MOOP MAP 2014: Resto Love Letter

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~ Leaving No Trace ~
The Burning Man community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Somebody left this message for us. The feeling is mutual. Photo by Tiffany Sinacola.
Somebody left this message for us. The feeling is mutual. Photo by Tiffany Sinacola.

…and just like that, it was over…

It’s hard to describe Burning Man to someone who’s never been — and it’s even harder to describe working for Burning Man. In all the dimensions, all the realms of the vast universe, there can be nothing else that even approaches this experience. I consider myself lucky to have discovered it.

This is the tenth year since I became a member of the Department of Public Works. Green as I was back in 2005, it only took me a few days to fall head over heels in love with these people: the strong, weird, passionate, fiercely individual, workaholic and totally misanthropic friends I’d been seeking my entire life. It is my great privilege to spend two months in the desert with the DPW every year, breaking our backs to build Black Rock City for little to no reward — other than the pleasure of each other’s company.

And what a pleasure it is. Each year, I write the Moop Map blog series not just as a celebration of Black Rock City and of the incredible accomplishment of leaving no trace — but as a love letter to the DPW, the best people I’ve ever known.

Today is the last day of operation for the Black Rock Saloon, our staff watering hole in Gerlach. Tomorrow, the BLM arrives to inspect the Burning Man site. As usual, the people of BRC and the DPW have left the place squeaky clean, ready for (much hoped for) winter rains to wash away our tracks. When the inspection is done, we’ll all scatter, the DPW diaspora extending once again around the globe until next August calls us home.

Thanks for a great year, Black Rock City. Tune in Wednesday for the results of the BLM’s site inspection, which will determine whether Burning Man will happen in 2015.

Till then, enjoy a few photos of the beautiful DPW Playa Restoration crew. You can find more of them here and here.

Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014

Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Chloe goes for the jerky. With Booyah & P-Fluff.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
True friendship: Frankie & Billie Ray.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Shotgunn & Pinky know exactly what you need right now: EZ cheese on jerky with a side of popcorn.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Cat works very, very hard through August and during the event to serve food to all the staff on the playa. During Resto, she gets to let loose a little.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Show Pony, Dirty Bacon & the shiniest helmet ever.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Belle, Lefkow, Kentucky, and their dreads.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
I told Deadpan to pose like this. She said it was weird and awkward. I said that was the point.
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Bustin Bieber playing Resto’s favorite game: What’s That Spot?
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Buttons & Professor Fox. Soooooooo cute
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Xeno. Soooooooo tough
Burning Man Playa Restoration 2014
Barbarella. Soooooo hypnotizing
Weldboy & Booyah pretend fighting. Not that they don't really fight now and then. I swear, they're super tough guys.
Weldboy & Booyah pretend fighting. Not that they don’t really fight now and then. I swear, they’re super tough guys.
Rosey Posey & Dumpster Coon, and all of your moop you left at Burning Man.
Rosey Posey & Dumpster Coon, and all of your moop you left at Burning Man.
Your humble narrator, and the top of Agent Finn's head.
Your humble narrator, and the top of Agent Finn’s head.

Moop Map results, Days 5 & 6

Enough about the DPW already! Let’s get back to what’s really important here: all of Black Rock City, and how we work together. And boy, have we knocked it out of the park this year. Congratulations to each and every member of the Burning Man community, for your work not just to Leave No Trace, but to educate your neighbors. It is paying off for all of us.

MOOP-MAP-2014_DAY-6_482w

Moop Map Legend

GREEN: Low Impact to No Impact Trace. The moop line moves at a normal walking pace, picking up very little.

YELLOW: Moderate Impact Trace. The line must slow down in order to pick up all the moop here.

RED: High Impact Trace. The line must stop to clean up hotspots or very moopy areas.

We’re not posting details of what was found in each spot. If you are a theme camp, your Placement representative may have more detailed information for you in a few months (when the entire Moop Map is finalized). Please be patient: we have much more work to do before we can pass detailed information along.

Wow is that a green, clean, moop-free city. Great job, BRC! With just one block (sorry to keep you on tenterhooks, I to J) and Center Camp remaining, it’s looking incredibly good.

Just as the weather report predicted, the Resto crew was blown off the playa Saturday morning by steady rains that turned the playa into impassable mud. We have done all the mooping we can do this year. Now it all comes down to tomorrow’s scheduled site inspection with the Bureau of Land Management, to determine whether Burning Man can be held on the Black Rock Desert in 2015.

Stay tuned for the final results from the Black Rock City grid, and the results from the inspection, both coming up soon!


Want more photos & goodies from the Playa Restoration team? Search #BM2014. You can also follow The Hun: FacebookTwitterInstagram.


