feasible. Keep food, garbage, coolers, and scented items secured according to local wildlife guidance. Depending on the area, that may mean a bear-resistant container, a food locker, a vehicle, or an approved hanging system. The right method varies by land manager and by local wildlife conditions.

Prepare only what your group is likely to eat. Food scraps are difficult to manage responsibly in camp, attract animals, and can contaminate shorelines when tossed into the water. Fish remains, cooking grease, coffee grounds, and peelings do not belong in a lake or river, even if they seem biodegradable. They are still an unnatural food source in a concentrated location.

Pack out all leftover food and garbage in a sturdy, sealable bag or container. Before leaving, inspect the cooking area, tent area, and landing for twist ties, bits of packaging, dropped noodles, fishing line, and micro-garbage. A quick ground-level scan is more effective than assuming a tidy-looking camp is clean.

Use a stove when it makes sense

A camp stove is often the lowest-impact way to cook, particularly during dry periods, at small informal sites, or where wood is scarce. It also reduces pressure to collect fuel, enlarge fire rings, and leave partially burned garbage behind.

If fires are allowed and you choose to have one, use an existing fire ring at an established site. Keep it small and use only dead, downed wood that local rules permit you to collect. Never cut live trees or break branches from standing trees. Do not burn food, foil, plastic, cans, glass, or other garbage; these materials can leave hazardous residue and rarely burn cleanly.

Before bed or departure, put the fire out completely with water, stir the ashes, and repeat until the ashes are cool to the touch. Do not bury a fire or assume rain will finish the job. If there is no existing fire ring at a site, the lower-impact choice is generally to use a stove rather than build a new ring.

Wash yourself and dishes away from the shore

Even biodegradable soap can affect water quality when used directly in a lake, river, or shoreline shallows. “Biodegradable” describes how a product may break down under suitable conditions; it does not make it appropriate to introduce into a water body.

Carry water away from the shoreline for washing. Use a small basin or pot for dishes, then strain out food particles and pack them out with your garbage. Scatter the remaining strained water over a broad area well away from camp, drainage channels, and the water’s edge, following local rules where they are more specific.

For personal washing, use the same approach: take a small amount of water away from the shore, use little or no soap, and disperse the wastewater on land. Skip shampoos, body wash, and laundry detergent in the lake. A swim may rinse off sweat, but it is not a place to wash sunscreen, insect repellent, or soap from your body.

Keep drinking water separate from washing water

Use a clean collection point upstream from camp activities on moving water, or away from landing and swimming areas on a lake. Treat water appropriately for the conditions and source; clear-looking water is not automatically safe. Keep your filter intake, clean bottles, and cooking pots out of the dishwashing area to reduce cross-contamination.

On a river trip, remember that “downstream” is not a complete solution. Currents can be slow, eddies can circulate, and other campers or communities may be nearby. Keep all washing and waste practices away from the water rather than relying on flow to carry impacts away.

Handle human waste with care

A provided toilet, privy, or thunder box is usually the best option. Use it even if it is less convenient than a spot in the woods; its purpose is to keep concentrated waste away from water, campsites, and travel corridors.

Where no facility exists and local rules allow catholes, choose a private location well away from water, camp, trails, drainage, and places others might stop. Dig a small cathole in organic soil rather than under a rock, in sand at the shoreline, or in a wet area. After use, refill and disguise it naturally. Pack out toilet paper, wipes, menstrual products, and hygiene items in a sealed bag. Burning or burying these items is unreliable and can leave litter exposed by wind, animals, or erosion.

Some high-use, rocky, alpine, coastal, or sensitive areas require all human waste to be packed out because shallow soils and heavy visitation make catholes unsuitable. Carry a waste kit when the route requires it—or when you suspect suitable soil will be scarce. It is a small item that can prevent a surprisingly unpleasant campsite problem.

Leave the camp easier for the next party to protect

Breaking camp is when low-impact habits become visible. Dismantle only what you brought or assembled; do not scatter a pre-existing fire ring or remove established infrastructure. Pack out all garbage, including bottle caps, fishing line, food scraps, foil, and damaged gear. Check beneath tent edges, around the fire area, and at the water landing.

Before launching, look back from the water. You should not see a new trail, cut branches, a fresh fire ring, a pile of rocks, or garbage tucked into a log. At a designated site, it may still look well used—that is the point of concentrating use there. Your contribution is to avoid making that use spread.

For your next trip, add a few shoreline-specific items to your packing list: a compact stove, a dish strainer, sealable garbage bags, a trowel where permitted, a human-waste kit where required, and a reliable way to secure food. These tools make the considerate choice easier when rain, insects, fatigue, and a late arrival make shortcuts tempting.