The 2011 inspection crew

Yes, it was an exciting morning for the few remaining members of the DPW Playa Restoration team. Braving freezing winds and a muddy playa, the team gathered at the place once known as Center Camp. There we met our BLM referees, Roger Farschon and Cory Roegner of the BLM. Roger, now retired, has led this inspection many times before — in fact, he helped develop the method along with Will Roger. Cory’s in his second year as Outdoor Recreation Planner, which means he works with all the permitted events on the playa and gives them all the same type of inspection. Ours, of course, is the largest, but we’re held to the same strict standard of Leaving No Trace.

Cory holds up the square used to measure MOOP. Each 1/10 acre site must contain less MOOP than will fit into that square.

What does “Leave No Trace” mean to the BLM? It means that for every acre of land, we can’t leave behind more than one square foot of MOOP on average.

Now, the BLM can’t inspect the entire playa, so they take random samples. They choose 64 sites from throughout Black Rock City, each of which is 1/10 of an acre.

Cory and Roger plot out the sites that each team will inspect.

This year's inspection sites. Mediocre photo of map will soon be replaced with actual PDF map.

The group then breaks into teams, with each team assigned several sites. They inspect each site by walking in a circle around a center point, holding a 33-foot cord, and picking up every piece of MOOP within that circle.

Coyote, D.A. and Dead By Dawn line up to inspect the first site. Photo by Phoenix Firestarter.

Line Boss no more, Weldboy waits to be told when to walk. Photo by Phoenix Firestarter.

Austintatious, some heavily clothed person, Man Crush and Make Out Queen walk their site

The MOOP goes into a bag, to be measured later.

The remains of The Man

The best thing about doing this inspection? Realizing that we really, truly did clean the playa. Bag after bag comes back nearly empty.

Weldboy, Girlbutt, Dave Cooper and Flophouse show off their haul.

Scummer, Sandman and Free Man with the results of their site inspection

And hey, remember that black spot we were talking about last week? It just happened to be one of the randomly-selected sites that the BLM inspected. Thanks to the efforts of the Restoration crew, here’s what was left there:

Or, just a few square inches' worth of MOOP.

Cory and Roger could see immediately that Burning Man had passed its inspection with flying colors. The crew was ecstatic. Before heading out in a hundred different directions, we shared our mutual respect one last time:

Leave No Trace and Burning Man

As far as the Bureau of Land Management is concerned, Burning Man does a much better job of cleaning up after itself than many other events. And that’s true — but even while we strive to comply with the BLM’s requirements, we are always trying to do better.

Rumor, looking down to the playa from Old Razorback. Photo by Ryan Matthews.

The truth is, our presence on the playa does leave a trace. Tire tracks, water spots, any MOOP we happen to miss. Ravens come from miles around to scavenge, and Gate Road is easily visible for years after each use.

Over time, though — just a few years without Burning Man — all that would disappear. That’s the idea: When we’re gone, it should go away. We do our best to remove any sort of trace that would last over a long period, and that doesn’t just include MOOP.

For example: When cars drive on the playa, it breaks up the surface and creates dust. After wind storms, that dust settles in dunes that alter the naturally smooth playa surface. Those dunes can cover and hide litter, and they can also grow over time, potentially becoming semi-permanent features. I can personally vouch that the number of dunes in the Black Rock Desert has grown significantly in the past five years.

Roads and dunes at 9:00 and D.

That’s why we have Bobtuse, Dune Buster. Here’s what Bobtuse does:

Bobtuse and his dune-busting drag aren’t the only trick we use to restore the playa, but they’re indicative of the lengths we go to. As a community and as an organization, Burning Man strives to not just be Good Enough. Whenever possible, we try to Do It Right. And if anything symbolizes Doing It Right, it’s DPW Playa Restoration.

How will you Do It Right next year?

All the MOOP the Restoration team gathered in 2011

Now, this reporter is headed back to Reno to recuperate from an incredible year. It’s all over, folks! See you again real soon. This is The Hun, signing off.

The last of the summer colors will fade within days.

Today, I’ve got the last scores from the 2011 MOOP Map. In Day Nine, your DPW Playa Restoration team swept through Center Camp, then began systematically cleaning some of Black Rock City’s busiest and MOOPiest spots. We covered the inner playa and the art sites, work camps and roads, and kept working until this Tuesday when the weather closed in, and we had to leave the desert behind.

Today’s score is a mixed bag, and the results may surprise you:

Click to enlarge!

NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE FINAL MOOP MAP FOR 2011. We still have a few hot spots to map, and we’ll be double-checking all the data before we release a full, complete and high-resolution map for you to review. At that time, we’ll tell you how to get in touch with us if you have questions. That’ll all be in a few weeks, so keep your shirts on ’til then!

