Sublette official blasts feds
http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/06/22/news/wyoming/29d10cdf99ab76748725746f0070e90c.txt
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune environment reporter
Sunday, June 22, 2008
PINEDALE -- A high-ranking federal official has dropped the ball in
his dealings with the Rainbow Family by not requiring accountability
from the group -- and by leaving local authorities out of the loop
until it was too late, a Sublette County official says.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey's decision to
allow the "Rainbow Gathering of Living Light" to assemble near Big
Sandy without a permit, and without any substitute for planning and
approval, has undercut the regional response to the event, said Joel
Bousman, Sublette County commissioner. And it has "demoralized" local
law enforcement.
Bousman said he is angry, both as a commissioner and as citizen.
"About six months ago, (Rey), for some reason, took it on himself to
negotiate directly with the Rainbow group, but decided they did not
need a permit or to do any planning with the Forest Service," Bousman
said. "For some reason, Mr. Rey chose to circumvent the whole
government process."
Rey's decision, which Rey said Thursday was an "experiment" to try to
better protect the natural and cultural resources on public lands,
has undercut the ability of the regional Forest Service, the BLM and
local law enforcement agencies to organize for the safety of the
Rainbows and area residents, Bousman said.
"It's not right," he said. "He left local people out of loop in the
planning process, which puts us in a defenseless position to try and
plan for what's going on at the last minute, with no notice, no
planning and no permit."
--------
Feds to Rainbows: Move gathering
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune staff writer
Friday, June 20, 2008
PINEDALE -- There may be a new era of cooperation dawning between the
Rainbow Family and the U.S. Forest Service, but it's getting off to a
rocky start.
More than 20 "influential" participants of "The Rainbow Family of the
Living Light" met with dozens of area residents and several U.S.
Forest Service representatives at the Sublette County Library here
Thursday evening. It was an attempt to reach a new level of
collaboration, and to address some of the more pressing issues for
local communities and federal law enforcement.
The meeting was occasionally contentious, yet civil, and it will most
likely change nothing about the designated location for this year's
national Rainbow gathering in the Bridger-Teton National Forest July 1-7.
Mark Rey, the federal undersecretary who oversees the U.S. Forest
Service, came 3,000 miles to this little town not to play games, he
said, but to urge the Rainbow Family to move its gathering to one of
four sites in the Bridger Wilderness his agency had previously
identified as better suited to withstanding the impact of 15,000 to
20,000 simultaneous campers.
He told the Rainbow participants if they stay in the spot they've
chosen near Big Sandy, it's going to conflict with a Boy Scout
project scheduled for the same general area after the Rainbow
gathering, and set to begin before the Rainbows are finished cleaning
up their site.
"A gathering of this size has a very large footprint," Rey said. "The
imprint of 15,000 people is going to be significant."
The Forest Service's request, Rey said, is for the Rainbows to
consider leaving Big Sandy. He said he went into his meeting with
representatives with the Boy Scouts of America with the assumption
that some sort of compromise could be reached, but he's come to
understand otherwise.
"I came 3,000 miles to tell you that this is not a reconcilable
difference," Rey said. "We made a commitment to produce a particular
kind of experience for the Scouts, that we cannot if you hold this
gathering there."
He told the Rainbows that he understands they have the numbers to
"occupy" the site if they desire, and in that sense they will "win."
"But if you win, the Scouts lose," Rey said.
The Scouts are in the midst of a five-year, multimillion-dollar
project to improve portions of the wilderness, Rey said.
Several Rainbow Family participants argued that they weren't given
sufficient notice about the so-called conflict with the Boy Scouts,
and moving the gathering from Big Sandy is all but impossible at this point.
A Rainbow participant who goes by the name Dia said participants have
already laid four miles of water pipes and assembled and dug in over
a dozen kitchens.
Another participant, Gnosis, said, "I don't see people leaving even
if they wanted to. There are 500 to 1,500 there already."
The problems of moving, cleaning up and setting up all over again at
another site would be too difficult to overcome at this point, he said.
If they were given more notice, it might have been possible, he said,
but everybody out there is of their own minds, and there's no way
they could be convinced to leave now.
Rainbow Family members have assembled on public lands every year,
somewhere in the United States, since 1972, and the events
occasionally draw up to 25,000 participants. The gatherings generally
have been held without formal approval of the Forest Service.
The assembly is intended to be a celebration of peaceful living and
love for the planet earth, and there is no formal leadership structure.
-------
Managing Rainbows
http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/06/22/news/wyoming/20d432285d8608a68725747000006b71.txt
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune environment reporter
Sunday, June 22, 2008
RIVERTON -- They come from every region of the United States. They
drive or fly in -- just as they have to this central Wyoming city --
about 40 of them toting dogs, guns, cuffs and federal badges.
