Tourism office asks hikers to "doo" Colorado right and bury it
Sick of seeing human poop while hiking or camping in our beautiful Colorado Wilderness? Well, the Colorado Tourism Office sure is. It's why they're offering 3,500 free "bury your poop right" tools at visitor centers all over the state.
The "Doo" Colorado Right campaign partners with PACT Outdoors to provide free PACT Lite kits, a slender aluminum case that unsheathes to become a shovel, (complete with a 6-inch depth marker, the appropriate depth to bury your business), specially formulated wipe tablets (which unfold from a hyper compact disk -- think a chubby smartie candy) and then Mycelia tabs, little wooden nuggets that hold within them the roots of fungus whose sole purpose here is to eat your poop.
It also eats the wipe, which is specially designed with plant fibers to leave nothing behind, unlike toilet paper or worse. You can pick up the kits at any of the following locations:
If James Bond was a backpacker, this is what he would use to bury his waste.
Jake Thomas, co-founder at Pact Outdoors said the idea came out of necessity to keep Colorado wildlife open, healthy and clean after an explosion of use on trails mid and post-pandemic.
"Land managers are rightfully responding by reducing access in really popular areas, fewer permits are being issued, dispersed camping is being converted to fee and site-based camping, things like that which, again, make it hard to be outside," Thomas explained. "If it is left on the surface or something like that, those pathogens and poop can spread to waterways, wildlife and, ultimately, become a public health concern, which is what is happening in Colorado right now."
A large part of this issue is education though, and in some instances, burying your waste is still the wrong move, even if you do it with a cool kit like this.
"Poop either needs to be buried 6 inches deep in the ground or, if you are in an alpine or arid desert, it needs to be packed out," Thomas said. A great way to know before you go, and then go, is to check on your hike restrictions with your local ranger district.
