Earth Guardian After Burn Archive

The AfterBurn Report is an annual year-end report which provides Burning Man participants with an up to date overview of the Burning Man Project, our objectives and the obstacles we encounter. The Earth Guardians, as part of the Community Services Department, have written annual reports since 2001, when the afterburn report was initiated. Our current, 2006, afterburn report is listed below. To read archived reports from previous years, click on the appropriate report below.

• 2001 Earth Guardian Afterburn Report
• 2002 Earth Guardian Afterburn Report
• 2003 Earth Guardian Afterburn Report
• 2004 Earth Guardian Afterburn Report
• 2005 Earth Guardian Afterburn Report

AFTERBURN REPORT 2006

Earth Guardians

We are an outreach and communications group.  Primarily focused on educating and inspiring Burning Man participants on how to Leave No Trace (LNT) at the event. We do this both by refining LNT specific multi-media messages and information to the Burning Man community and by trying to inspire the community to appreciate the natural beauty of the Black Rock playa.  Due to our natural background as environmentalists, most of our volunteers are also deeply interested in seeing BM become greener.  

Earth Guardians work year round to gather and disseminate information about  LNT practices and technologies for the playa and the Burning Man event. Each year our knowledge and expertise grows. Successful LNT practices have proven to be a smarter way to camp and play on the playa.  In person and though Burning Man outreach tools such as the Survival guide, JRS emails and the Burning Man web site, we communicate Leave No Trace (LNT) principles and practices to the Burning Man community. We focus on emerging issues that have the potential to impact the playa or our community and develop LNT practices to reduce impacts.  We also visit the Black Rock desert outside of the Burning Man event both to introduce participants to the beauty of the area and to participate in restoration and education activities. Our volunteer teams include groups focused on theme camp and art LNT, restoration of sensitive areas around the playa, outdoor education and monitors for hot springs and burn platforms. We also have communication specialists who work on LNT messages that go out to the larger Burning Man community via email, web, PSA and video (LNTV).

LNT "Train the Trainer" Annual Backpacking Trip

We moved this year’s trip up north to the Cassidy Mine Site.  This location allowed us to explore an area near the playa and drive in supplies and shade for the participants.  We got to start out the trip with a LNT video and breakfast then also finish our trip with snacks and beverages at the Gerlach Community Center.  Highlights of this year’s trip included; hiking through the historic mining area, sharing an awesome dinner and campfire, hearing each other’s stories, viewing the playa from up high, and drinking frothy beverages in the shady porch of the Community Center.

Our annual backpacking trip has been an awesome way to meet burners from many different volunteer groups and theme camps at Burning Man and introduce them to how Leave No Trace principles apply to our event. As we incorporate our own younger Earth Guardian (2 year old Jai) into the training, we will continue to make the trip more ‘comfortable’, in hopes that more participants will feel that they are able to participate.  If there are other ways (short workshops, etc) that would be more useful to Burning man volunteers and particiapants on evolving LNT techniques, please let our trainers know!  Email us at earthguardians (at) burningman (dot) com.

LNT Outreach 
Earth Guardians use outreach tools such as the Survival guide, JRS emails and the Burning Man web site to communicate Leave No Trace (LNT) principles and practices to the Burning Man community. During the event we highlight LNT model camps and art, demonstrate LNT technologies and provide information about LNT practices in our Black Rock Interpretive walk. These three outreach efforts expanded this year requiring face to face meetings with 20+ camps and artists.  The LNT tour expanded to include 5 art projects this year and 10 camps. Water works, which focused on looking at grey water treatment systems in more depth, got lots of interest.  All of these projects were developed to be inclusive, to inspire others, to create good information to share with all of BRC. 

New Pre-Playa LNT Outreach Efforts

BLM Black Rock Rendezvous – One of the many projects that Earth Guardians completed this year was development of a LNT Workshop Teachers Suitcase.  This suitcase came in handy right away as Earth Guardians were asked to present a LNT workshop at this year’s Black Rock Rendezvous on May 6, 2006.  The workshop, which was cohosted by BLM and the Friends of Black Rock High Rock, was attended by members of many different user groups on the Black Rock, including Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Desert Survivors, and offroad enthusiasts.   The LNT workshop, led by Earth Guardian LNT Masters, including the showing of LNT video and hands on participatory classes with the attendees.      

