Now recruiting new members. Email marcy@campzoom.org for more information.

History, background: We came together as a camp six years ago and have been recruiting a number of hard workers over the years. We decided on a permanent name and model for camp four years ago and !Zoom! was born.

Estimated Population: 30-40

Nature and scale of our activities: We have nightly dinners prepared by 2-4 members of camp, and a kitchen with bins for burnables/compost, aluminum cans, plastic recyclables, and trash. The lights, sound, and projections are powered by two 2000 watt silent generators with regulators that only burn as much gas as is being drawn (we normally only need one on at a time). Our rocket ride is powered by human movement.

As a camp we will:

• Plan Ahead
• Practice the 5 R’s: Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore, and Respect
• Keep our camp clean before, during and after the event
• Adopt the seven principles and practices of Leave No Trace at Burning Man
• Do what is necessary to protect and restore the Black Rock Desert
• Identify potential problems and issues that may arise
• Create a strategy or plan for Leaving No Trace
• We will educate all camp members about minimizing our impact on the playa

How we will organize for Leave No Trace

Our LNT leadership and structure: I, Marcy Protteau, take on the main leadership role and we then break into small sub groups for control of the camp. I maintain all the recyclables and trash system. Jason is charge of burnables. Shimmer does the pre-packing evaluation of supplies being brought so we are not bringing any packaging that we do not need or can not be reused. Ken is in charge of camp moop pick up during the week though everyone pitches in. Cary leads the garbage bag pick up crew at the end of the week that spends a couple of hours roving the playa. Everyone performs two sweeps of the camp at the end after everything is picked up and the vehicles have been moved off the lot.

We hereby designate Marcy Protteau as the Ambassador to the Black Rock Desert and leader of our Leave No Trace Team, for camp !Zoom!. The team will help plan our purchases, what we bring to the playa, and encourage us to reuse, recycle, reduce and restore our materials. They will think about how we and all of our stuff will get to the playa and make it home again. The team will keep our camp clean and fun before, during and after the event and delegate and enlist help when it is needed.

They will be responsible for cleanup and trash management in our camp, including activities and parties we host. They will see that our gray water does not impact the playa. They will make sure that all camp members understand and agree with the policies and practices of Leave No Trace at Burning Man.

They will oversee daily tasks and will have a plan in place when we get ready to leave, when it's time to break down and sweep our camp for every last trace. The Ambassador will make sure EVERYTHING left goes with us.

The Ambassador will encourage our participation in community line sweeps and restoration with our neighbors and DPW.

Jon Dickinson, will oversee our camp breakdown and cleanup

Our Commitment to Leave No Trace

To minimize our impact on the Playa, we will follow these rules:

Before the event

• We pledge to Leave No Trace in and around our campsite, including our own and others’ waste.
• We have read the survival guide, completed our camp’s Leave No Trace Plan and shared it with the entire camp.
• We will plan the assembly and takedown of our structures and decorations and use rugs and carpets with finished edges (so there won’t be any moop).
• We will inventory vehicle cargo space so that we can pack out everything as we have done every year.
• We will take the packaging off of just about everything before coming to the playa, and will use reusable products and containers.
• We will shop for simple finger foods that don’t have individual packaging and prepare meals in advance to reduce on-playa waste.
• We will bring minimal glass, and no cheap trinkets, small feathers, or anything that might get left on the playa. All our playa gifts are substantial items people will use like fire dancing toys.

During the event

• We will clean as we go, realizing that any trash or MOOP (matter out of place) can blow away or be buried at any moment.
• We will check our camp daily for trash and moop.
• We will keep our aluminum, plastic recyclables, burnables, and non-burnables clearly separated for easy disposal. All burnables are deposited into the burn barrel.
• We will recycle our aluminum on-site with Recycle Camp. All other recyclables and trash are taken back home by Marcy, Warren and Josh M.
• Josh V. will make sure that the public areas of our camp are kept clean at all times, including the model home and sales office
• We won’t leave trash in or around the port-o-potties.
• We won’t light fires on bare ground or dig pits, leaving scars. If we must burn, we’ll use a public burn barrel or burn platform
• We will burn only clean untreated wood or paper in the public burn barrels (nothing synthetic) and will follow the safety guidelines for fires and burn scar prevention.
• We won’t dig large holes or trenches.
• We will keep all items tied or weighted down, and leave papers at home.
• We will not dump any grey water on the playa.
• We will encourage members of our camp to carry a personal trash (MOOP) container and a cigarette butt container when they are outside camp.
• Everyone in our camp will devote at least two hours to the general city cleanup (e.g. trash fence, local port-o-potties, café, etc).
• We will help out our neighbors and fellow citizens.

After the event

• We will put aside time and have designated volunteers for the final cleanup; we will do two full sweeps of camp at minimum.
• We will take all trash in sealed containers to a landfill on the way home.
• After cleaning our camp, everyone in our camp will devote at least two hours to the general city cleanup (e.g. trash fence, local port-o-potties, café, etc).
• We will leave extra space in every vehicle on the way to the desert, knowing that repacking will inevitably take up more space and ensure that no items can detach during the ride home.
• We will pack out any unevaporated gray water and scum in a 20-gallon holding tank.
• We won’t put trash in or around the port-o-potties
• We will help out our neighbors and fellow citizens.

