Leave no trace

What is Leave No Trace?

The Leave No Trace principle is enshrined as one of the core 10+1 Principles of Burning Man and practically means a commitment to not only leaving no trace of the physical event when we leave, but also doing what we can to leave the site in a better state than when we arrived.

We do this at Underland for a number of reasons:

• We are simply custodians of this land, caring for it for future generations.
• We respect caring for Country as the Traditional Owners have for thousands of years.
• We have committed to minimise waste and rubbish in our Event Management Plan.
• We have committed to the landowner to minimise litter and impact on their land.
• We don’t want wildlife and stock to be impacted by our Matter Out of Place (MOOP).
• We want to maintain and improve relations with the local community.
  

Who is the Leave No Trace Team?

The Leave No Trace Team helps educate and remind Burners of their responsibilities as custodians. We do this through promotion and education, collating information, coordinating with other Underland departments and monitoring and recording MOOP findings and presenting reports and recommendations.

We are committed to caring for Country, reducing our impact on the environment and avoiding MOOP!

If you want to contribute to the LNT team, email us here or via the volunteer sign-up form. We love helping others help themselves! We need folks to paint signs, monitor for MOOP, and check in with theme camps, especially for the MOOP Sweep at the end.

The MOOP Sweep

Come stay an extra day after almost everyone has left. Relax, sort out that sleep debt and come walk the paddock with us for a couple of hours on Monday, Tuesday or even Wednesday. We will supply you with all the gear, and you get to use your eagle eyes to find the last bits of MOOP. Then we record the location and map the results on a final LNT MOOP report contained in the Afterburn reports some weeks after the event.

The MOOP sweep concludes with a group BBQ & drinks, and you’re welcome to use the crew facilities on site if you stay for this phase.

How do we Leave No Trace

The Leave No Trace movement, started in the US in the 1980s, has 7 principles to help guide us.

Plan Ahead and Prepare:

Carefully consider what you need and prepare accordingly. Do I really need 18 outfits for 5 days? Do I really need to cater for 12, or just 8? How will I manage that packaging from the new lighting kit?

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces:

While tricky on the paddock, think about protecting your infrastructure from windy conditions. If your $80 marquee isn’t securely pegged and a windstorm comes through, what will you do with the tangled mess?

Dispose of Waste Properly:

What you bring in, you take out, with the exception of human waste, which we'd really appreciate you using the portaloos for. Bring rubbish bags and containers to seal away the materials and odours. If you can’t hold onto it and dispose of it at home, take it to a transfer station on the way home.

Leave What You Find:

While leaving MOOP on the ground is the common issue, we leave no trace of creation too. Those rocks that looked cool when you stacked them in a pile…return them to where you found them. And plants and animals and sticks are just fine where you found them, unless they are prescribed weeds.

Minimise Campfire Impacts:

This is a tricky one for Burners, but we aim to minimise any residual materials during the fire like cans, fasteners, coals, ashes, and burn scars. The ash from firewood can be a fertiliser, but it is not always the same as what the earth needs.

Leave your burn barrel where it is.

The Fire Team has put your barrel in the right spot and you are instructed to leave it where it was placed to prevent further burn scars.

Respect Wildlife:

pretty obvious, but includes a lot of smaller critters in the environment. Stock on the land, including sheep and cattle, should also be respected.

Be Considerate of Your Hosts and Other Visitors:

We want to be respected and appreciated by the landowner and local community, so we keep it clean. And we support each other to Leave No Trace - if you see something out of place, pick it up and put it in your MOOP bag.

So, in practical Underland terms, that means DOing such things as:

• Have a portable MOOP kit: mini rubbish-bags, ciggie-butt containers, a beverage container.
• Make a great camp MOOP Management System (MOOPMS), AKA bins!: separate commingled materials, cans, landfill, soft plastics and paper for burning/recycling.
• Allocate responsibilities - who is bringing bins and bags, who is taking the cans home, and who is responsible for organic waste?
• Sealing edges of fraying carpets and avoiding shedding shag rugs.
• Using reusable zip ties: forget single-use and you’ll always have heaps!
• Tag your tent pegs with spray paint or string so you don’t lose them in the paddock.
• Doing regular MOOP sweeps of your camp, especially towards the end of the event, including a final sweep after everything is packed up - you want gold stars for your camp in the final MOOP Sweep. (see below)
• Pick up MOOP when you see it, store it and dispose of it sensibly.
• Pack carefully, both at home and in the paddock.
• Use the 10c container deposit scheme and get some $ back from all those drinks. Don’t crush them. Keep them undamaged and take them to a CDS Deposit for fast sorting.

And DO NOT do things like:

• Bring MOOPy objects and materials to Underland. Leave the sequins, glitter, stick-ons, feathers and all the things that just won’t stay on your amazing outfit!
• Vomits on the paddock - use a bucket, or if you know you’re likely to vomit, bring a bag made for it and dispose sensibly.
• Dig trenches around your tent - while it may protect your tent, it changes the landform. Situate your tent appropriately (i.e., not in a gully/basin) and peg it well.
• Supply endless amounts of fresh food that goes off.
• Packing lots of packaged food and drink products.
• Bring glass - avoid the dangers and complexity of broken glass.
• Bring soaps and detergents that are not septic-sensitive.
• Use plastic or paper plates, cups and cutlery. Avoid single use and carry your trusty beverage container on a carabiner.
• Crap in the wild! Use the portaloos and make sure toilet paper doesn’t go flying while you’re there.

Beyond Leave No Trace

We are the custodians of this land, we want to go beyond simply leaving no trace and reduce our impact on the site and elsewhere.

This includes:

• Considering off-site impacts such as the embodied energy in your materials and the carbon emissions from your vehicles.
• Car-pooling to reduce the emissions and waste associated with transportation.
• Packing for minimal logistical complexity and waste, especially larger theme camp set-ups and materials.
• Use recycled or reused materials for your art project, your theme camp or your outfit.
• Keep a lookout for weeds on-site, and if you’re sure it’s prescribed, remove it.
• Reusing your theme camp and art project materials when you get back to the default world.