About the author: The Hun

The Hun

The Hun, also known as J.H. Fearless, has been blogging for Burning Man (and many other outlets) since 2005, which is also the year she joined the BRC DPW on a whim that turned out to be a ten-year commitment. Since then she's won some awards for blogging, built her own creative business, and produced some of the Burning Blog's most popular stories and series. She co-created a grant-funded art piece, "Refoliation," in 2007, and stood next to it watching the Man burn on Monday night during a full lunar eclipse. She considers that, in many ways, to have been the symbolic end of Burning Man that was. The Hun lives in Reno with DPW Shade King, Quiet Earp. You may address her as "The Hun" or "Hun". If you call her "Honey" she reserves the right to cut you.

24 Comments on “MOOP MAP 2014: Resto Love Letter

  • The Hun says:

    Hey everybody, I’m having trouble getting a solid Internet connection at the moment – sorry I haven’t been responding to comments very quickly. I’ll be back soon!

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  • Nickipedia says:

    Holy crap, good job everyone! I’m super impressed, as well as stoked to be one of the many, many camps with bright green all around!

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  • MrLobaLoba says:

    Hey Hun, do you have a data file which you are using to publish the Moop Map? I would like to make a video tour of how the Moop clean has improved over the years using Power Map which you can then post on the blog. If you give me the data and a single image of the grid, I will be able to do the rest.

    Thanks!

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  • Mønk says:

    Woo hoo, Gypsy Nebula got green!! Thank you DPW for all you do!!! I was surprised however, to see that our neighbors next to us on 3:00 and F ( don’t know the name of their camp ) have a big red spot. The last of them were there on Tuesday morning demooping like crazy, in fact they raked every inch or their camp and in all my years of going, I have never seen a more diligent attempt at cleaning up! I believe I recall them saying that they were raking up old moop from years past, so I’m guessing that might have a part in why they have red. Anyway, just felt a need to point that out.

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  • Confused Neighbors says:

    I’m happy we got green. Didn’t really take that much effort nor did we exhert much. But I’m very surprised about our neighbors at 8:45 & G. Solid yellow yet we saw them out there for three days, going over and over every inch. Doesnt seem to make any sense. They must have pissed someone off.

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  • The Wanderer says:

    WOW! The map is so green (aside from the few camps that just dont seem to care). I am very shocked that Wide Awake Oasis Bar was all red. Im shocked because when you ask Pasqual what his favorite event is, he says Burning Man. I wonder if this is a statement made by one side or the other. Hmmmmm

    Next year, lets see if we can make it all GREEN!

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  • momma bear says:

    So grateful to you all….a big bear hug and thanks from Kidsville …

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  • Toaster says:

    Sun Guardians is GREEEEEEEN! Whoot! A neighboring camp did not MOOP and we were freaking a little so we did it for them; I found some Viagra they left behind – SCORE. Another camp was sharing part of our space and were still there when we left so there was a little panic, but I knew they had an amazing camp so <3 to Solinishka!!!! Our team was fabulous and so was out neighbors. FAB-U-LOUS!

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  • Peet's Coffee House says:

    It’s always a bit of a disappointment when the map turns out mostly green. It means the DPW gutter rats are coming back sooner than later. Sorry, folks, Peet’s Coffee isn’t accepting applications at the moment. You’ll need to find some other way to feed your mutts. Try cat food. It’s less expensive and dogs love it.

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  • Big thanks to my peeps at Paradise Motel that stayed till the bitter end, even though they were cracked out and cranky, to moop sweep. I’m so proud we’ve been all green since our inception in 2008. This year the rain actually made for some interesting de-mooping challenges that we’ll take into account for next year.

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  • Steph says:

    You guys rock! Thanks for all the time you put in this years after years!

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  • Number Nine says:

    Thank you to Monk of Gypsy Nebula for pointing out the mystifying red square on Siberian Electric Company at 3:00 and G, and for the compliment on my campmates’ mooping effort. I camped with Siberian Electric Company this year for the first time and, in my 13 burns, I agree that they were the most diligent moop team I’ve ever seen. I stayed mooping until the light failed on Tuesday evening, and I was the last one out of our camp. When I left I would swear that there wasn’t a stray thread or anything else visible. The Monday rains had buried some moop in mud, so we raked to find that stuff too. I just have no idea why we would get anything but green … unless some other camp dumped stuff there or the wind blew it in. Is there any way to find out what was found at our camp?

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  • Dear Jessica:

    Thank you for doing all you do out there with covering and informing us about the Respect and Restoration (next year’s theme?). I work in federal land management and know THIS IS A REALLY BIG DEAL!

    Good luck to all of you hard workers with the BLM inspection.