You MOOP Map experts will notice immediately that Center Camp scored extremely well this year. It’s over 90% green: greener than ever before! However, you’ll also see a new black spot where the Temple of Transition once stood. That’s unfortunate, especially considering that both sites had equally high levels of traffic. Yet Center Camp gets greener and greener, while the Temple is traditionally one of the MOOPiest areas.

What’s the difference? It all comes down to the LNT plan. Representatives from the Temple crew came out to help Restoration workers clean their site, but ultimately they just didn’t have the resources and people to manage all the MOOP themselves.

Makes you think, MOOP lovers: How much did the Temple mean to you this year? How about your favorite sound camp? Will YOU chip in and help your favorite installations clean up next year?

All in all, the city scored very well this year — nearly as well as 2010, which was a record-breaker. 2011 saw an increase in Yellow zones, which is a bit of a disappointment considering the hard-packed playa surface this year. If your camp was marked Yellow or Red, work on your LNT plan for next year! There’s always room to improve, and every hour you spend MOOPing is one less man hour for the hardworking Restoration team.

The Golden T-Stake

On Tuesday, with a dust storm at our backs and dark clouds on the horizon, the Restoration crew gathered around Black Rock City’s last remaining T-stake. Coyote kicked off the ceremony with a few remarks about DPW’s history and honor, and then D.A. thanked the crew for kicking ass from August 1 to the bitter end.

D.A. handed a stake puller to Weldboy, Line Boss #1 (and #1 Cool Dude), who attempted to read the Restoration crew the Ten Principles…

…until he was attacked by dogs.

So he pulled the stake, and made a little speech instead.

Then we all passed the stake from person to person, and we each said our piece, and all of us thought about how close we’ve become and how our lives have been changed by the incredible people around us.

Such as. Cobra Commander, DPW’s fearless leader…

The kitchen staff, who kept us fat and sassy with hundreds of pounds of bacon…

Fluffer Nipps, who delivered water and snacks to the work crews with a heapin’ helpin’ of attitude and the occasional nip slip…

Mr. Blue, who organized our recycling effort. We all helped by throwing cans at him…

And then it was all over, and there was nothing left to clean up but our own crazy lives. Another season complete, another Restoration won, and we all sally forth in victory.

Before we can proclaim this year a clean win, Playa Restoration still needs to pass the championship round with the Bureau of Land Management refereeing. Show your home team some love, and tune in tomorrow to hear the results of our site inspection! ‘Til then, this is The Hun signing off.

Denise Nuts keeps warm in the arms of a friendly dinosaur.

Luckily, I’ve got good news for you. In Day 8 of line sweeps, our DPW Playa Restoration team covered the final blocks of the city grid, leaving only Center Camp, the Man Base and the Temple of Transition to be MOOPed. Working from opposite ends, the two Line Sweeps teams met at 6:00 between Graduation and Hajj for a celebratory shade break. Then they turned their sights to the open playa, while the Scribes inspected Center Camp to carefully document visible hot spots.

We’ll have the results from Center Camp soon, but for now, here’s your big green city:

Click to enlarge!

Now that’s a city you can be proud to call home.

Unfortunately, today had a couple of very MOOPy spots that slowed down our line sweepers considerably. Yipes! Today’s score: 78% green, 18% yellow and 4% red. Not too shabby, but there’s definitely room to improve.

D.A. and the History of Playa Restoration

By now, you know all about how the DPW Playa Restoration team works. Now I’d like to introduce the man behind the plan: D.A. (Dominic Tinio), Restoration Manager.

For as long as Burning Man has existed, there’s been somebody willing to clean up afterward. Over the years, the official “Cleanup Crew” evolved into something much like the line-sweeping, cone-killing hotshots you know today. But it took impassioned leadership to turn the cleanup effort into a well-oiled Restoration machine.

D.A. began managing this crew in 2004. Soon, he did away with the term “cleanup” and instituted Playa Restoration.

“I changed the name to Playa Restoration because that’s really what we do. We’re not here to clean up after people. We’re not here to take care of your trash, your garbage. We’re here to restore the playa to what it’s supposed to look like.”

Part of that changeover included defining the job, and getting more information out to the community. “Even back in the early days of Restoration, we could tell people were trying,” D.A. says. “They just needed to know what we were finding — they needed feedback from us.”

Using the MOOP Map to plan the day's Restoration work

That’s why, in 2006, D.A. instituted the MOOP Map, a public record of the traces left by Black Rock City after Burning Man was over. That year, the city grid was only 40% green — but when the MOOP Map was published, its effect was instantaneous. The following year, the city was significantly greener, and it’s only improved since then.

