repercussions reverberate over the boy scouts,or the fallout continues..

well i would say goodbye to cooperation of any shape form or fashion from the feds forever more.. its not enough that the bad press over the boy scouts continues daily,now a wyoming senator has went on a witch hunt..

http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/.../wyoming/29fa0767d2022f4e872574750006441a.txt

Senator blasts agencies on Rainbow gathering
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune environment reporter Friday, June 27, 2008



LANDER -- U.S. Sen. John Barrasso slammed the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thursday, calling the Forest Service's management of this year's Rainbow Family gathering "unacceptable."

Barrasso condemned what he called "the failures of the U.S. Department of Agriculture" to properly manage the gathering in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, in a letter he addressed to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer. He asked the secretary to give the situation in Wyoming "priority attention."

"The Rainbow Family Gathering displaced the Boy Scouts of America who had planned to do an ecological project," wrote Barrasso, R-Wyo. "In addition, livestock permittees, recreationists, cabin owners and lodge visitors are impacted by this gathering. All of these users have completed the appropriate permit process and worked with the agency to properly plan their activities."

The Rainbow Family, on the other hand, was not required to complete these steps, Barrasso wrote, and "has been allowed to displace all other users."
The senator said in the future that all public land users "must be held to the same standards and unauthorized users must not be tolerated."

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. This year's gathering is taking place in the Big Sandy area of the Wind River Mountains and will culminate on July 4.

The assembly is intended to be a celebration of peaceful living and love for the planet earth. It is also, famously, a so-called alternative congregation featuring craft trading, dancing, drum circles, Eastern-style meditation and prayer, and where varying degrees of nudity and drug use are not uncommon.

In an interview by telephone from his Washington, D.C., office Thursday afternoon, Barrasso said he'd been in contact with some of his constituents who use cabins in the Bridger-Teton and others who use the land for recreation. Some residents are upset, he said, because it seems they are required to live up to a higher standard than the Rainbow Family is.

"When you visit with cabin owners, you hear about regulations they must follow," Barrasso said. "They can't put out a hummingbird feeder. They can't string a clothesline between two trees, or they'll lose their ability to use these places. Meanwhile, they allow the entire Rainbow Family to do anything they wish."

Mary Cernicek, spokeswoman for the Bridger-Teton, said she hadn't yet seen a copy of the letter late Thursday, and because it wasn't addressed to the forest she couldn't respond specifically to Barrasso's concerns.

Asked about the absence of a permitting process for the Rainbow event, Cernicek said the USDA decided to use an "operating plan" instead, as a substitute for a permit, which in this case has requirements similar to those found in permits.

"It's the tool that the department chose to use to manage this event," Cernicek said. "The operating plan that the Rainbows will be gathering under does in fact give them limits and requirements that help us as a land management agency to ensure the welfare of the resource and the participants."

The operating plan will require the Rainbow participants to restore the site back to the way it was before they arrived, and will also include rules for fires, and such things as locations of latrines in order to protect water sources, she said.

Cernicek also noted that the decision to move the Boy Scouts' fence removal and wildlife habitat improvement project was made by the Boy Scouts of America, and not by the Forest Service.

Barrasso said Thursday he was disappointed that local and Sublette County officials were "shut out" of the planning process, as County Commissioner Joel Bousman argued last week.

In a previous interview with the Star-Tribune, however, District Ranger Tom Peters, the official who has been attempting to work directly with the Rainbow gathering, said it was only a matter of a few days between when the Forest Service was first notified about the Rainbows' choice of location and when they began arriving on site.

Policing the event

In his letter to Schafer, Barrasso asked the secretary to "please submit in writing your department's commitment to offset impacts to local government and public land users." He requested Schafer's "personal attention to this matter" to ensure the Forest Service will immediately "contain the Rainbow Family Gathering and maintain control of the situation."

Rita Vollmer, information officer with the Forest Service, said as of last week the Forest Service had assembled an incident management team in Wyoming of more than 40 law enforcement officers from throughout the United States, as well as police dogs and administrative personnel, to police the event.

And as of last Friday the agency had already installed rotating crews of officers to police the gathering around the clock, Vollmer said.

Resource advisers are also on site, she said, working with the Rainbows to "help manage and protect resources in the area and to minimize impacts to the local environment."