Leave No Trace Model Plan: Since 80% of leaving no trace comes from good planning, this year Earth Guardians transformed the traditional theme camp ‘Clean Up Plan’ to a ‘Leave No Trace Plan’.   The plan was developed so that theme camps could apply the ideas in the plan to their camps and include the needed resources and time to plan ahead to leave no trace.

Earth Guardian Web Site: This year the Earth Guardian web site was completely revamped, retooled and expanded. The site was developed both as a test site for content for the environmental section envisioned for the www.burningman.com web site and the volunteer needs of Earth Guardians (e.g. specific info for campers and volunteers). The  pages share information about Earth Guardians, their volunteer teams, year-round activities and playa events. The pages also provide Black Rock City residents information about LNT practices and background on the national LNT program. A considerable amount of information on green burners is also included that forms a strong environmental backbone for Burning Man.  The historic story of how the event has become greener over the years should be of interest to many burners.

LNT Outreach and Activities at Burning Man

This year, Earth Guardians created a web-based Flash presentation of both the LNT model camps and LNT model art. This medium will be an ongoing showcase for the model camps  and leave no trace information, where theme camps can share their accomplishments and know- how with the community.  Leave No Trace principles were incorporated in examples of grey water and trash management, good neighbor, reuse, and education. This year model camps took on increased educational and environmental leadership.  Three camps were featured for their efforts in educating the Burning Man community about LNT and related environmental issues. Seven camps were acknowledged for their efforts with recycling, reuse and sustainable practices. Several were designated as Green camps, acknowledging their role in promoting reuse, recycling, and renewable energy at Burning Man.

Water Works, is a multi year project: Burning Man 2006 was targeted to raise awareness, gather data of what people are already doing year, the focus for 2007 will be to sort though the data collected and share results and bring the focus issue further into the awareness of the whole city.  The limitations for success for this project were transportation (the one Earth Guardian golf cart was overtaxed, thus unavailable for the Water Work camp visits) and lack of visibility.  We intent to document, organize and post the information we gathered on the grey water systems on the Earth Guardian web site and the new environmental section of the Burning Man web site.  We are planning to include a request for a second golf cart next year to address the transportation need, and will post updates and links to the EG web site on the JRS as information is available. 

The Camp of the Day contest recognizes the best examples of Leave No Trace. Any registered theme camp may apply, both before and after the event. The LNT tour camps and other nominated camps were entered in the Camp of the Day contest. This year saw many outstanding camps with simple and ingenious features. Winning camps earned two tickets to Burning Man and special recognition in the EG web pages.  Camps were visited during the event by LNT experts to view and evaluate their Camp. Other factors considered by the judges were post event clean up report and documentation of practices. The 2006 Camp of the Day winners were Camp Zu, Kava Island, Nose Fish, the HMS Dessert Queen and Borrachos y Bicicletas.

Leave No Trace Tour of Art - For several years Earth Guardians has publicized Leave No Trace tips for artists. This year we created a sister Leave No Trace Tour of art. Five art installations were recruited as examples of leave no trace art. They represented art with minimal impact and sound cleanup commitments. They also demonstrated the use of earth friendly, recycled and renewable materials. One piece was  created entirely out of recycled materials. Two were solar-based. Another pledged to offset greenhouse gas emissions with the purchase of carbon credits. An informational  poster and map were displayed in the Earth Guardian Pavilion. This year’s first LNT art examples were BurninatorII by Bill Codding, Field of Sunflower Robots by Stefano Corazza, Omagination by Peter Mathews, ScrapEden Recycled Art Garden BRC by Black Rock Arts Foundation, and Starry Bamboo Mandala by Gerard Minakawa.

