All artists who bring art to Black Rock City agree to Leave No Trace. This means leaving the playa in the clean, pristine state it was in before they arrived to build their art – completely clear of all debris such as nails, fasteners, wood chips, sawdust, ashes, and other other remnants produced by the artwork or participants engaging with it.
Your Area of Responsibility: The LNT GRID
After checking in at the ARTery, you’ll be escorted to your art build site, where the center of your art project location is marked with a CD and a plastic marker (“floofy”). That floofy marks the center of your Leave No Trace (LNT) Grid, the area which you and your crew are responsible to line-sweep in its entirety before you leave playa. For most art projects (unless otherwise stated), the LNT Grid is the area centered on the floofy that extends 50 feet beyond the outer edge of your project footprint.
Your LNT Grid must also encompass the ENTIRE area that you, your crew and project occupy such as staging areas, wood/metal shop, trash, recycling, burn barrels, etc.
MOOP Top Public Enemy Number 1: Rebar, Tent Stakes and Ground Anchors
The biggest and fastest growing MOOP problem on the Black Rock Desert is tent stakes – as well as rebar, lag bolts, and other ground anchors used to fasten structures to the playa. Literally thousands of them were left behind after our most recent event. To avoid this outcome in the future, you should 1) keep track of exactly how many tent stakes or rebars you pound into the ground when setting up your camp or artwork, and confirm that count when you extract them from the ground during strike; and 2) bring a pair of vice grips or other appropriate tool (with those and some leverage there’s nothing you can’t pull out!)
Another big MOOP culprit, especially for artists building on playa, is wood chips. To prevent splinters, bark, sawdust, and wood debris from getting to the playa, do as much pre-cutting off-playa as possible. If you must cut wood on-playa, do it in an enclosed area such as a shade structure with walls, and lay down a carpet which you can roll up and carefully transport off-playa with the wood chips secured inside. Where possible, choose plywood over particle board when building your projects, as particle board cracks and splinters more easily.
Line Sweep Tips:
- Your optimal LNT line sweep should be done with people standing no more than 6 feet apart. The more people you have, the more territory will be covered quickly.
- Orange traffic cones placed at the edges of your LNT Grid work best at defining a visual boundary for your line-sweep team. (They can also be used to visually define a RED area (aka “hot spot”) to come back to focus on.)
- Look at areas of your LNT grid in terms of Red (heavy MOOP), Yellow (light MOOP), White (little/no MOOP), just like the MOOP Map.
- Think of your first pass as more of an assessment pass. If an area seems RED and becomes too overwhelming, mark the area and focus on it on your second pass. Try to keep the line sweep moving until you’ve assessed the entire grid. Do a second and third pass of your grid until it’s White.
Clean-up Tools
By DA, Playa Restoration Manager, Department of Public Works — Black Rock City, Nevada
You, the artist, are responsible for leaving no trace of your art project. We, the Department of Public Works Playa Restoration Team, are here to back your efforts and ensure that the Black Rock Desert is returned to its natural beauty.
Whether you’re building and burning in the remote desert, in the woods, or in your backyard of your own Regional Burn Event… it’s by keeping the Leave No Trace intention alive that allows us ALL to keep burning bigger and brighter wherever we roam. This is how we roll.
Below are some common tools to help you Leave No Trace. If you will be burning your art, please be sure to read Leave No Trace for Fire Artists.
MOOP-Stick: definition
Moop-Stick (noun)
Equivalent to a lightsaber, commonly known as a grabber or pick-up tool, the MOOP stick quickly and easily allows MOOPers to reach the ground and pick up MOOP without breaking their stride or having to bend down on their knees.
Sentence: “Hey, get yer own damn MOOP-stick!”
MOOP-Bucket: definition
Moop-Bucket (noun)
Any sturdy and easy to carry container used for carrying MOOP. Typically, water jugs with handles are re-used with cut-out openings at the top for ease of use.
Sentence: “Everyone, empty out your MOOP-buckets into this trash can and we’ll take a picture of what we found.”
MOOP-Buckets are often preferred instead of trash bags due to their durability against the high desert wind, as well as protecting against sharp MOOP objects like broken glass and tent-stakes. Trash bags full of MOOP have been known to break open, scattering the previously picked-up MOOP onto the playa again.
Line Sweep: Definition
LINE SWEEP 1. (noun)
Quick and efficient method utilizing strength in numbers in a line formation for picking up matter out of place across stretches of land within designated boundaries.
Sentence: “All right gang, let’s get a line sweep together and knock this out.”
LINE SWEEP 2. (verb)
Picking up matter out of place in line formation.
Sentence: “Once everything is packed up in the trucks, we’re gonna round up our campmates and line sweep across the area.”
How to Lead a Line Sweep
The Rule of Thumb for Line Sweeps
Width of area divided by Arms Width Apart (approximately 6 ft.) = Optimal Number of Moopers
Ex: A site that is 60 feet wide should have at least 10 Moopers on The Line
Step 1: Line Up
Step 2: Spread Out (arm’s length apart)
Step 3: Walk forward slowly, scanning the ground and picking up any matter out of place.
MOOP Method: Use a Rake for Visibility
The mighty Buzzkill shows how to use the rake effectively though a dune by bringing moop to the surface (Photo by Nice)You may find that you have MOOP such as wood debris spread over a large surface area. Due to all the dust storms and camp traffic, all of those wood chips and splinters are starting to mix with the playa becoming harder to see… but you know it’s there.
Use a landscape rake to comb a path through the MOOPy playa. Walk the combed path and MOOP all the debris that popped up. Remember to make things simpler by calling for a few helping hands to MOOP the debris area. If the area is really big, designate a grid and do a line sweep.
MOOP Method: Use a Magnetic Sweeper for Metal!
Metal and wood workers are discovering the power of using a magnetic sweeper. Why be on your hands and knees picking up all those nails and screws and metal shavings that come from welding and grinding when you can simply roll a magnetic sweeper over your targeted areas and have it pick it up for you? Nowadays, they come with a handy dandy release lever to drop all that metal easily into the trash.
Use eye protection when pulling the lever and make sure you’re not downwind so that the metal shavings don’t blow in your face, especially your eyes.
MOOP Method: Use Shovels!
Hands down the best way to get a lot of MOOP off of the playa quickly is by using shovels. Snow shovels, preferably made of metal (in case your MOOP is still burning).
What to Expect: Wood Chips! Wood Chips! And More Wood Chips!