Celebrating the "Golden T-Stake," the last stake to be pulled from the remains of Black Rock City

Another important part of D.A.’s work was instilling a sense of pride in the crew. MOOPing can feel like thankless work, but every Restoration member chose to be here for a reason. Reminding the crew of the great task they’ve undertaken, making them feel appreciated and important even as they comb the desert for glitter and hairballs — well, that’s no easy job. But D.A.’s passion for Restoration is undeniable, and he continually reminds his team members of the importance of their work. After all, without this crew there might not be a Burning Man next year.

Honoring first-year Restoration members with badges

Though he’d probably prefer to be wielding a shovel and a magnet rake, these days D.A. orchestrates a complex dance of teams, vehicles, tools and information. Between dust storms and the winter rains that loom ever closer, he creates a lightning-strike team that’s more efficient and effective each year; even as Black Rock City grows, he always ensures that we’ll pass our site inspection. Burning Man’s trust in this man is nearly boundless, and he wears the responsibility well.

Setting up the day's plan of attack

Meeting with Line Sweep and Special Forces leaders to fill in the MOOP Map

Riding with D.A. the other day, I asked him to share some of his thoughts on the process. Watch excerpts here:

If you’d like to hear more from D.A., check out this Worldsweeper article on Burning Man and LNT. At the end, you’ll find a 27-minute interview with lots of food for thought.

Now as I may have mentioned, it’s COLD here in Gerlach. It’s time for the Restoration crew to get out of town before we freeze. Tomorrow, I’ll share the report from Center Camp and the Cafe, and the update on whether the BLM will conduct our site inspection. For now, this is The Hun all bundled up in scarf and gloves, and signing off.

Drink Water and Easygoin with 2011's biggest piece of MOOP: A length of wire cabling from beneath the Man. To be fair, it was left there on purpose, not abandoned.

In Day Seven of Line Sweeps, the front line picked up its pace. Lean and hungry for MOOP, they marched across 44 blocks — the entire area from 10:00 to 2:00 between Engagement, Funeral and Graduation, and part of Hajj!

44 blocks is a lot, almost as many as the lines covered in the early days of the season. But how did those blocks fare? Was the quick pace due to a lack of MOOP, or to a highly skilled group of MOOPers? Well, it looks like a little of both:

Click to enlarge!

Yep, we had a couple of serious red spots near 9:00 and 9:30, and one along 2:00. A few yellow blocks slowed down the line slightly, but there were also many, many blocks that were clear and green.

Today’s score: 87% green, 10% yellow and 3% red. Great job, you Leave No Trace superstars!

MOOP Treasure: The Cool Stuff We Find

In the context of a Leave No Trace event, MOOP is a bad thing. But sometimes the MOOPers themselves benefit from being the last people out here picking up litter. Truth is, some of Black Rock City’s discarded items are pretty cool.

Truffle shows off a MOOPed button.

There are always stories, and I can vouch that they’re true: a $50 bill buried in a sand dune… two antique silver dollars… a few years back, a diamond ring. Lots of times, though, the MOOP has little monetary value. Out here, we collect it because it’s interesting, or pretty, or maybe just because it’s there.

Darlin' with his "good MOOP"

Part of Stabby's earring collection

After two months in this desert Utopia without any need for money, and a couple of weeks picking up cigarette butts, your sense of value shifts. Sure, we find some cash — each of us winds up with a couple bucks in spare change — but the real goodies are the things we can use. Or at least decorate ourselves with, bohemian pirates that we are.

Stabby with her collection of earrings and jewelry

Wendee Key collects feathers of all shapes and sizes, including this headband.

When we find things that we can’t hang from our ears, braid into our hair, stick in our hatbands or sew over the holes in our pants, we start getting creative. After all, some of the best bits of MOOP have no discernible use. We are driven to find a use for them — despite our nagging sense that maybe it’s just junk and we ought to throw it out.

Cool MOOP, but what to do with it?

This is where it starts to get interesting. People start sorting and organizing their MOOP, assigning value. Ten or twelve people start collecting specific things for specific uses.

nikOpeaches hopes to find a belly dancer who'll pay him well for all these bangles.

This year, Special collected over a hundred stars. Most were given to him by crewmates. He will sew them all onto a vest for next year.

Special and some of his stars

Special's stars

Some of the crew makes jewelry in the evenings. They share their MOOP jewelry as gifts, or keep it, or throw it away if it doesn’t turn out great. Who cares? It’s only MOOP.

Jedi, Deadpan and Scummer crafting at the Black Rock Saloon

Still, mixed in with the detritus there are a few things that someone must’ve been sad to lose. These — mostly keys, but jewelry and other valuables too — will be posted on ePlaya’s Lost and Found board.

Somebody's trip to Italy is on that SD card.

And then there are the truly awesome discoveries: the things that might be worth an awful lot of money in a few years, and are pretty cool right now, and don’t belong to anybody because of gifting and finders keepers. I’m talking about Burning Man swag, which is one of the most common types of MOOP and also the most collectible.