We will be Good Neighbors

• We will encourage our guests to bring their own beverage containers.
• We will help out our neighbors and establish open and friendly communication with them as soon as we/they arrive.
• We will adopt the space around our camp, making sure that it stays traceless
• We will help careless or forgetful campers.

Here's how we’ll do it

The public area of our camp along the street is designed with moop-free materials and a fence between the public and private areas of our camp collects moop that blows in off the playa, and we collect it throughout the week. The rest of camp has rugs instead of carpet so there is no carpet MOOP and at the end we roll them up after picking up as much of the MOOP off of it as we can. We use small water bottles that we drink during set up as rebar caps that get recycled at the end. Some of our rebar caps are stuffed animals as well.

Our selection of materials and decorations for our camp are reusable each year, which reduces waste. All of our structures – domes, scaffolding, shade structures – and their covers are reusable. Many are now secured by bungee cords instead of zip ties. The flags, blacklight garden, lighting, and pretty much all of our décor and art we reuse year after year and sometimes at other events during the year. The ZOOM Lunar Estates model home yurt will be new this year, but will be reusable for years to come, whether as the ZOOM lunar estates yurt or for another camp purpose.

We have a detailed plan for the breakdown/cleanup of our camp, accounting for every board, stake, and scrap, and pack necessary tools and supplies. We’ve got it down to a fine art after many years with the same materials and campers. During breakdown (go Tom Petty!) we start with the public area, as it normally has the most MOOP from outside our camp and the largest structures that need to be packed into our trucks first. After that we work on most of the shade cloth and dome covers. One person is on zip tie patrol though all the snippers should be putting them in their pockets. Ken is always on the prowl picking random MOOP as we are clearing things away. Jason is in charge of pulling all the rebar stakes. We do not use anything smaller than a 1-foot piece of rebar so there is no chance of missing any small tent stake.

Plan for extra cleanup and trash generated by activities and parties at our camp: After each party and at the end of each day, we do a round of trash pick-up and sort our garbage cans, which can be tedious, but Marcy is a trooper. Trash collected in our fence is picked up on daily basis. Cary will be organizing an open playa trash pick up for the whole camp near the end of the week.

Have a plan for proper disposal of our grey water, including containers to haul out what’s left: We use a small evaporation pool but we also have a small water pump that pumps the remainder into a large 20-gallon tank, which gets hauled away. Everyone in camp uses either a solar shower (never the whole bag) or sponge bath method of cleaning themselves. We also pack up our dirty pots and pans from dinner to be cleaned at home, back in the default world.

Plan enough space and storage in our vehicles for trash hauling: Everyone in camp hauls at least one bag of garbage, and Warren, Josh M. and Marcy are responsible for making sure everything is hauled out. We also have a flat bed and a 15’ box truck, so there is always room for extra trash and recyclables.

Explain the ground rules to all camp members and post our LNT plan on our website: Although we have only a few new members each year we explain thoroughly the importance of leaving no trace.

Plan a secured trash separation station with signage and tags and plenty of heavy duty garbage bags: We have a can for aluminum cans, a can for plastic, a bag for food waste and other burnables, a can for trash with signs for all. This is normally set up by Sunday, right after the kitchen dome is constructed, and before most of the other domes go up.

We will bring the following items for camp operations

Separate, sealed containers for aluminum cans, plastic recyclables, burnables, and non-burnables and signage and tags.

• Reusable dinnerware and utensils, including a portable coffee cup for the café and burnable cups and plates for those outside of camp that don’t have anything.
• A large water container for camp water supplies (no small containers).
• 5-gallon bucket and onion sack for wet kitchen scraps to dry out.
• 20-gallon container for Grey water disposal for everything that does not evaporate.
• All smokers in our camp (3 people) have little altoids containers that they carry with them for cigarette butts.
• Rugs and shade cloth as floor covering to “catch” any items that drop

We will bring the following items for our camp’s breakdown and clean-up

• Big whiskbroom and push broom.
• Flat blade shovel for burn scar restoration or dune MOOP.
• Large Landscape Rake and smaller rakes for sweeping though dust piles.
• Stiff long-handled broom for breaking up dunes.
• Rope and bungee cords for tying loose stuff down.
• Small spare bags for collecting trash as we wander.
• Lots of industrial strength trash bags: more than we think we'll need, everyone or every couple brings one box.
• Work gloves for everybody.
• Long-handled sledgehammer for compacting 5-gallon buckets and driving stakes.
• Multiple pairs of vise grips for removing rebar.
• Magnets to remove every last nail, staple, and other scrap of metal.
• A 21’ flatbed and 15’ box truck with trailer to haul everything out.

Packing Out and Restoration of Our Site

• We will take away everything we brought with us plus a few things we didn’t know we’d have.
• Our restoration team will use cones on the outside of our camp’s border to define our boundaries, break up any dunes that formed around vehicles or structures, then divide up our area and begin line sweeps. We will pick up all woodchips, broken glass, plastic debris, metal debris, fire works and plant material. We complete restoration of any hotspots (micro-MOOP collections), or burn scars.
• We will try to give a helping hand to our neighbors, time permitting.

Black Rock Desert Restoration

• We will each perform at least 2 hours of community clean-up.
• We will pitch in with our fellow citizens and community service teams to restore the natural characteristics of the playa in our neighborhood, removing all burn scars, dunes, leftover debris, or other physical traces of our presence.
• We will support ecological protection and restoration of the Black Rock Desert by participating in the Friends of the Black Rock restoration/clean-up days.