Huts & the Environment

ACC huts play an increasingly important role in reducing the environmental impact of backcountry travel in wilderness areas and the ACC is an acknowledged leader in the environmentally responsible operation of backcountry facilities. Through ongoing research efforts, the Club seeks ways to further reduce the footprint of backcountry visitors through the use of environmentally-friendly technologies.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF ACC HUTS

ACC huts provide an environmental option for a growing number of people who want to experience the majesty of Canada’s mountain backcountry by offering reliable protection from the elements, communal cooking and sleeping areas and access to water and toilets. Hut users do their own cooking, fetch water from nearby streams or by melting snow, and sleep in their own sleeping bags in common areas. They contribute to keeping the hut clean during and at the end of their stay, and they pack out all trash and food wastes.

Conversely, backcountry camping, whether in developed or undeveloped sites, is land intensive and can lead to degradation of flora and fauna over time. Unless privies are provided, human waste can also pose a significant environmental and health issue. Where privies are provided, removal of human wastes can be difficult. As well, backcountry camping involves ongoing potential for human/wildlife conflicts.

By centralizing and managing these impacts, ACC huts significantly reduce the environmental impact of backcountry travel in a number of ways.

• Considerably less land is required for huts than for equivalent capacity camping, reducing impacts on flora and fauna.
• Huts reduce the potential for human/wildlife conflicts by separating people, food and wastes from wildlife. This is safer for both.
• Huts minimize environmental damage by concentrating and controlling human use.
• Huts reduce the use of fossil fuels by providing more efficient, centralized cooking, water purification and lighting systems and eliminating the need for users to haul in fuel containers.
• Huts provide for more environmentally sound management of black and grey water. The ACC’s fly-out privy barrel system removes human wastes from the backcountry, where the land has very limited capacity to absorb wastes without pollution of the local watershed.
• Huts provide safe emergency shelter for backcountry travelers stranded by poor weather conditions or injuries.
• When a hut is constructed in a backcountry area where camping has been permitted, this provides land managers with the opportunity to reduce or eliminate campground use and rehabilitate the land.

The ACC has collaborated with Parks Canada to develop best practices and environmentally sustainable technology for mountain huts.