LNT/Greening the Burn Interpretive Walk  - This year’s educational walk (located in the Earth Guardian Pavilion) was greatly expanded to include 13 additional posters providing additional background on the history of the local area and a considerable amount of information on the history of LNT and positive environmental benefits of Burning Man over the years.  An entire new room of posters was also developed for newer/future efforts including: greening the burn, cooling man, water works and LNTV.  Effort was also spent on separating the structure of the walk from the EG pavilion.  This was done in anticipation of future change in the pavilion and the need for better visibility for the walk.  The walk and its content still currently suffers from lack of visibility to the larger community, since the only folks that see it are those who enter into the EG pavilion.   Thoughts for greater visibility include taking it out onto the playa and/or working with other efforts such as the ‘green maze’.  With these efforts, greater resources and alternative power would be needed.

Nature Walks and the EcoAction Project - Since 2000, the Earth Guardians have sponsored a series of naturalist-led field trips to springs surrounding the playa and have tried to do restoration. Participants have discovered that the Black Rock Desert is not all sterile alkali lakebed, but hosts a remarkable diversity of living communities. For 2007, we are hoping to expand the nature walk program with more trips, more expert leaders and a wider variety of activities and experiences.  Also in 2007, the leader of our nature walks for the past 6 years, Andy Baker, is interested in leading an EcoAction group to work with BLM and other conservation groups in Nevada to identify a new sites in the Black Rock for restoration work.  This year’s efforts could involve several pre-event trips to the worksite for prepwork, a pre-event seminar in the week before the event and several work trips from Black Rock City during the event to complete the project.

Outreach with Other Groups

Dinosaurs on the Playa - For the last several years we have in partnership with BLM to explore different themes for outreach to the residents of Black Rock city.  Past exhibits have covered themes ranging from Wilderness areas and the National Wilderness Preservation System to Black Rock’s National Historic Trails, which form the backbone of many of the Wilderness areas in the surrounding Black Rock Desert NCA. This year’s exhibit focused on the Antiquities Act and the role that BLM and the public lands play in the protection and interpretation of fossil remains.  The ‘camp’ was patterned after a 1940’s archeological dig site.  BLM staff and volunteers were dressed as archeologists and the camp included a replica of a local find, the scull of a mammoth.  The camp held a daily dino hour aimed at kids.  The large tent at the back of the camp included interpretive panels to educate and inform visitors about prehistoric bones and included material from the New Mexico Natural History Museum.

National LNT Traveling Trainers – The National LNT organization sent Traveling Trainers, Team West, North Moench and Ella Goodbrod to Burning Man.  They not only participated in community talks at the Center Camp Café and presented a LNT Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids (PEAK) class, but volunteered on Earth Guardians teams such as the toxic avenger burn patrol, nature walks/restoration and a few trash fence patrols.  Photos and reflections from their visit are posted on their web journals on the LNT web site.

Other Activities and Operations at Burning Man

Burn Platform Patrols - Again this year we had volunteer burn platform patrols on Sunday.  Armed with several 5 golfcarts and additional radios, we tried to stop participants from both burning banned items and not overloading the platforms.  Again this task was much bigger than 5 golfcarts, 1 pickup, 1 chainsaw, and 10-15 people could manage to control.  We could have used double or triple the volunteers to better handle the number of burn platforms, especially into the evening. 

We would like to expand and push alternative to burning and reconsider the need for Burn Plaforms.  We understand that this is Burning Man and that there are positive benefits from letting go of your own things in flames and that not all burners are prepared to take everything home.  But with the continued use of Burn Platforms, are the continuation of burn scars (from overloading), release of noxious fumes/smoke, risk of participant burns, and a clear departure from our pack it in pack it out philosophy.  

What are the alternatives to promote to participants?  The most obvious is further support and promotion of reuse, repurposing and recycling of wood.  What could be more green - reducing waste and greenhouse gases at the same time!  All of the Earth Guardian volunteers were instructed to working with Camp Katrina on their recycling lumber project.  It was a great experience to see wood recycling final happen on the playa. Their efforts could benefit with more planning and a better infrastructure at the platforms and we are willing to work with them to help.  However, we could still use more volunteers to help with patrolling the burn platforms. Our camp of 25-30 folks is split that day with our continued efforts on hot spring patrols as well as camp tear-down.  We just don’t have the numbers to do this alone and could use more volunteers (on our shifts) from other departments.  While some of our volunteers have enjoyed being enviro-cops for the day more assistance from rangers or other department on our patrols would be of great help.  Earlier coordination on these efforts with other departments would be useful appreciated

LNT Speakers and Classes  - Earth Guardians had a full schedule of talks and classes both at the EG pavilion and at the Center Camp Cafe.  Topics for talks ranged from Black Rock Geology and Environmental Art to Yoga and Creating a ReUse Consciousness.   Kids LNT and dinosaur classes were given and we conducted on-site nature walks and ecological restoration.