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  • Yaxx says:

    DPW = my hero! Thank you for building the city. None of this would have happened without you. I want to join DPW next year. How can I apply? I have dreadlocks and an ironic beard and a tattoo on my neck and a piercing on my lip. Do I qualify?

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  • Fez says:

    Can you do a post about deep playa moop? The morning I ended up at Robot Heart, instead of focusing on Lee Burridge’s set, I spent the whole time mooping — cigarette butt after butt, glow sticks, feathers, etc. It was sad but good in the sense that you really find out who cares about our home, but not exactly fun.

    In contrast the Space Cowboys krewe was steadily out and about mooping during/after their deep playa set.. such a different vibe.

    What were conditions like out there? Were there sound-car-party moopstravaganzas?

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  • The Hun says:

    MrLobaLoba, that sounds awesome! Can you email me? thehun at burningman dot com

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  • The Hun says:

    Mønk, Confused Neighbors – That’s good of you to stand up for your neighbors! We just report what we find, and we reject any accusation that we play favorites – that’s not a nice thing to say about your Restoration crew, but I’ll let it slide this time ;)

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  • The Hun says:

    Number Nine, your Placement representative should have more detailed information for you in several weeks. Sorry to hear you worked so hard and were still finding moop!

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  • The Hun says:

    Fez, we’ve often thought about discussing deep playa moop… maybe next year. But honestly, there isn’t much to say. We hit those areas and rarely find much, except at the roving party sites. And though Space Cowboys do an exemplary job of cleaning up after their events, groups like Robot Heart are doing a much better job lately as well. Thank you for mooping!

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  • The Hun says:

    Everybody else, THANK YOU. Your kind words are very well received out here. It means a lot to hear from you, and it means a lot to know y’all care.

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  • mark says:

    Im a newbie to this whole thing. Im a bit of an artist and try to live on the edge abit in my sports. Burning Man looks awesome but Im still trying to get a handle on the vibe?

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  • wing nut says:

    Thanks Restore, Thanks Monk and #9 and the Hun. I run the Siberian Electric, with a ton of help and this was my tenth. We have learned so many thing over the years camping in BRC and we really thought and still hope that we do do this thing in the desert exceedingly well. We failed once before and did not like it and upgraded everything and everybody got really serious about moop and that is also when we really started to rake the playa. Is that even recommended still? Anyway we put down ground cloth and pick up everything and rack the weird wet spots and dunes. I should also mention that this all was about 5 years ago when the great dunes began to build on the 3:00 side and sometimes it was 4-6 inches deep and we had to kinda level stuff out to walk.
    I’m glad to hear we might get word from our placers about what might have been found. Sorry we slowed the line down, I do love this place and I love you hard working fuckers. Thanks for the laughs and the hugs, the chat and cheer. Thanks again Monk, Gypsies make great neighbors.
    So we got 2/3 red and 1/3 green. I feel bad, I’m sorry, most of my campers are in the disbelief and very puzzled phase and feel like they failed me and feel like I failed them. But mostly I hate the when you look at the map and see that red spot they think of what what ever was left looks like the pile the with the mattress the the other camp left and I would very much like everyone to know that that was not the case. Our last camper out is a Ranger and the last day restore crew was at least 10 people who stay the day after the load leaves and pick up everything after we have all ready been picking up everything. Our Evap pond is industrial strength. We sort and recycle and Leave No Trace. The women I camp with are the most beautiful and the men on my crew are giants. They work harder than any other and can drink you all under the table. It tis an honor to lead this band of heros and angels for they are the best damn crew I know.
    I am still sorry about the red spot in my mind I will go back to the sun coming up monday morning the camp is gone, I walk the whole camp and found a half dozen pieces. I picked the blue flags out. It was my 10th exodus and I was leaving the camp with a big dedicated crew to finish up. The sky is orange and most of the city is burnt or gone. Thats how I need to remember it. Thanks for the hard work everybody. Best one yet for me. Got a little sick and miss the Infected mushroom show cause I was sick in a tent but I rallied and got threw the week with my voice and my sanity and my dignity, mostly.
    xoxo
    Wing Nut.

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  • Dan Baker says:

    Do you have any idea what that object in the Thank You on the Playa is? Its an obsidian arrowhead from the Clovis period. There have been several, many found on the Playa, as the Indians shot fish and small birds out there for several thousand years. I have seen two. See if you can find it, and watch for these in the future.

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  • Captain Billy says:

    We were located in the French Quarter located at 7 to 7:30 between A & B A Red X was placed where we had camped. Eight of my campmates performed the LNT effort where the X got placed, none of us have any idea what that Red X could be for. Is there any way we could be told what it was? Even better is there a photo of whatever the X represents? Thanks for your efforts and for any help you can offer in solving this mystery.

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