Gonzo found this coin...

...it's heavy, and a few inches in diameter. Someday it'll be worth a lot.

Still, at the end of the day it’s all stuff we find on the ground. Most of it has little to no value, most of it isn’t that pretty or cool, and most of it will eventually make its way to a garbage bin. We save what we can, but there’s only so much we will truly treasure.

Pillow Talk shows off one of her favorite finds.

That’s all for today, folks. The BLM inspection is just two days away, and the storm front is coming in. Will we be able to have our inspection, or will we be driven off the playa by rain and wind? We’ll find out soon. ‘Til tomorrow, this is The Hun signing off.

Joey Jello and Booyah pull up the T-stake marking the corner of 9:00 and D.

But let’s look back to Day 6, when our intrepid Restoration MOOPers swept through 22 blocks — from 4:30 to 10:00 between Coming Out, Divorce and Engagement. How did the C-D-E camps fare? Here’s the report:

Click to enlarge!

Nice work there, folks! That’s a lot of green, and very little red. Way to keep it clean and keep the MOOP line moving!

Today’s score: 91% green, 8% yellow and 1% red. That’s the highest score we’ve seen since Day One.

Coyote Nose: A day in the life of a Playa Restoration Mooper

Here’s Tony “Coyote” Perez, Black Rock City Superintendent and O.G. DPW, with a taste of what it’s like for the crew still working here in Gerlach.

Sunrise over the Gerlach Estates

6:30 am alarm clock. Head off the pillow — still swimming a bit from last night’s beer at the Black Rock Saloon social club in the heart of Gerlach, NV. Got pretty cold in the mid Sept. wee hours — good to have that extra blanket. Swing your legs out of bed and start dressing in layers — several rag tag crazies topped off with the notorious and ubiquitous DPW black hoodie. Gonna need the layers, gets pretty blazing hot out on playa still. It’s like we’re living on Mars. Scrub some teeth, I guess — and step into the crisp autumn morning of the cramped trailer park to head to the crew’s buffet breakfast and 7:30 morning meeting in the back chow hall of the Saloon. There’s about a hundred of us and it’s a surreal and strange movie-ish sight to see the tiny main street of Gerlach at 7:00 am flanked with the dark zombie mob of the DPW resto crew lumbering along, most wearing our dark hoodie with that bright orange dot on the back, announcing to all just how bad ass we really are! Was that a look of astonishment on the face of that random bird hunter just rolling through town, witnessing this and wondering, “What the…?!”

Toad and Samazon arrive at the Saloon for breakfast

The chow hall is full of the noisy clank and clatter of warm breakfast and the smell of bacon abounds. The friendships and fellowships of Resto crew always tighten up when there’s no one left out here but us and the press cameras have been pointed away to next year already. Conversations around the tables are mostly regarding crazy antics of last night and odd events that only happen out here in the high desert playa. Pool game victories and card game sweeps are recounted. “Was that the start of a romance I saw between so-and-so and who’s-it?” is always a favorite topic. What a breath of fresh air that nobody is talking about Obama vs. the republicans, yesterday’s ball scores, or who got voted off Dancing With the Stars.

Welder Mike enjoys a hot breakfast.

7:30 on the dot and our volunteer coordinator and crew chief stands and bellows out in a fourteen year DPW tradition, “GOOD MORNING DPW!” This is met with the proper pirate’s, “YAR!” of sorts — depending on how late the club was open last night. Need-to-knows are cited — where the bus is leaving from — changes on crew roster — talent show signups — has anyone seen my knife — it had “buzz cut” inscribed on it — Shotgunn is cutting hair tonight in the back room of the Saloon — no bootie shorts in Bruno’s — and so on and so forth. Everyone scrapes their plates and shuffles out through a thick bank of cigarette smoke in the main front bar (Nevada will always be California’s smoking section…!) — then it’s back to the trailer park to grab the needs of the day, onto the various trucks and buses, and then onto Highway 34 to the massive Burning Man site of Black Rock City.

Highway 34 and the sage bordering the Black Rock playa

The Restoration crew on the bozo bus.

D.A., Playa Restoration manager, leads the daily strategy meeting.

What a sight is the fleet of DPW desert rats sending up plumes as they streak across the playa. It really does have the look and feel of a moving road warrior army unit with its dusty old buses carrying the bulk of the crew, a fleet of support trucks carrying rakes, shovels, and tools of attack, belly dump trucks and front loaders to deal with the ash piles of the large burns, other support vans and trucks carrying water, Gatorade, energy snacks, lunches and supplies, (they’re called the fluffers, by the way), medical support vehicles, personal hacked apart and welded back together battle cars with garbage barrels and brooms aboard, a full tech team that is equipped with iPads and GPS units to document all that is discovered, and one very important truck pulling the potties and blasting the tunes. And all this in a roadless wing attack formation as it thunders along. Zeroing in on the coordinates of the morning, we circle into a bivouac and it looks like paratroopers bailing out as the bus doors open. We are a force to be reckoned with!

