RENO — When it drew much smaller crowds in the 1990s, the Burning Man festival generated strong opposition from the Sierra Club and others over its impact to the Northern Nevada desert.

But with an April 16 deadline looming for public comment, organizers’ request to boost the maximum allowable crowd size by 20 percent to 70,000 is attracting only scant opposition .

Sierra Club activist Tina Nappe of Reno attributes the reversal of the position to Burning Man organizers’ track record of cleaning up and addressing environmental concerns at the largest outdoor arts festival in North America.

Black Rock LLC, which runs the weeklong celebration of self-expression and self-reliance leading up to Labor Day, recognizes the desert environment has limitations and strives to minimize environmental impacts, she said.

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