The incident team has set up a local magistrate court, Vollmer said, to process arrests and citations issued during the event.

In his letter Thursday, Barrasso indicated he felt these measures haven't been sufficient.

"Given the state of the current situation, it is incumbent upon your agency to commit personnel and resources to minimize conflict between the Rainbow Family and other public land users," Barrasso wrote.

 

sigh......Please travel clean Family....

 

oh i also saw where a wyoming congresswoman sent a separate letter to the secretary of agriculture as well..

it really doesnt look like a very good scene is materializing..

add in the cops son who mysteriously went missing 2 miles from the gathering as a excuse for them to conduct there "searches for him",,and it doesnt sound like there will be much in the way of unrestricted freedom going on..

 

mark rey very well may lose his job over this one,,at the very least i believe he will be demoted..

 

Found this report on agr, posted by The Other Karen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey there...

I received a voice mail on my cell phone from Jai
(Just Say Hi). Karin Zirk seemed to have written some
notes down for Jai to read to me over the phone
for inclusion here and on her Gathering Blog.

I hate to admit, though, with some static and difficulty with
translation, I feel strongly that some of what
Karin wanted to say did not come through. For
instance, I got some email addresses from her but
was not clear what it was that I was supposed to even
send to these addresses.
Here is what I did surmise...


* The hike into the Gathering site at Big Sandy is
pretty darn strenuous. Even without a pack, from
Parking Lot to Main meadow it is about 1.5 to 2
hours of hiking because it is UP HILL. Be
prepared.


* Apparently, the folks onsite have been informed
that if they ever shout Shanti Sena (our call for
help) that the person calling may be arrested for
inciting a riot. Apparently, they are not aware
that the call is used to gather many people who
will surround the situation with a circle of calm,
peaceful council members intent on defuseing the
situation and come to a peaceful resolution.


* The road to or possibly into (or near) Snider
Basin (the other site) is apparently terrible. Not
sure which road this is exactly. Sorry.


* There currently is no proper plan in place to
evacuate severely injured or sick people from the
Big Sandy site.


* Jai was busted for having a string of beads
hanging from his rear-view mirror while driving
in. Please have your vehicle registered with no
violations. Wear your seat belts, go the speed
limit. Of course, that is good advice driving into
ANY gathering.


That is about it. I wish I had been there to take
the call instead of having it go to voice mail. I
could have asked a lot of questions and made this
report more clear.

 

so i guess yelling 6 up will bring the wrath of god down on you if shanti sena is inciting a riot?

wow.. yes family travel clean and obey all laws to the letter..

 

Good luck family! Sending positive vibes...Safe travels!

 

Holy Bejesus! thats lame...

 

i found this this morning,,the rest of the article is pro rainbow,,then you get here,,

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/26/travel_rainbow/


i love the underlined comment,,yeah sounds like a gauntlet to me...

 

I thought this one was funny.

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) - The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is urging people not to pick up hitchhikers as members of the Rainbow Family head through the county for this year's gathering in the Big Sandy area.
Sheriff Rich Haskell says most people headed to the gathering in Sublette County are passing through Sweetwater County. He says there are good reasons why hitchhiking and picking up hitchhikers are illegal.
Haskell says anyone who stops for a hitchhiker can suddenly be confronted by five more people emerging from the brush.
LINK

"Haskell says anyone who stops for a hitchhiker can suddenly be confronted by five more people emerging from the brush”

The brush around green river is 3 feet tall like 5 hippies will just jump out of the sagebrush.

This shit is right out of a Hollywood comedy movie hahaaha

Thanks for the warning Sheriff Rich Haskell… hahaha

 

Yes this is referred to as a Hippy Blitz ....


with this tactic it is actually possible to get up to 20 hippies in a back of a pick up with out the driver even knowing about it ....if done right

 

i have to say this comes at no surprise to me ...our rights are being stripped from us for security reasons all the time .....why would the gov play nice with a bunch of dirty hippies ...all they want to do is hug people and be nice ....how does that fit into the gov plan for world conquest?

 

Yeah have the pretty girl stand by the road with the little bag

And next thing the guy knows his truck has 20 hippies 5 dogs and 16 backpacks. lol