The DPW fleet crossing the playa

Nomad is DPW's fleet manager, bus driver and all-around madman

Sissy Bitch provides the bare necessities: loud music and a place to poop.

Then it becomes a matter of getting down to business. The heavy equipment team digs in on the biggest piles at the Man site and Temple site for instance. The “Special Forces” teams fan out on the site chasing cones that mark the larger problem areas such as moopy dunes, severe spills, burn scars and such. The walking “Line Sweep” crew, the largest crew of the DPW, starts walking the city, block by block with MOOP buckets in hand and meters out to 70 strong, two blocks wide, with two line bosses keeping the line, while pickup trucks follow to hit the “hot spots”. The tech “scribes” travel along with the moopers and Special forces, photographing and filming, and logging everything into their iPads to be analyzed and entered into a data base, and then on to the MOOP map. It’s a awesome system that’s been developed over the years, and is still improving.

Raygun walks the Line Sweep

This would be the scale of the endeavor of what it takes to make the MOOP map happen. It ain’t easy being green.

Somewhere around 5:00 pm a line boss suggests that the “morale” of the team might be sagging and maybe we should call it a day. After walking several miles in the desert sun staring at the ground for every cigarette butt and wood chip, (the most abundant MOOP, by the way), all flop down in the shade created by the long shadows of the trucks and vans to crack some cold ones, (except for the drivers, of course), and to sit and jabber, high on the sublime buzz of an honest days job done. It will always be the best cold one I’ll ever have.

F'in Andy and Booyah playin' twinsies

Fleet buses and trucks provide shade at the end of a hot day.

And all are treated to, and bewitched by the vast expanse of the Black Rock Desert once again as it stretches its featureless canvass to the mountain horizon, awash in the glowing gold of the late afternoon sun.

Whatever reason any may have had for coming out and joining the Playa Restoration team, we all leave with the shared reason being simply out of respect for such a land as this.

With stomachs rumbling on earned hungers, the busses and trucks load up and head to the town of Gerlach for beer-thirty at the Saloon, then to the chow hall again to load up a plate of good western comfort food, then back to the our bar to play cards, shoot pool, blast some tunes, and make even more gold memories out of our coolest summer job ever.

Jammin' on the porch of the Saloon. Photo by Ryan Matthews.

By the way, the Black Rock Saloon social club is the only bar I know of that has neither a cash register nor a television. What a concept!

The BLM inspection of Black Rock City is now just a few days away. Will the Restoration crew finish in time? Will the wind and rain stop them in their tracks? We’ll know the answer by Thursday. Until tomorrow, this is The Hun signing off.

Charon by Peter Hudson. Photo by Arin Fishkin.

Almost all of the art you see in the open playa is placed precisely according to GPS coordinates. When the artist gets their placement, they agree to make sure their spot is MOOP-free when they leave. According to Playa Restoration’s ARTery representative Awesomesauce, the ARTery inspects each site before the artist leaves.

During Playa Restoration, special agent Bustin Dustin has the unique job of finding each art site and trying to figure out what happened there. Each site is different: The art may have burned, or used fuel or fireworks. It may have been made of metal, or plastic, or wood. It may have had a huge number of visitors throughout the week, and they can have interacted with the art in countless ways.

The Temple of Transition. Photo by Jim Hammer.

Ouroboros by the Flipside project. Photo by Michael Holden.

Tympani Lambada by the Flaming Lotus Girls. Photo by Neil Girling.

When the art is gone, the sites can only be found by GPS. So Bustin cruises the desert in the only art car we have left out here, locating each one and making sure it’s pristine.

Bustin Dustin and the remains of the Man

Once Bustin reaches each site, he becomes a desert detective. To the untrained eye, it may look like featureless desert — but Bustin sees evidence of trenched lines, of filled-in holes, of dunes that might be covering MOOP. He stays at each site until he’s sure it’s completely clean. Some of them truly are clean as soon as he rolls up, but some have buried treasure: wood chips, bits of wire, random trash left by visitors. Bustin gives each site a score, which can affect the artist’s placement in future years. The list of art sites and their scores will be published soon!

Bubblegique, looking stoic

Behind this precise maneuvering, there’s a tech wizard who makes it all possible. Bubblegique, Tech Manager for Restoration, actually begins his work in July when the Black Rock City site is selected. He works with the Burning Man Organization to pick a site for the Man, and sinks a nail there. Then he begins dialing in the GPS units’ accuracy, a long process that takes many nights of calculation. When this year began, the GPS coordinates had a margin of error of up to a few meters. Bubblegique now has them accurate to within a few feet.

