Leaving No Trace 2024: MOOP Map and Best Inspection Since Near-Perfect 2019!

TL;DR

Black Rock City passed the 2024 BLM Post-Event Inspection! We achieved our best inspection score since the near-perfect results of 2019, a remarkable comeback after the torrential rain and MOOP (Matter Out of Place) challenges of 2023. However, Playa Restoration’s 2024 MOOP Map highlights a persistent issue: lag bolts and tent stakes left behind, which require immediate community action. As we gear up for BRC 2025 and the #bestburnever, let’s take a moment to look back on and learn from 2024.

No Matter Out of Place

With over 70,000 participants, Leaving No Trace relies on a commitment from the entire community. Black Rock City’s undefeated BLM inspection record is a testament to the dedication of participants, with Playa Restoration providing essential follow-up to ensure that we leave the desert clean and beautiful.

Burning Man’s Leaving No Trace Principle

One of the 10 guiding principles of Burning Man, Leaving No Trace, states: “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.”

(Video by Martin Rodriguez)

MOOP Map 2024: A Clean Sweep!

The 2024 Burning Man event in Black Rock City saw the community step up our Leave No Trace efforts—camps were cleaner, departures more organized, and participants conducted Matter Out of Place (MOOP) sweeps and DIY MOOP tests. Amazing work! These efforts helped Playa Restoration successfully sweep over 3,700 acres.

The 2024 MOOP Map reflects noticeable improvements, especially in the back city blocks, which had been more impacted in previous years. The majority of the city was impressively clean, though some red areas still required focused attention. 

Playa Restoration’s role is to fine-tune and finalize our collective effort. In preparation for the BLM Post-Inspection, Resto’s Test Team conducted pre-inspection MOOP tests (represented by blue dots on the MOOP Map) to gauge progress. Thanks to Resto’s final concentrated push, Black Rock City achieved its best Post-Event Inspection score since the record-breaking 2019 season. This success underscores the power of a united community, the dedication of Playa Restoration, and our shared commitment to Leaving No Trace. The 2024 win belongs to the entire community—every camp, participant, and team that showed up to Leave No Trace.


BLM Post-Event Site Inspection Standard

  1. The BLM’s allowable MOOP standard for BRC is 1 square foot per acre on average. 
  2. As of the 2019 Environmental Impact Statement, no more than 10% of the 120 test points can fail this standard.
BLM conducting MOOP test with Playa Restoration, 2024 (Photo by Martin Rodriguez)

On October 7, 2024, the BLM conducted its annual inspection. Only three of the 120 test points exceeded the standard, all within the city grid (Esplanade to K Street, 2:00 to 10:00). This was a marked improvement from 2023, when 11 test points failed, putting us dangerously close to the 10% limit.

MOOP in the bag during Playa Restoration, 2024 (Photo by Martin Rodriguez)

Additionally, six specific Points of Interest are under repeat observation and calculated separately, including Man Base, the Temple, and several others. Of these, only one exceeded the standard.

Resto Calls Out LAG BOLTS/TENT STAKES as #1 Worst MOOP (Again)!

(Photo by DA)
Worst MOOP three years in a row: lag bolts, tent stakes, and rebar, 2024
(Photo by DA)

Despite our overall improvement, with 1,508 recorded instances this year, LAG BOLTS/TENT STAKES remain the worst MOOP and most dangerous again. Unfortunately, the numbers have shown little improvement from previous years despite repeated warnings.

Recorded instances of lag bolts/tent stakes rose from 101 in 2019 to 1,023 in 2022, peaking at 1,547 in 2023, and slightly dropping to 1,508 in 2024. These figures, based on GPS data, likely underestimate the total. 

Tips for Stake Removal

  • Assign someone to account for all stakes/lag bolts and communicate with your campmates.
  • Use an impact driver to remove bolts, or a multi-tool or vise-grips if needed.
  • Tie bright-colored markers to bolts when installing to prevent loss in dust or mud. 

All spikes put in the ground must be accounted for and removed by the participant, camp, or project that placed them.

Moving forward, the Placement team, Art Department, and Resto will work with participants to refine their Leave No Trace plans. We’ll assess MOOP sweeps, pre-departure MOOP tests, and ensure stakes and lag bolts are accounted for and removed.

Burning Man has always been a proving ground for what’s possible when our community comes together with intention. Let’s have a blast and make 2025 the year we leave no doubt by leaving no trace (and no lag bolts!), keeping the Black Rock Desert clean and beautiful—Tomorrow Today!

