Students looking to learn how to hammock responsibly can attend the Organization for Outdoor Recreation Professionals (OORP) Hammocking with Leave No Trace Principles sessions this Friday, April 7 and Friday, April 14 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Management Yurt.

The OORP is a club for all outdoor recreation majors and minors to develop professionally through networking and bonding as a community, said Margaret Brennan, a junior outdoor recreation leadership and management major and member of the club.

“The sessions will discuss limiting our impact on the environment and how to hammock properly, to not damage trees and distributing information needed to implement responsible and respectful hammocking,” Brennan said.

The members of OORP said they are passionate about hammocking and have noticed that some college campuses do not allow hammocking inside the city limits because people are not hammocking properly.

“For students that don’t have a hammock, NMU students can rent hammocks through the student rec pass and from the ORC [Outdoor Recreation Center] in the PEIF,” said Joe Daniels, a junior outdoor recreation leadership and management major and member of OORP. “The best thing you can do is just be respectful and responsible, making sure that you use hammock straps, not ropes because ropes cut off the circulation to the trees and putting weight on those ropes can leave permanent scarring on those trees.”

OORP wants to give people the tools to be able to hammock respectfully and responsibly and not give people any more reason to ban hammocking anywhere, Brennan said.

“We encourage everybody to show up if you have a love for the outdoors because it is a community that we want to foster to grow into a bigger community as well,” said Daniels.