Bubblegique is one of the most interesting characters out here. Quiet and inobtrusive, he’s like a secret ninja or Jedi master. You may not always see him, but when you do, you find out he’s been doing something awesome.

When he’s not busy setting up the city site or creating a system for the Line Sweep Scribes to document hot spots with photos and coordinates, Bubblegique drives around looking for disturbances in the Force. His customized work vehicle has a six-foot magnet mounted on the back, picking up screws and nails as he drives. And, along with Bustin Dustin, his job is to find MOOP wherever it exists.

Speaking of MOOP, where’s Day 6 of the 2011 MOOP Map? It’s still being finalized — you wouldn’t want us to make a mistake — and it’ll be here as soon as humanly possible. I’m excited and anxious about the results too. ‘Til tomorrow, this is The Hun signing off.

Line Sweep panorama, by Vaughn Solo. Click to enlarge!

Hey there sports fans, MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! The Hun here, reporting from Gerlach where the DPW Playa Restoration team is steadily returning the Black Rock Desert to its stark and dusty glory.

Le Wrench and Feralina, lovin' their work.

After a couple of weeks doing Restoration work, we’ve got a pretty good idea of 2011′s most common MOOP. You might be surprised to hear that the worst offenders change from year to year. That’s because of YOU, and the efforts you make.

For example, we used to have a lot of trouble with feathers, plant matter and Astroturf. We spread the word to the community and asked you not to bring your feather boas, tree branches, straw bales and imitation lawns. And it worked! When we tell the community about our MOOP problems, those problems tend to go away, and for that we are endlessly grateful.

Yet, as we eradicate one type of MOOP, another rears its head. And so I present to you this year’s most common MOOP, and what you can do to prevent it next year!

MOOP Menace #1: Wood Chips, Splinters and Bark

Phoenix Firestarter, a Special Forces Manager, says that “2011 was brought to you by wood chips.” Wood chips and splinters — from firewood, construction and plywood — were far and away this year’s worst offender.

Here’s Phoenix, with everything you need to know about wood and how to deal with it.

MOOP Menace #2: Water/Oil/Fuel/Paint Stains

Spills happen. Maybe your evap pond got a little splashy, or you used a tarp that seeped water onto the playa surface. Maybe your art car has an ill-fitting O-ring somewhere. Most of the time, it isn’t on purpose. But sometimes it is.

This year, we found an abundance of water spots where people had dumped out their coolers, or in a couple of cases their gray water tanks. The Special Forces team spent many hours digging up a fuel spill that contaminated a large amount of playa. When they’d removed the contamination, the crater was big enough for a person to fit inside. Still, those instances are rare. More frequently, it’s a little oil spot or a place where water was spilled, or some oversprayed paint.

The best way to deal with these contamination spots is to prevent them from ever happening. Put a pan under your car if it leaks oil. Make an evap pond that won’t spill or seep. Set up an LNT plan for your camp that takes gray water into account, so you aren’t stuck with a brimming tank at the end of the week.

If it does hit the playa, you need to remove it. Oil, paint and gray water contaminate the earth, so you’ll need to scoop up the affected dirt with a shovel and put it in a trash bag, and pack it out. Don’t forget to fill in the hole afterward!

Let Booyah show you how to clean up an oil spot.

Shower spots, roads and other watered areas are often packed hard, and they may contain hair and other shower-y things that are caked into the playa. In that case, use a metal rake to break it up and free any buried MOOP. Here’s Tomcat talking about why we use rakes:

MOOP Menace #3: Burn Scars

Of course we have burn scars! This is Burning Man, after all. Still, burning things directly on the playa surface will cause the earth to oxidize, contaminating it. That’s why we have raised burn platforms. For big art pieces that will burn, DPW sets out a layer of protection that helps keep the playa itself from fire damage.

If you’re planning to burn something, set up a platform or other protective surface to keep the fire off the playa. If you do happen to create a burn scar, scoop the contaminated dirt up with a shovel and pack it out with you. Once again, don’t forget to fill in that hole afterward!

A burn scar with cinders and wire. Photo by Bubblegique.

MOOP Menace #5: Metal Hardware

Screws, bolts, washers, nails and staples have a tendency to fall and disappear almost immediately into the dirt. There, they oxidize very quickly, and a couple years later they “float” to the surface after big rains.

This nail has probably only been buried for a year or two.

Anybody lose their pliers... in 2009?

If you’re building a structure that uses metal hardware, invest in a magnet rake. It will suck all those little metal pieces back out of the dirt, so you can pack them out.

Here’s Drink Water, a Special Forces manager, demonstrating the amazing magnet rake:

MOOP Menace #6: Tent Stakes and Rebar

This type of MOOP occurs year after year, and the reason is clear: Once you get that stake into the ground, it can be very, very difficult to get it out again.

