Greetings MOOP maniacs and line sweepers extraordinaire! Here in Gerlach, the Playa Restoration All-Star team is being blown across the sweeping expanse of the Black Rock Desert by winds that have gusted as high as 50mph.

Luckily for Black Rock City, these rockstar Restoration experts are sticking to the task at hand, grabbing every last bit of MOOP, and still managing to look great doing it.







Let’s look back to Day 7 of Resto, which was the final day of line sweeps within the city grid. After an extended green, clean and MOOP-free streak, everything suddenly changed as the line reached 8:00 and Laissez Faire — and encountered a yellow and red zone that extended over eight city blocks.

Regrouping after that difficult 8-block streak, the line then swept its way from 10:00 to 2:00 across the open-playa side of Esplanade. You know, that place where every single one of us spent a big chunk of our time during Burning Man. Should any of us really be surprised that the entire Esplanade was yellow? No, not really — but still, we could have done better. How can we all be more conscious of what’s falling off our bikes and out of our pockets as we cruise the Strip? How much more time can each of us put in to pick up MOOP during the daytime in those high-traffic zones?

Despite encountering a significant number of yellow blocks that slowed their pace, the line sweepers still managed to cover over 40 blocks in a single day. Let’s give ’em a hand for their efforts!

The city streets have now all been checked by the Playa Restoration line sweeps, and now our brave moopers are turning their focus to the open playa. Black Rock City, here is your MOOP Map for Day 7.

REMEMBER: This is a work in progress, not the final map.

MOOP Map Legend: GREEN: GO! GO! GO! The Line Sweep moves quickly because it’s clean. Minimal time and effort spent in this location.

YELLOW: Caution! The Line Sweep moves at a stop-and-go pace. Moderate time and effort spent in this location.

RED: Full stop. The Line Sweepers are on their hands and knees. A ton of MOOP. Extensive time and effort in this location. Wondering what the black dots are? Those are the locations where we found larger items left behind on the playa last week: trash bags, abandoned tents, scaffolding, anything bigger than a bread box. All those items have been removed, but we do record their GPS points.

No doubt about it, there’s some room to improve in today’s results. All you campers whose areas were green, plan to talk to your neighbors next year about how you successfully Leave No Trace on the playa! As a city, we’ve got the hang of this now. Let’s work together to make those pesky yellow zones go away.

Time is running out for the Playa Restoration All-Stars, and the BLM inspection is just around the corner. Will we pass? What other surprises await us on the open playa? Find out real soon on MOOP Map Live 2013!

See more photos from Playa Restoration 2013 on Flickr.