Hot Spring Patrols – The hot spring patrols were busy again in 2006, operating from the day the gates opened till the Sunday after the burn 24-7.  We noticed cleaner hot springs (thank you other user groups!) and great cooperation from the gate and perimeter teams!.  We’re hoping to prepare a bit better for next year with a few more drivers, and back-up shade and water for some of the volunteers.

Ideas for 2007

Earth Guardians would like to further expand our role in promoting environmental stewardship, sustainability and environmentalism in 2007. Our mission is to educate participants about how to leave no trace at Burning Man and promote an appreciation and conservation of the surrounding natural environment, so they want to leave only positive traces.  Will will expand partnerships internally on greening issues and externally in environmental stewardship and restoration, continuing our partnerships with Friends of the Black Rock, BLM, Nevada Wilderness Project, and others to advance our environmental reach.

The Greening Man

Earth Guardians are deeply interested in seeing BM become greener. Our volunteers have been involved in the Greening the Man efforts and have been promoting green issues (recycle, reuse, repurpose) focused on reducing waste as part of LNT practices. With this year’s theme, we expect many participants and artists to explore and express their ideas about our relationship to nature, how that relationship impacts us and how we, in turn, impact the natural world around us.  What a better canvas to explore what it is to be a green event.

What is green? –The word ‘green’ in the context of environmental impacts, like the word sustainable, implies different things to different people.  It is typically focused around a commitment to operate with minimal use of non-renewable  resources, the reduction of waste (there are many events that claim to have zero waste despite the use of trash cans these days due to the use of biodegradeable products), reduction of energy use and the use of alternative energy sources.  Due to the increased evidence of global warming in our world, media attention has recently focused on the CO2 emissions associated with burning of fossil fuels

Outreach to Participants - Burning Man has a long history, via LNT outreach, of helping participants to make educated decisions about what they bring and don’t bring to the playa to reduce waste and recycle/repurpose.  Efforts such as Cooling Man help them understand the impacts of specific activities on the playa.  Other ideas that have been posed to raise awareness include the additional of questions regarding energy planning, waste reduction , etc in theme camp questionnaires, development of example ‘green’ theme camp plans (like our sample LNT plans) and a green summit to be held in conjunction with the spring Town Hall Meeting.   Earth Guardians are planning to expand our Model Camp Tour to recognize ‘green’ camps and provide sample green plans.  We will also participate in green open house meeting for April 2006 and provide green outreach material for participants attending.  On playa, we are also planning to participate in the Learning Man outreach efforts, possibly in a science fair, to provide information about green technologies to residents of Black Rock City.

Earth Guardian Greener Camp Practices: The EG camp has historically relied considerably on the Center camp grid for lighting for the interpretive walk, sound for our stage and for nightly outreach efforts such as LNTV, however in 2007 we are looking at ways to incorporate greener energy into our camp operations and volunteer village. Also, we are interested in designing a new, better structure for the EG pavilion.  As part of this effort, we will begin pilot testing some new designs so that a new repurposable structure can be ready for Burning Man 2008.

Burning Man Web site: During the event we talk with participants to get direct feedback on how well our Leave No Trace messages are getting out to the masses. Again this year we saw an influx of younger burners and have noticed that many of our communities’ basic LNT ground rules were unknown to many newbies.  In the past we have recommended that important messages in the survival guide be fully incorporated into the larger BM web site, especially in proximity to pages that get the most hits. This work is now being developed by the Burning Man Tech Team and Earth Guardians are planning to assist with this project by reviewing content and helping with page development as needed.  We (BM) also need to continue to make sure the messages that newbies need to hear each year (if it’s not coming out of my body, it doesn’t go into the potty) are hit at the greeters, BMIR, and in beautiful, engaging art/signage at the event).