Thanks for flagging that, but...

I’ve mentioned stakes and rebar before, but it bears repeating. All you need to extract them is a set of vise grips, or maybe a shovel. Check out this instructional video from DPW’s Patches the Jew:

MOOP Menace #7: Cigarette Butts

Ah, the omnipresent cigarette butt. You know what to do about this: Bring a portable ashtray made from a mint tin, and never let it hit the ground. And if you’re a smoker (or even if you’re not) and you spot a butt on the ground… PICK IT UP!

Honorable Mention: Pistachio Shells and Feathers

Pistachio shells and feathers are familiar friends from years past. For a long time, we haven’t seen them… but they’re starting to return to the playa. Remember, organic matter can still be MOOP! Don’t bring stuff that will just turn into litter.

Biting your nails in anticipation of the next MOOP Map results? Well don’t worry — this reporter works weekends. It’ll be here as soon as we finish compiling the data. ‘Til then, this is The Hun signing off.

Drop Dead Ding Dong Darius on the front lines

If you’re just tuning in, it’s been an exciting week. We’ve been talking about theme camps, dance parties and what we the participants leave behind. Yes, there were some big messes in the front part of the city — but there were also many, many green blocks along Esplanade. All in all, it’s an impressive feat of Leaving No Trace.

Today, the Line Sweeps moved inward, off the Esplanade and into the residential blocks. Now the focus is off theme camps, and back to the community at large.

Can the residential camps match up to Esplanade’s performance? Did we, the people of Black Rock City, manage to clean up our own backyards? See for yourself:

Click to enlarge!

Hey, that’s a pretty good job folks. Barring the big yellow zones in the 8:30 area, today was mostly green. The MOOP-happy line sweepers covered 20 blocks, and 88% of the turf was green and clean. 10% was yellow, and only 2% red.

On the Prowl with Special Forces

Pillow Talk and Bustin Dustin

On Tuesday, I showed you how the Line Sweeps deal with “hot spots” or extra-MOOPy areas: They spend a minute or two trying to clean it up, and if it proves too tough, they drop a traffic cone. The hot spot then becomes the domain of Special Forces, the playa’s crack team.

photo by Logan Mirto

Photo by Logan Mirto

The Special Forces job is simultaneously glamorous and maddening. Glamorous, because they cruise across the playa in work trucks and tackle whatever obstacles the MOOP gods throw into their path. Maddening, because Special Forces can’t leave an area until it’s completely free of MOOP. In the case of wood chips, broken glass and other small pieces, that means sitting in one place combing the dirt with your fingers for what can feel like forever. Your intrepid reporter once spent over an hour picking up hundreds of black beans in a three-foot radius. And if it isn’t beans, it’s wood or carpet or staples. Or a four-foot-deep pit of gray water contamination.

Phoenix Firestarter using a magnet rake to pick up metal scrap. Photo by Logan Mirto.

Yes, it’s a tough job, but Special Forces have the tools and the focus to clean up even the MOOPiest spots. What they don’t always have is time. The BLM inspection is now less than a week away, and there’s plenty of MOOP still in the red zones. They’ll clean it up — they always do — but as always, it’s gonna be a challenge.

Love Special Forces’ work? Want to know more about it? Watch this little video:

Coming up next: What was the most common MOOP this year? The answer might surprise you. Tune in tomorrow for the answer. ‘Til then, this is The Hun signing off.

Samazon catches a moment's rest

Yes, Day Four was a tough one for your Black Rock City home team. The sun rose all red and yellow, and so did the city blocks. Our MOOP line was held up by huge messes in the 2:00 zone — and when they prayed for a cool breeze, they only got biting flies. The insects were so thick that the Restoration team could barely stop to rest — and so they pressed on, making their way through 21 blocks. A very respectable gain by what may be the strongest team this playa has ever known.

Darth Yoda is ready for any challenge.

Despite the many challenges our team faced, today’s score isn’t so bad. Take a look:

Click to enlarge!

Here’s the report from D.A., DPW Playa Restoration manager:

The surprise winners today: The entire stretch of Esplanade from 2:00 to 5:00, a solid wall of Green that put all those Red camps to shame! Great job Esplanade theme camps!

The trouble spots were few, but they were concentrated. Here’s what we found:

2:00 and Esplanade (open playa corner): General MOOP, plus metal construction hardware

2:00 to 2:30 between B and C: A disaster of wood chips on the C side. B side was just MOOPy: Broken glass, cinders, tent stakes, a burn scar, grass sod and bamboo.

2:30 and C: Wood chips, screws, zipties, rebar, cigarette butts

2:45 and B: Just generally MOOPy!

3:00 plaza: An exploded disco ball. Art car accident perhaps?