Their job from now to the first half of July will be to follow and
police a massive group of counterculture campers who advocate peace
and love for the planet earth, and who assemble annually on federal
lands -- somewhere.
Just like the officers, the campers also come from all over America.
This year, as it has done for the past 11 years, the federal
government has assembled a highly specialized force under the generic
title, "Incident Management Team," to patrol the Rainbow Family of
Living Light.
The Rainbow Family has assembled on public lands every year,
somewhere in the United States, since 1972, and the events
occasionally draw up to 25,000 participants. The family has no
official leadership structure, and all decisions regarding the
gathering and its location are always made spontaneously by a
consensus of influential participants.
While those participants claim a constitutional right to assemble for
"peaceable" purposes on federal lands with or without a permit,
officials with the U.S. Forest Service cite a legal obligation to
protect the natural and cultural resources under their care.
Up until this year, the team has generally approached the
get-together as a technically illegal event. This year, however, as
the Rainbows start to gather near Big Sandy in the Wind River
Mountains, the federal government is trying what USDA Undersecretary
Mark Rey described as an "experiment."
The Forest Service is attempting to work collaboratively with the
Rainbow Family, under an operating plan, in recognition of the
agency's inability to stop the event -- but also in an attempt to
better protect the forest from the impact of tens of thousands of
people, their vehicles, movements and waste.
The gathering will be in full swing in the Bridger-Teton National
Forest July 1-7, although possibly more than 1,000 participants have
already arrived and begun setting up camps, rest room facilities and
water delivery systems.
Incident Commander Gene Smithson, a senior special agent with the
Forest Service, has worked on the federal management team for Rainbow
gatherings for the past four years. A good portion of his year-round
job since he took over command has been to track Rainbow
get-togethers, advise and consult with local authorities for smaller,
regional gatherings that take place sporadically, and coordinate
efforts to minimize the impacts of the assemblies whenever and
wherever they happen, he said.
The Rainbow Family is a loosely affiliated jamboree of craft-trading,
music-playing, dancing, juggling, often pot-smoking and sometimes
semi-clad folks, many of whom reject some of the federal and state
laws the officers are sworn to uphold.
Especially those laws that criminalize the possession and illicit use
of controlled substances.
"There's a lot of drug use," Smithson said. "Marijuana, LSD,
methamphetamines, mushrooms, cocaine, prescription pain meds. Just
about everything."
Because of the sheer size of the gathering, and because the Family
has no real membership structure, the gatherings inevitably draw not
only those who subscribe to the basic tenets of the Rainbow
philosophy -- which are centered on peace and a gentle existence --
but also draw known criminals, as well as violent and troubled individuals.
During last year's Arkansas gathering, officers arrested about 100
participants for a wide variety of offenses, including disorderly
conduct and crimes related to alcohol abuse, Smithson said.
Federal authorities also often must respond to outbreaks of
communicable diseases and maladies, such as tuberculosis, scabies and
even dangerous bacterial infections, Smithson said.
The Rainbows operate their own medical treatment center at the camp
site, he said, but they can't handle all types of medical ailments
and emergencies.
At a recent Rainbow gathering, there was an outbreak of potentially
deadly meningitis, Smithson said. Local health authorities had to
scramble to treat dozens of participants.
The Forest Service is attempting to work as collaboratively as
possible with the Rainbow Family, Smithson said, in order to better
protect not only the forest but the people in and around the event.
--
Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at
chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.
--------
'A bad apple'
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune environment reporter
6/22/08
PINEDALE -- Members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light have only
begun to assemble near Big Sandy, but a local woman says she and her
family have already been threatened by a participant in the get-together.
Bonnie Whitley, a Boulder-area resident and a grandmother, expressed
dismay and anger at a meeting here last week. The meeting drew about
80 people including area residents, U.S. Forest Service
representatives and more than 20 Rainbow participants.
Whitley said she, her husband, children and grandchildren had been
threatened by a camper at the gathering on their way to a picnic
Thursday afternoon as they were riding their ATVs on a Forest Service
road about five miles north of Dutch Joe, where the Rainbow gathering
is taking place.
"We were going to have a picnic with the little kids," Whitley said
in an interview during the meeting. "This fella came running out of
the trees and said, 'I want you to know we're having a Rainbow
gathering up ahead, and you need to turn around.' He kept asking my
husband, 'Are you looking for trouble? You're going to have trouble
if you try to go down there. Are you looking for trouble?"'
She said the man was behaving aggressively, and she and her family
turned around and left to protect her two grandchildren, Joe and Jonathan.
"I never felt so threatened in my life," Whitley said.
