Is It OK to Take Pieces of Our Travels Home?
by Candice Gaukel Andrews | May 12th, 2009 | Comments (9)
topic: Eco Travel, Green Living | tags: flowers, leave no trace, mementos, natural places, pine cone, seashells, travel, Utah
On a bookcase in my home office is a tiny piece of shed seal fur I spotted on a beach in New Zealand, a Douglas fir pine cone I absconded with from a forest floor in British Columbia, and a piece of shale I picked up from the rocky shores of Newfoundland. Looking at these mementos I’ve picked up on several journeys near and far reminds me of my travels; and arranged as they are in a circle, they create a “map” of sorts, a visual representation of where I’ve had the great fortune of going to in the world and the arc I traveled back home.
My small treasures would also include a piece of Navajo sandstone from Checkerboard Mesa in Utah’s Zion National Park, except that my guide on that particular trip saw me picking up the rock and came over to ask me what I had in my hand. When I told him that I believed it was a piece of sandstone, he took it from my hand and said to me and all who could hear, “No. That’s ‘leave-or-ite,’ and it stays here.” And with that, he dropped it back on the side of the road.
I was mortified. Is it okay to pick up small, random, natural objects from one place in the world and transport them to another? While I’d never pick a living plant or try to get away with putting a lizard in my pocket, I somehow feel as if a stone or a pine cone here and there won’t adversely affect the cosmic order of the natural world — and yet will give me great pleasure for years to come.
Recently I posed the question to a friend, who said that her line would not be drawn by whether the object was big or small, living or dead — but by the quantity of the thing she wanted to take. If there were thousands of the same flower, for example, she wouldn’t hesitate to pick one. But if there were just one or two blooms, there would be no temptation.
But what if everyone who traveled picked up shells and stones and bark and leaves, and took them into their homes? Would our beaches soon be denuded, would our forest floors be bare, and would we set in motion a chain reaction that could cause native flora and fauna to die out?
Unlike my Zion National Park guide, other guides have encouraged my scavenging, letting me take home small pieces of their corner of the world. But that one stone’s throw from that particular guide sticks in my mind. Was he right? Is it better to “leave no trace” of my passing, or may I spirit away small tokens, to my bookshelf?
What do you think? Please share your comments below.
Happy trails,
Candy
Two main concerns would be the size of the object and how visited the site is. If it’s off the beaten path, I don’t see a problem. If it’s a tourist destination visited by thousands yearly and each person took a momento… there might not be much left of the Parthenon.
Many years ago, I would pick up a small stone or sea shell, but the more I traveled, the more I came to understand that if everyone who passes “this way”, there would no longer be any more small stones or sea shells for others to enjoy. Part of this came about because my son once noted that if EVERYONE threw a small piece of paper out of the car window, soon everything would be covered in trash. This translated in the other direction for lovely pieces of nature.
So, take a camera and enjoy the little as well as big pieces of nature that you see along the way. Enjoy.
I’ve done it. As a former travel agent I used to tell my customers who would want to buy me a souvenir, to just bring me back a rock.
Now I know how wrong I was. There are so many people that pass through everywhere, and if even only a fraction of the people took something small, there would be nothing left. I now see it more as vandalism. If the attraction of the place is the fact that it’s the outdoors then taking a part of that is wrong. We wouldn’t go into a building and take a piece of an exhibit just because it was there, or because it’s small, or because there’s a lot of it…
There are probably times where it’s ok: taking a rock that you find in a city or something. Overall I think it’s probably best to just take a picture.
I know in the past I have picked up a interesting stone from a Alaska river-bed,a pinecone from N.C. ,sand from a beach in Florida and other odds and ends in my travels . That stone I took while fishing I think is in one of my tackle boxes. That pinecone is one of three but which one I ‘m not sure. That bottle of white sand is pretty neat but its not glistening white and as warm as it was on the beach . At the time I picked up my mementoes I thought these things would help me remember those wonderful places .But I have found out I really don”t need that stuff to trigger my memory , I can bring them back anywhere anytime I need to . I”m not going to throw my rock ,my pinecones and my bottle of sand out ,however I think the time has come when people should not take things from these wonderful places. It goes along with loving these special places to death . I would suggest take a lot of pictures if you need something to jog your memory . P.S. Lets concentrate on picking up our trash and taking that with us !!! John Howard
Most of us have probably picked up a rock or a pinecone at one time or another. I had never thought twice about it until I read your thoughts. Thanks for the great read.
I used to pick up small rocks, shells, etc. to “remember” a place. Now I have a bowl of items with little clue where they were individually picked up. I no longer take anything from a travel destination, except my memories and photographs.
Having read this, I do feel a bit guilty for past transgressions. Never anything that I would think was environmentally harmful; just a few seashells or stones, or odd twigs. But it is also hard for me to place value upon my sentimentality or the joy i get from having a collection of twigs. It’s really quite wonderful.
This is a tough one. I can see it both ways. I never take anything huge, but still, if everyone did it…
I agree with the above comments. I too have taken small items such as seashells, small stones and film canesters or sand. More recently, I’ve taken photos of these objects in situ, which I think are more of a memory trigger. Still think the raven’s feather I found at the Hill of Tara was okay — closer to picking up biodegradeable trash, and very evocative (although I’ve since been told I could have picked up a disease as well!). K.