Applying Low-Impact Camping Principles at Home Base

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is one of the oldest and most respected organizations teaching adventure skills, and an early proponent of low-impact camping.

NOLS had established a base for sea kayaking and other water activities on the Baja California peninsula, in Mexico, but the buildings were constructed in a haphazard manner. Taylor Galyean, a former NOLS instructor, designed additional buildings and a master plan for the campus as his Master’s thesis in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A driving force behind his plan was to apply the principles of low-impact camping—living lightly on the land—to this more permanent facility. The plan is currently being implemented, even as it continues to evolve.