"Leave No Trace" Plan

All campmates practice rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, restore and respect (the six Rs). We keep our camp clean before, during, and after the event to prevent MOOP, use Leave No Trace principles (see "Leave No Trace" Plan), identify potential problems and issues that may arise, and educate all camp members in two campwide potlucks as well online when off-playa about minimizing our impact on the playa.

We assign multiple roles before each burn: kitchen king, daily front of camp clean up queen, LNT team, and pack-out team. These roles don't mean the assigned individual does the work, it means that they are authorized to gather campmates whenever work needs to be done. All campmates have a responsibility to assist any king or queen with any task that needs to be done to keep the camp organized. In this way, every camper participates, but certain individuals have their eye on each stage of the process.

We clean and organize as we go, and ensure our campsite is left spotless at the end with a grid check. Magnetic rakes (and regular rakes) make short work of any errant debris.

Our camp uses a floor made of a woven, rug-style recycled carpet, which limits MOOP left on playa. The dense, woven rugs we use do not shed, and produce MOOP of their own, like many can! During the week, we sweep MOOP bits left by visitors and campmates to the center of the rug and bring the entire rug over to the trash to trap MOOP into a pack-out bag before it flies away. At the end of the week, we roll up the carpet to take off playa any remaining bits to keep them from becoming tiny bits of MOOP on playa. This system has helped to ensure that the past three years of the “Burning Man MOOP Map”, our camp has been marked “green”, something we’re proud of and intend to continue.

Our camp has a long tradition of zero-tolerance for LNT violations by campmates and visitors to our camp. Our camp plan includes packing out MORE than we packed in every year. All campmates are expected to remove traces from their own area, the camp area at large, and spend at least two hours on public spaces. Campers are all encouraged to carry MOOP containers through the week, and are known to be fanatical about removing traces as the week progresses.

Here's a breakdown of what kind of activities everyday on the playa keeps our camp clean and low impact:

• Pick up as we go - including all dishes, leftover food, and food containers

• Put all remains in the correct container: recycleable, burnable, pack out, etc.

• Take aluminum cans to Recycle Camp as needed

• Put trash in our trash can only, nothing is left at other camps or at port-o-potties

• Take care of any trash left behind by guests (though education on pack-it-out is the goal!)

• We all carry personal trash bags and possibly a cigarette butt container when outside camp

• Heavy encouragement to guests to bring their own beverage containers (we do not provide cups!!)

• Help out our neighbors

• Help do a MOOP check for areas surrounding our camp

• Help careless or forgetful campers

• Tie down or weigh down all items (because just about everything is capable of flying away in playa winds)

We do not leave trash, light fires on bare ground or dig pits, or dump grey or black water on the playa.

In general, there are central tenants of all burning man camps. This is a good starting place for any new camps, and we practice these as we go!

As a camp we will:

• Create a detailed strategy or plan for Leaving NO Trace

• Practice the 5 R's: Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore and Respect.

• Reduce trash when packing.

• Keep smelling garbage away from recyclables in BRC.

• Clean As We Go and Keep It From Hitting the Ground.

• Adopt the seven principles and practices of Leave No Trace at Burning Man.

• Educate all camp members about minimizing our impact on the playa, so that my LNT crew can relax during the event knowing that all of our camp members are doing their part.

• Conserve energy, use renewable energy sources and minimize waste.

• Collect, reduce and properly dispose of grey water.

• Use or creatively use discarded materials for all the components of our camp structure and decorations, so that our camp is sustainable year after year.

• Bring tools to rake, magnetic rake, sweep and pick up every last nail and wood shard that dropped on the playa surface so that I leave my space and my surrounding spaces better than I found them

• Follow the rule of thumb for line sweeps – performing required multiple sweeps of our camp before leaving BRC. (One sweep is not enough. Do as many passes as necessary: the strength of the line sweep is in the number of people and passes.)

• Organize neighborhood MOOP sweeps. (Joining with neighboring camps and sweeping an entire block together is the best insurance against MOOP hot spots, bringing your own MOOP scores down.)

• Secure all vehicles' loads to prevent windblown trash on the highway and in neighboring communities.