I suspected that quote needed a bit more context, so I looked it up.

No one has attempted to carry out Anderson's plan of making the Dome accessible. For my part I should prefer leaving it in pure wildness, though, after all, no great damage could be done by tramping over it.

The surface would be strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter gales would blow the rubbish away. Avalanches might strip off any sort of stairway or ladder that might be built. Blue jays and Clark's crows have trodden the Dome for many a day, and so have beetles and chipmunks, and Tissiack would hardly be more "conquered" or spoiled should man be added to her list of visitors. His louder scream and heavier scrambling would not stir a line of her countenance.

The idea of treading lightly on the environment was drilled into us in Boy Scouts. Back then, burying waste and even trash like tin cans under some circumstances was considered okay. It was considered ideal if the casual observer would not be able to tell you'd camped there after you left.