4:50 between B and C: Pistachio shells, wood chips, PVC shavings, cinders

Today’s overall score: 88% green, 16% yellow and 6% red. That’s a very respectable score, especially considering how concentrated all the MOOPy areas were.

VIDEO: The Great MOOP March!

Ever wonder what the MOOP Line Sweep looks like, and how it really works? This video tribute to our beloved DPW Playa Restoration Line Sweepers might just inspire you to form your own MOOP line next year. Watch and learn!

Tune in next time to see what happens when the line has to leave a “hot spot” behind. ‘Til then, this is The Hun signing off.

Disorient's geodesic temple. Photo (c) James Addison.

Theme camps are a huge and central part of what makes Black Rock City a participatory community. And, it can be argued, theme camp members are the most dedicated Burners of all. Often working throughout the year to build and fund their camps, theme camp members continue working through the event itself, serving hundreds and even thousands of participants with music, food and other gifts.

Art cars like the Dust City Diner function as mobile theme camps, creating parties wherever they go. Dust City is a great example of a roving party that picks up after itself and Leaves No Trace. Photo (c) Mer Keen.

The result: an excellent experience, tens of thousands of happy Burners… and a whole lot of MOOP. Of the thousands who come to dance and play, how many leave tiny bits of themselves behind? How many glowsticks, cigarette butts and earrings fall unnoticed in the midst of an epic rave? Theme camps must then clean up after their guests, or risk being marked Red on the MOOP Map. Red comes with consequences, including a possible change in camp placement for the next year.

This year, the DPW Playa Restoration team performed a “MOOP Audit” of two major sound camps: Rites of Zion and Disorient, which occupied the 10:00 and 2:00 corners of the Esplanade respectively. Here’s what we found:

Yes, that

Both camps passed with flying colors, and both are marked Green on the MOOP Map. However, something interesting happened: The areas outside those two major camps were very messy. Not just there, but all along the 10:00 side of the open playa: MOOP galore. Though the theme campers did a good job of cleaning up their own areas, it would appear that they couldn’t tackle the mess left in the open playa. Technically, 100 feet into the open playa is still considered part of the camp — and in the case of Rites of Zion, their “Temple of BOOM” outpost was a SERIOUS mess and would easily have failed a BLM inspection. But who left that mess? Did YOU dance at a sound camp this year?

The Dirty Thirty

The issue of theme camps and MOOP is deeply complicated. That’s why, for the first time this year, DPW invited theme camps to join the Playa Restoration MOOP lines. D.A., Restoration manager, reached out to theme camps. He asked each to send a representative back to Black Rock City, if they could, to learn more about the Restoration process.

In future years, D.A. hopes that there’ll be 30 theme camp representatives — enough to form a new Line Sweeps team, which will MOOP its way through theme camp areas to solidify the connection between the experience and the leftover litter. That team will be called the “Dirty Thirty.” This year, our new experiment garnered five brave representatives: the “Fearless Five”.

Theme camps, here are your 2011 Dirty Thirty representatives:

Link, representing Chew My Balls

Awesomesauce, representing Artist Support Services and the Artery

Bernie, representing Booby Bar

Sam, representing Pandora's Lounge & Fix-It Shoppe

Dr. Deb, representing Disorient

I asked these wonderful people a few questions about who they are, what this experience means to them and what they’ve learned. Watch the interview here:

Voted Best Camp

Voted Best Camp, a punk rock camp in the back blocks of 2:00, sets an excellent example. For years, this camp has set up a bar and skate ramp, blasting punk music and entertaining all sorts of drunken antics. VBC also consistently scores well on the MOOP Map, and was the first camp to be all green in 2011.

Voted Best Camp in 2010

Two Voted Best Camp members have joined DPW and marched on the MOOP lines. I asked Scumbag and Voted Best Dave about their MOOP strategy.

Scumbag and Voted Best Dave, representing Voted Best Camp

Voted Best Dave: “MOOP as you go. Every day I go out and spend about an hour or so just going around picking up every little bit, and I kind of encourage other people to do the same. When teardown comes around, everybody does their bit and then we emulate the DPW MOOP line.”

Scumbag: “A good thing to do if you have a bar and such is to get people to MOOP. Be like, ‘while you’re hanging out here all week, pick some shit up.’ … I think a good thing to realize is that if you get even a small group of hands, you can take a huge mess and actually clean it up really fast.”

What Do YOU Think?

Now that you know everything there is to know about theme camps and MOOP, please weigh in!

Know anybody at Rites of Zion, Temple of BOOM, Disorient, Booby Bar, The Artery, Voted Best Camp, or Pandora’s Lounge & Fix-It Shoppe? Invite them to join the discussion too.

Tune in tomorrow for Day 4 of the MOOP Map, full of drama, heat and biting flies. ‘Til then, this is The Hun signing off.