When she spoke during the meeting, all of the Rainbow gathering
participants present expressed their sympathies for Whitley and said
they would help her identify and report the man, if she desired.
The gathering participants said the threatening man's behavior runs
contrary to all of the central tenets of the Rainbow philosophy,
which include making peace, living cooperatively and loving fellow
human beings.
"We don't want threatening people here," one Rainbow participant
said. "Our children are here, too."
Another Rainbow participant, who identified herself only as Dia,
said, "We know that everywhere we go, sometimes the wrong people follow."
Rainbow Family member "Owl" Kopelman asked that Whitley not judge the
rest of the Rainbows by the behavior of one "bad apple."
"That bad apple that you speak of -- that's why I don't want you
here," Whitley said.
--
Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at
chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.
--------
Rainbows may have conflict with scouts
http://www.pinedaleroundup.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=&story_id=692
Posted: Wednesday, Jun 18th, 2008
BY: Jennie Oemig
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), with plans to have members in the
Big Sandy area for a national public service project, could pose a
problem for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, who were
looking at the same site as the location for this year's annual
Rainbow Gathering.
"We're hopeful that we can work something out that's mutually
acceptable to the Rainbows and to the Forest Service," said Mark Rey,
U.S. Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment, during a
conference call with members of the Rainbow family on Monday.
After unfavorable weather conditions brought about rumors of a
cancelled Spring Council for the Rainbows, it was reported last week
that those who attended the event had quickly chosen a location near
Dutch Joe Guard Station on the Big Sandy River as the site of the
this year's annual Rainbow Gathering.
"Right now we don't have a confirmed spot," said Rita Vollmer, the
information officer of the forest service Incident Command Team that
has been assigned to the gathering. "We're just waiting to see how it
all comes together … we're not talking about it definitely being Big Sandy."
Rey said that the reason for the conference call was to talk with the
Rainbows and explain why the Big Sandy location is not an option for
the gathering.
"The Big Sandy site presents us with a very difficult dilemma … in
that there is a reason that it was not one of the sites that the
Forest Service offered to the Rainbows."
During the call, Rey informed those listening that the scouts had
laid claim on that particular site before the Rainbows showed
interest in holding the gathering there.
"In 2003 the Boy Scouts approached us in advance of the Forest
Service Centennial, which took place in 2005 and the Boy Scouts of
America Centennial, which takes place in 2010, and indicated that
they would like to do a national public service project through their
Order of the Arrow organization on several national forests during
the summer of 2008," he said. " … We agreed with them that we would
sponsor them on five separate national forests for public service
projects that the scouts would perform for us."
After the agreement was reached, Rey said that a contest was
announced through the Forest Service and BSA to solicit nominees for
those five locations – one of those five being the Bridger-Teton
National Forest (BTNF).
"In addition to the Mark Twain National Forest in New Jersey, the
Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California, the Manti-La Sal
National Forest in Utah and the George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, the Bridger-Teton National
Forest was one of the five selected," Rey noted. " … On each of these
forests, there will be a weeklong work period where 1,000 scouts will
do work to help improve national forest recreation resources or habitats."
On the BTNF, Rey said the scouts will arrive on or about July 26,
possibly earlier, to build and improve several miles of the
Continental Divide trail.
"It's not something that would be possible to move from the site
that's been selected," Rey acknowledged, adding that planning for the
BSA project began in 2004 and materials for the project had already
been purchased.
While the gathering is scheduled to take place July 1-7 with cleanup
to follow, Rey said he was unsure of the feasibility of having the
Rainbows off the land before the scouts arrived.
"You all and they selected the same identical site," he said. " …
[It's] a problem of time and place. You all would like to occupy the
same place that they had previously gotten permission a couple years
ago to occupy. And it appears to me it would be hard to figure out
how we can accommodate both."
In addition to not having the land occupied by two parties
simultaneously, Rey said it was pertinent that there be a winter
season and spring between to allow the grass to grow back so that it
wouldn't look like it had been occupied.
"We would not normally allow two groups of your and their size to
occupy the same site in a single season because, you know, they're
going to have some impact as well," he said of the scouts. " …
Nevertheless, the double impact of the two sites are gonna be
probably more than ecologically we'd like to see happen."
Being as such, Rey informed those on the conference call that the
district ranger had four alternative sites the Rainbows could look at
as possible locations for the gathering.
But U.S. Forest Service official Tom Florich, who has been out to the
Big Sandy site, said the overall consensus of the Rainbows on the
land was to stay put.
"They were rather opposed to the thought of moving and would hope
that somehow we would mitigate some of those concerns and they remain
there," Florich said.
Though the exact location of this year's gathering has not been
determined yet, Vollmer said members of the Rainbow family have begun
to arrive at the Big Sandy Campground.
