Leave No Trace (LNT)

All Fireflies are responsible for helping us Leave No Trace on the land — it’s part of the Ten Principles. Here’s how:

Be a good steward of the land

DOs

• ✅ Put a tent over ferns without cutting them. (They will bounce back.)
• ✅ Rake around fires and burn barrels to prevent fires. (Put the leaf litter back afterwards.)
• ✅ Move sticks to make room for camp infrastructure or to designate paths or other spaces within your camp. (Scatter any sticks you’ve intentionally arranged afterwards.)
• ✅ Remember that, in general, if it’s dead, you can move it. If it’s alive, leave it.

DON’Ts

• 🚫 Don’t do anything involving leafblowers, weedwhackers, shovels, or mattocks.
• 🚫 Don’t cut, rip, or shred any ferns. This damages them and there are less and less of them each year, changing the appearance, habitat, and ecosystem of the forest.
• 🚫 Don’t cut or damage saplings. Anything standing vertical and alive is to remain vertical and untouched. You can move sticks, branches, and chopped wood to make room for your camp infrastructure. If you spot a tree or branch dangling menacingly over your camp, bring this to DPW’s attention.
• 🚫 Don’t rake paths or camping spots bare, as that 1) disturbs habitats unnecessarily and 2) create slick mud pits when it rains; leaf litter helps to prevent paths and camping spots from becoming outright mud puddles.
• 🚫 Don’t level or terraform the ground, including to redirect rainwater or streams. If whatever you are planning on doing requires shovels or mattocks, do not do it. Especially take care not to redirect rainwater into main paths; drainways have been specifically shaped along the main vehicle accessible paths in order to allow rainwater to cross paths without damaging them or flow away from the paths altogether. Modifying these drainways or redirecting rainwater may compromise paths and impede road access in case of emergencies.
• 🚫 Don’t bag or trash fire pit ash; instead scatter them broadly in the woods (after checking for MOOP) to return those minerals to the soil. Only wood should be burned in fire pits, not cigarette butts or other trash. (Note: Ashes from fires in which toxic flame colorants have been used should not be scattered, so please avoid those chemicals or have a plan for how to deal with the ashes.)
• 🚫 Don’t remove any plant or animal life, dead or alive, from the forest.
• 🚫 Do not open areas of the rock wall that are not already open! This may only be done with landowner permission and will be handled by DPW.

If you use permethrin, apply it off-site!

Protect the stream

• Enter the stream at areas where there is a bridge or other entrance as the sides of the stream bed are fragile ecosystems.
• Wash off your sunscreen, bug spray, and personal products at least 100 feet away before getting in the stream.
• Don’t use soap in the stream, even the hippy stuff.
• Peeing in the woods is encouraged (helps prevent portapotty overload) but make sure to pee 100 feet away from the stream and to throw your TP in your trash.
• Don’t wash dishes in the stream. Gray water should be filtered to remove chunks and disposed of 100ʹ away from the stream. If it’s chunky or oily, pack it out! Use a funnel and container with screw top. To reduce chunkiness of grey water, wipe dishes with a paper towel into the trash before washing. Use ONLY biodegradable soaps to wash dishes.

Don’t MOOP

MOOP stands for Matter Out of Place, and avoiding leaving MOOP anywhere on the hill, in the forest, on the fields, along paths, etc. is an essential part of leaving no trace at Firefly. MOOP includes, but is not limited to:

• Personal items that have been misplaced or forgotten
• Trash of any size, including
  • Feathers, sequins, or glitter (DO NOT pack anything with these on them)
  • Cigarette butts (bring a container to dispose of these if you plan to smoke)
  • Toilet paper (if you use TP in the woods, it needs to go into your personal trash bag)
  • Food scraps (no, you can’t toss your banana peel into a bush)
• Poop (Please don’t poop in the woods. We don’t want to have to pick it up. 💩🤢)

All week long and right before you leave, make time to do MOOP sweeps of your campsite and areas you frequented during the event. Look up at trees for ropes, ribbon, clothes, and check under pine needles for MOOP.

Leaving excessive MOOP at your art or Theme Camp site could result in losing your Placement in future years.

Guidelines

• 🚫 DO NOT BRING anything with feathers 🪶, sequins 💎, glitter 🌟, or anything else likely to fall off your costume or body and become MOOP. This is a rule and not a suggestion; if you’re walking around in a MOOPy outfit, attentive Fireflies will tell you to go back to your tent and change.
• 🏷️ LABEL YOUR BELONGINGS with your name and where you’re camping, especially cups, water bottles, hats, jackets, or other items you’re likely to carry around with you.
• 🍬 CARRY A SMALL PLASTIC BAG for any trash you create or find while away from your campsite. It’s expected that everyone be prepared to pick up any MOOP they encounter at Firefly.
• 🗑️ BRING TRASH BAGS to use for your personal trash for the week. You will need to carry all your trash offsite with you at the end of the event.

Other Tips

• Brightly colored zip ties, paracord, etc. are easier to find when packing up than black, white, or clear ones.
• Attach small pieces of brightly colored flagging tape to fairy light strings, metal tent stakes, and anything else that might try to blend into nature.
• Reduce your total trash by removing unnecessary packaging from food and other items before you pack them.

Bring Lost & Found items to MOMM

The Firefly Lost & Found is known as the Museum of Modern MOOP (MOMM).

Found objects are not “ground-scores.” Bring them to the MOMM, located just up the path from Upper Parking and the Upper Portos, as you would hope someone would do for your stuff.

MOMM transforms lost items into found art and back again, with the ultimate goal of reuniting lost items with their owners. If you find a lost item at Firefly, bring it to MOMM, display it, give it a title and/or description — now it’s art! If you lose an item that ends up at MOMM, admire its profound transformation and new identity for a moment before making it yours again.

There will also be a lockbox at the Lost and Found station for valuables. If you find something valuable (eg. electronics, medication, jewelry), please drop it into the slot of the lockbox. If you have lost something valuable (eg: electronics, medication, jewelry), check the whiteboard at MOMM for instructions on how to find someone who can open the lockbox for you.

Composting

There will be composting onsite at Firefly near Upper Parking! If you wish to take advantage of this, bring a vessel to carry your (or your camp’s) food scraps across the hill. There will also be a limited number of buckets available for camps to reserve before the event.

Use porto-potties responsibly

• If it didn’t come from your body, it doesn’t go in the potty. The only exception is the provided 1-ply toilet paper.
• Baby wipes, pads/tampons, etc. must be carried out.
• Peeing in the woods is fine, but all other human waste MUST go in the potty or be otherwise removed. POOP and PUKE are MOOP!
• Put the seat down for best ventilation.
• Any deco or signage hung in the portos may use painters tape only.