Panama City Beach has a new law that some visitors may not be aware of, known as “Leave No Trace”.
The ultimate goal is to keep Panama City Beaches beautiful 27-mile stretch of Gulf of Mexico coastline beautiful and safe for wildlife.
While it may seem a little inconvenient to some. But it all boils down to everybody doing a small part to maintain a clean and safe beach at all times.
The same rules apply to locals as well as vacationers.
When Does This Rule Apply?
The “Leave No Trace” ordinance is in only effect on days ending in ‘y’. That is to say, all year round…
So what exactly does it mean? Leave no trace requires that you do not leave any personal property on the beach. Specifically tents and temporary structures.
Each evening, between 7pm and 7am all personal items get collected removed from the beach. This includes tents, beach chairs, coolers and towels etc.
But they don’t get stored in a lost & found collection somewhere for you to reclaim. Everything is disposed of and destroyed.
Why Is This Happening?
The main objective of the ‘Leave no Trace’ ordinance is to prevent beach tents being left erected overnight. People were setting up tents and leaving them up for the day when they left. Then they would return to the same spot the next day.
While there’s no way to tell how accurate this number is, some claims stated that up to 1,600 tents were being left on the beaches overnight.
Whether that’s an inflated number or not, there’s no denying that it was making the beaches look cluttered and uncared for.
In addition to the obvious cosmetic improvements this will make, it is also hoped that the ordinance will provide a much safer area for sea turtles to nest.
So next time you visit Panama City Beach, we hope that you will remember to ‘Leave no Trace’…
Just footprints in the sand.
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