"They're starting to trickle in," she said. " … The approximation was
around 500 [as of Monday morning]. There could be more by now."
Though the Forest Service is now in a flux waiting for the site to be
determined, BTNF public affairs representative Mary Cernicek said the
Incident Command Team is coming together to prepare for the arrival
of the Rainbows.
"I know they will be having a few training events," she said, adding
that the team is currently in Riverton.
Vollmer said the training has begun with staging and organizing for
the event, which will take place in two weeks.
"Right now, we're just getting set up and getting everyone on the
same page," she said, adding that most of the people on the team come
from all over the country. "We're briefing them on what this is about."
In addition to preparing the team for the gathering, Vollmer said
they are also forming a set of rules that will be enforced on the
gathering site.
"We're putting together an operating plan that the Rainbows will have
to follow," she said.
Once the operating plan is put together and the team is set, Vollmer
said the group will enforce those laws.
"It's like law enforcement of public land," she said, adding that the
team will be in charge of controlling issues such as drug use and
other illegal activity. "We need officers to enforce that."
The town meeting arranged by the Rainbows will be held tonight at 6
p.m. at the Sublette County Library in Pinedale.
--------
Opposes Rainbows
http://www.pinedaleroundup.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=&story_id=699
Posted: Wednesday, Jun 18th, 2008
BY: James B. Mariner
Fellow residents of Pinedale!
Lend me your wisdom. I am Brad Mariner, lifelong resident of
Pinedale, Wyoming. I was born in Jackson Hole but spent my life on
the Clark Ranch. (The newer paved road that crosses Duck Creek that
accesses Pinedale Lumber crosses the old ranch.) I am writing today
to shed TRUE LIGHT on the issue of the "Rainbow Family Gathering"
that is poised to take place in our region. There is a lot of talk of
"peace" and "love" coming from them and those of like mind and yet I
am bewildered that the "HELLS ANGELS" are rumored to be their
security! Is this not an obvious oxymoron!?
I was here when they came 14 years ago and saw the misery this town
absorbed because of them. Pinedale certainly had its issues before
they came, but "hard narcotic" use was not nearly as prevalent then
as it was when they departed. I knew several of the youth in our town
who, because of the opportunity provided by this group, are still
horribly messed up today and are hardly contributing to society.
As Mary Lankford stated, "we have been here before" and I would hope
we learned the hard lesson it landed on us. That lesson: WE HAVE AN
OBLIGATION TO OUR CHILDREN, OUR COMMUNITY, AND OURSELVES TO DO WHAT
IS GOOD AND RIGHT AND JUST. In short, expose this group for what it
is, what it does, and what its lifestyle ultimately leaves behind.
We cannot sit on our hands for this "Gathering." What took place in
1994 was nothing short of X-rated and therefore, we as parents,
adults, concerned people should stop all youth under the age of 18
from entering its "location." Now before you start blathering to me
about RIGHTS let's be sure about restrictions already in place on
those under 18. (A 17 year old is not supposed to be allowed into an
R rated movie). At the age of 18 you are "allowed" to view
pornographic material (though I highly question the "benefit" of any
of this material), but you are not allowed by law to use drugs, drink
alcohol, chew tobacco, smoke...am I missing anything here? And yet
certain individuals in this community and abroad will
allow/encourage, AGAINST THE LAWS OF THIS LAND, this group to gather,
USE illegal drugs, have open orgies, violate PUBLIC decency
requirements, and allow for contributing to the delinquency of a
minor(s). Do these people have the "right" to gather...yes. Do they
have the "right" to use forest land...yes. But they also have the
right to imprisonment for destroying lives, for lewd conduct, for
using/giving/selling drugs, and for stealing. In other words they are
just as liable for their behavior as you and I are liable. IF YOU
BREAK THE LAW THERE COULD AND SHOULD BE CONSEQUENCES!!!
My encouragement and challenge to our local security officials,
government officials, and towns people is this, "Do not fear this
group, arrest violators, get as involved as you can to be PRO-active
in sustaining this community." If the concern for "where to place all
the violators" is an issue it isn't any longer. If this town wants to
build a fenced "yard" with constantino wire on my 8 acres you have my
permission to do so. I will provide the "imprisoned" with food and
water while they await trial or post bail. Enough said.
People of Pinedale pull your head out of the clouds, engage your
spine and let's not have a repeat of 14 years ago that sadly is still
with us today.
I think Karin Zirk said it best last week, "I'm going to go to the
gathering and build biodegradable composting shitters..." (I know
this is out of her context) but in my opinion that is all that will
be built from this group coming to our area. These people like a
"shitter" only consume, digest and leave a foul odor when they leave.
Obviously opposed to the "Gathering,"
James B. Mariner,
Pinedale
.
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