HELLO out there, all you MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! Step right up as we kick off the final show of 2015: the magical, miraculous, totally mind-bending escapades of the DPW Playa Restoration hotshots.
Can it really be only two weeks since you bid the playa adieu, people of Black Rock City? In that achingly short time, the city vanished back into the dust, leaving behind only a few faint traces. And now, the Resto MOOP lines are erasing even those.
As always, it’s a race against time: as the winds bluster their way through the vacant heart of the Wild West, as the clouds lower and the Bureau of Land Management prepares its inspection of our desert home, everything hangs on this one question:
Will the MOOP lines make it through the city in time?
And as always, ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that question is in your hearts and in your hands. Did you make your very best effort to Leave No Trace on the playa? Did you pack it out like you packed it in? People of the Black Rock, did you MOOP as if the future of your city depended on it?
It’s time to find out.
If you’re unfamiliar: Playa Restoration, now in its tenth year, is a hotshot crew of 140 diehards and blowhards, who brave the heat, the cold, the dust, the boredom, and the biting flies as they walk every single block of Black Rock City, picking up every last bit of MOOP, so we can pass our annual site inspection with the BLM. A successful inspection means Burning Man happens next year, if you want it to. A failed inspection … well, let’s try not to go there.
After the citizens of Black Rock City (that’s you!) pack up every bit of the carnival and take it back, in tattered, dusty pieces, to the real world, the Resto crew comes in to restore the playa. We walk the city, picking up every last piece of MOOP we see. As we do, we track everything we find and report it back to you in the form of a Moop Map. This is our collective report card, a record of how well Burning Man erased its tracks. It’s a shared effort that involves every one of us, and with every year that passes, we get better and better at leaving our site clean and green.
Over the next two weeks, I and my fellow blogger Summer Burkes will be giving you the real stories of Restoration, and oh yes, we’ll be unveiling the 2015 Moop Map as fast as the Resto crew can fill it in. 2014 was overwhelmingly green. Can we repeat that victory in 2015?
We’re about to find out. Stay tuned…
Follow along with the Playa Restoration team: The Hun is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr, and Summer Burkes is on Twitter too!
My first burn, MIND BLOWN! I hope I was a helpful moop chaser, will take it up a notch NEXT YEAR.
I love and am extremely grateful for everyone who makes this event happen. I want to be one of you.
Love, LynnElise
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Welcome LynnElise and I wish you many happy burns :)
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We love you guys…every one of you. Looking forward to your tales.
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Right back at you :)
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Huge amounts of respect for these people that stay behind and help making next year’s Burning Man possible again!
To say the least; we hunted down Moop like Terminators and Sarah Connor.
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Awesome, the world needs moop maniacs like you. Fighting the good fight.
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Great! People doing the job they signed up for. If we only got so happy for the garbage man every Monday and Wednesday…
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People doing the job they signed up for makes the city go round. They are giving up their time so we can have our freakfest next year. If the garbage men were also nuclear physicists who have just decided it was their civic duty to clear the trash then they would be far more respected as are our MOOP sweepers.
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DPW = nuclear physicists ;-)
Sorry, that’s not the case. You might have the odd STEM educated & practicing trustafarian who is there to slum with the DPW gutter rats until daddy dies and leaves them the business. But otherwise, you have glorified garbage men who have nothing better to do because they REALLY have nothing better to do.
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Mugsy! You are the best! Keep being you! We will continue to not be offended at your lack of tact, manners, and situational awareness. Love you!
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@Quiet Earp
I guess that makes me qualified to work DPW. But I have better things to do.
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Awesome Mugsy! Good to know that you think you are qualified! I am glad that your better things to do are keeping you busy! Keep on keeping on! Burn forever and burn bright.
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I made a choice to build and disappear cities over practicing international business law. I know of nothing else I’d _rather_ do. I’m not gonna get all objectively qualitative though.
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Thank you Resto crew for all you do out there and I hope we did our part in cleaning up to make your part a little easier. I have departed on Monday or Tuesday the last few years and have been amazed and disappointed at seeing the huge amounts of trash and wreckage strewn along State Route 34 and Highway 447 south towards highway 80. It’s a little beyond my comprehension how so many Burners can be so clueless, or choose to be clueless, or become overwhelmed and have no options except to become clueless. I’m sure it’s a big job cleaning up the highway mess.
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It is quite a job and probably a bigger one this year than we’ve had in the past. But just think of how bad it COULD be … Not to condone highway moop, I hate it. But it really could be a disaster if people didn’t care as much as they do.
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Yes, you are right. We should celebrate all those who care and have a clue.
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I know that a lot of my friends and campmates were pretty diligent all week+ long. But don’t forget – in 2008 or so I lost my engagement diamond out there. Find it and keep it, MOOP sweepers!
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Hmmmmmm … let’s see. We switch event sites every year, cycling between three different locations. So the next time we might encounter your diamond would be 2017. Remind us then!
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wheres the map?
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Thank you MOOP masters for all of your sweet line sweeping clean-up! My last night on the playa I stayed up all night…(I had to leave Sat. so wanted to soak it up!) Wanted to have some solitary time out there, and watch the sun rise again, and it was glorious! I also picked up whatever MOOP I saw in my travels. I love how this community is so devoted to leaving no trace… How often in the default world do you see people chasing down the same piece of trash?! Thanks again all of you! See you next time ☺️
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