Aerial view high above the Black Rock Desert: The 150 people of Playa Restoration 2024, Leaving No Trace (Photo by Nick Cahill)

Cover image of 2024 MOOP Map (Graphic courtesy of Playa Restoration team)

About the author: DA

DA

DA, wings on fire, crash-landed smack dab in the middle of Burning Man 97, ticket in hand, and never left. Three burns later, DA was adopted by the Department of Public Works' Clean-Up Crew and was awestruck at the transformative power of Leaving No Trace. DA grew to be leader, transforming the Clean-Up Crew into the Playa Restoration All-Star Team, and creating the first Moop Map in 2006 as a way to visualize the community's Leave No Trace effort. As a poster artist, DA has illustrated the launch of the Burning Man Theme for 2006 Hope and Fear: The Future, 2007 Green Man, 2008 American Dream, 2013 Cargo Cult, and 2015 Carnival of Mirrors. DA loves the Black Rock Desert and believes that if we, the community, continue to Leave No Trace, then together we can keep building and burning the world over.

14 Comments on “Leaving No Trace 2024: MOOP Map and Best Inspection Since Near-Perfect 2019!

  • Roger says:

    Very relieved to see this–and–huge Kudos to DA and the Playa clean up and Resto teams to whom all credit is due–with much thanks.

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  • S. Max says:

    Very informative and useful to reduce our negative impact on this oasis of culture, creativity and community. Expanding understanding and support
    Thank you all for all your efforts.
    Chef Maximus

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  • Buck Bandersnatch says:

    “It must suck not to be us” – a fairly recent DPW proverb

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  • Snack Mommy says:

    Another helpful thing for making sure all of your lag bolts/ rebar/stakes are accounted for is to number them. You could even number the high vis marker that DA suggested for a second level of anti mopping!
    Good work team! And a huge thanks to resto, y’all are my kind of heros!

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  • Mike McCorm says:

    Thank you for posting the list of items that comprise the MOOP sweeps. It’s not clear what or how to measure moop in terms of square-inches. A moop fail is 3.8 sq-in out of a radial arc of 38ft or 4,536 sq-ft.
    Then you say BLMs moop standard is 1 sq-ft per acre, translating to some extremely small percentage based on total area. If you could amplify how to measure moop in terms of area.

    It seems paramount as well to also report to us burners any findings regarding Moop complaints by surrounding communities and along highways. And what BM does to mitigate this.

    In years past, there have been reports on the number of bicycles left behind. I did not see a mention of that this year. Maybe they are not considered Moop any more? And in your Moop sweeps it is mainly small stuff that is reported, and not big items like Bicycles. Is that because the first sweeps of the large stuff are not included?

    And finally, it would be useful to understand the total cash and volunteer outlays that make this possible.

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    • Hazmat says:

      The standard is 1sqft/acre, when you lay all the debris out and photograph it. The test plot is simply 10% of that, or 1/10th of a square foot of MOOP allowed in 1/10th of an acre of playa.

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  • Wiseguy says:

    Where can we get the full res version to review how we did?

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  • Chaz says:

    The best thing I ever moop’d out there was my girlfriend who didn’t come back to camp for 3 days. I still don’t know what happened to her. Might still be out there.

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  • Bus Stop says:

    Good job, Cool Whip

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  • Odysseus says:

    Let’s be honest here, the lag bolt/stake issue started in Covid there were 2 years without a resto but still had humans in the area and then a year of wind storms where things were often buried from one moment to the next and then… the mud I highly doubt many of the objects were left by current camps and were mostly probably buried at the time of exodus. I don’t think burners are bad or doing a bad job. I think most people and camps are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

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  • Dale Weber says:

    One of our campmates in Red Rooster Ranch stumbled across a “small rusty object” during our last moop sweep of camp. After 45 minutes of digging he pulled out a 30″ piece of rebar that looked like it had been buried for years! We were proud that we “thought” we left our space spotless, but then resto found a buried broken bungee that yielded a red mark for us. Oh well, I guess you do your absolute best, and then do a little more!

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  • EagleEye says:

    Having a close look, I’m super disappointed in how much yellow and red I’m seeing in staff camp areas.

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  • Wednesday says:

    we’re bringing a metal detector next year and will scan our block.

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  • Joseph Gallivan says:

    Good work, final clean up crew.
    Is the moop just measured in test areas and the multiplied to estimate the total for the whole playa?

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