Burning Man Earth Guardian Training Courses

For the second time in Burning Man history, the annual Leave No Trace (LNT) Back Packing Trip was led by Burning Man staff and volunteers! We saw the most weather we'd ever seen on this trip, but despite the rain and hail, it was a great group and we had a blast.

Three Earth Guardian volunteers (Karina O'Connor, Tony Guerra and Larry Breed) all became LNT Masters in 001., confidently led this year's group, with help from LNT Trainers Mike Pruente and Sara Ainsworth. We prepared everyone pre-trip with maps, gear lists, and warning of possible snow! Each person was also assigned a Leave No Trace principle to teach.

<=== Students ponder cytobiotic soils*

The Trip - The Basics

This year's trip was located in the Calicos, which are located on the west side of the Black Rock Playa. We started at the work

ranch, with introductions, a LNT video and a talk by Haggis on Plan Ahead and Prepare at Metric's office (where we also snacked on donuts, juice and champaign).

Next we consolidated into five vehicles and took off with walkies for the car tour part of the trip down soldier meadow's road. We bumped our way up to the Calicos, with one stop to admire a restored road that a few of us had worked on the previous summer. After parking and loading up, we walked a bit before we had our second LNT principle class (Camp and Travel on Durable Surfaces), then proceeded another half mile to our somewhat protected campsite.

Our campsite ===>

The Weather

As we snacked at lunch, we set up our tents then and had another class, before the weather became invasive. Near the end of the Dispose of Waste Properly talk by the folks from the Conglomerate, it started raining, then hailing, so we had to cancel the day hike.

Jonathan and Marrisa explain how to Dispose of Waste Properly*==>

During the hail, one of the missing campers arrived from LA (who had had car problems, etc). He won the persistence award for the trip, finding us in the storm, luckily some of us had found shelter in the rocks above camp, where we greeted him with cheers. After the storm we were treated with an a class (Respect Wildlife) from James. After the talk we pulled out the evening treats: Margaritas, chips with salsa and and brie and cheese! Woohoo - despite the weather we still had happy hour in true Burning Man style. That night we were saved from the cold and more rain by the campfire. Allan reviewed the problems with burning on the playa, which bakes and scars playa and other desert surfaces. He then lit up our LNT campfire, which we all huddled around. As the rain started up again, as the evening continued and as the fire burned to glowing coals, we all huddled closer to the fire and each other as we swapped campfire stories until it was too cold and we fled to the tents.

< == James spins a loop before showing us How To Respect Wildlife!

Mother's Day - Glorious Sun

The next morning, after a beautiful sunrise, we regrouped around breakfast burritos. Breakfast was the new dinner, since most of us had been too wet to cook dinner the night before. We had hearty breakfast burritos with peppers and cheese, rice, beans, soy substance, salsa and tortillas. A few folks even enjoyed some morning Tecate with their burritos. Ember contributed Mother's day chocolates to finish off our morning feast.

After this it seemed natural to move into a discussion of the LNT principle Be Considerate of Other Visitors. As you can imagine, this topic is particularly relevant for Black Rock City. Troy led us in an interesting discussion, focused on our own mortality and awareness and consideration of our long term impacts. The morning sun helped to dry out our tents and clothes and helped remind us of the need to prepare to Leave No Trace regardless of the weather. After this we discussed techniques to naturalize our campsites, including removal of muddy areas and footprints. After this we did a home and garden tour of a few of the campsites to see our results. We were pleasantly surprised how traceless we left the areas and talked about naturalization of the social trails before we left.

Larry starts us off on Sunday (Mother's day) with a box of chocolates* ==>

Next we had quick botany lesson from Andy, we headed up to a rock formation we named the cathedral, site for our last class on Leave What You Find. The views from the Cathedral were spectacular, and we all enjoyed Andy's presentation on the many ways of thinking about Leave What You Find. After climbing back down to camp, we all shouldered our packs and walked the short distance to a well used campsite closer to the road. Here we pondered the possibility of removing a fire ring before deciding to leave the ring to keep fire impacts in one place. Then we were off again, down the trail to the cars and frothy beverages.

The Students - Creativity and Fun

Along the hike route, each of the students present a class or activity on part or all of a Leave No Trace Principle (7 Principles).

- Plan Ahead and Prepare
- Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
- Dispose of Waste Properly
- Respect Wildlife
- Minimize Campfire Impacts
- Be Considerate of Other Visitors
- Leave What You Find

<=== Andy teaches us about desert survival from a few desert dwellers.

In true Burning Man participatory style - we all got to participate in most of the classes. We had interesting discussions about how the principles applied to Burning Man and how to engage participants who don't typically care about leaving traces. We talking about issues that Earth Guardians are focusing new efforts on this year (1) toxic burning on the burn platforms and in burn barrels (2) oil spills from the many cars in Black Rock City and (3) LNTV.

Next Steps for the New LNT Trainers

What's next for our new LNT Trainers? Well, I suspect that many of them will take their new knowledge and pass it on to other Burning Man volunteer groups and theme camps. Haggis, who's coordinating many tasks, including building outposts, could help spread the LNT word to the Rangers. James, who's active in Space Cowboys - with the Unmog, is already working on the first episode of LNTV with Sara and has offered to help the Earth Guardian crusading ponies at the event this year. Jonathan and Marrisa are camp planners with the large theme camp, The Conglomerate. Jonathan, who's an innovator in shower design, has agreed to share

his shower technology as part of our LNT camp tour. Marrisa has already shared some of her LNT teaching skills with her fellow campers who are already considering ways to limit oil drainage from their vehicles at Burning Man. Andy, our own Earth Guardian Nature Walk coordinator and Frog Farm restoration coordinator, can continue to spread the LNT message during Nature walks during the event and help leave positive traces while working on restoration at Frog Farm. Hopefully Troy will help spread the LNT to other Burning Man participants in southern California.

Students ponder the beautiful untouched wilderness area before discussing the LNT principle Leave What You Find* == >

<== Haggis looking up from a crack in the rocks *

James and Loki doing some fireside archaeology while we discuss the merits of leaving a fire ring

Our New 2003 LNT Trainers are: James Green, Haggis, Allan Chen, Jonathan West, Marrisa Taylor, Andy Baker, and Troy Tompkins - Congratulations!

Send email for questions about this training and trip
(*) Photos by James Green, all other photos by Karina O'Connor

This year's crop of new LNT Trainers makes their way back to the cars.