1. Never leave your garbage in the woods. The beauty of the forest can be easily marred by a few snowmobilers who throw their garbage into the woods. Beer bottles and cans, oil containers, food wrappers, old snowmobile parts and other waste discarded along snowmobile trails and elsewhere in the wilderness discredit the majority of snowmobilers who respect the environment. Why not bring a small bag with you and pick up the trash you find? For those snowmobilers who lack the common sense to appreciate such a gesture, picking up other people's garbage may seem stupid. Happily, more and more snowmobilers are choosing to pick up the trash they find in the wild, even doing this goodwill gesture when other people are watching. A stray bottle lying on the ground is a stain on an otherwise pristine landscape, ruins the natural beauty of the great outdoors and makes snowmobilers pass for ignorant polluters. Picking up this bottle will not only be good for the environment, it will improve the image of snowmobilers everywhere. 2. Take care when filling up. Spills occasionally occur when putting gas or oil into a snowmobile. Although, individually, the pollution this creates may seem small, multiply it by the tens of thousands of snowmobiles on the trails every year and the hundreds of thousands of times gas or oil tanks are filled up in the wild. Now you can see the quantity of petroleum products being accidentally dumped into the environment. 3. Stop the engine during breaks. Snowmobile exhaust is particularly harmful and has a strong smell due to its high oil content. For the sake of your health, the comfort of your travelling companions and the good of the environment, shut your engine off during longer rest periods. You can sometimes see a group of snowmobilers stopped along a trail with the engines of their machines left running, and you wonder how they can appreciate the great outdoors in the midst of that noise and the thick, blue smoke, especially considering that people often stop to smoke a cigarette! 4. Protect trees. When travelling off-trail, you will come across small trees barely reaching through the snow. Avoid crushing them, which may stunt their growth. Every tree is a precious resource, especially on tree plantations, or in areas that have been clear-cut or suffered the effects of a forest fire and where replanting activities have been done. 5. Be mindful of the noise your machine makes. Noise is also a form of pollution! If you have an older snowmobile, make sure your muffler is in good condition so that you do not disturb those living near trails. Noise pollution is a major factor leading to snowmobiling's bad reputation, particularly in urban areas.