Colorado media coverage

oh an if ya run across local news video,,.. please post if able..

thanks.. love n light..

 

This just in from the Steamboat Pilot Journal:

Concerns in the forest

Officers issue citations to Rainbow Family; fire a threat

By Dave Shively, Sports writer

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Gigi, the self-appointed Rainbow Family of Living Light gatekeeper, could do nothing Monday to stop the convoy of U.S. Forest Service law enforcement sport utility vehicles from rolling down Forest Service Road 505 to enter the Rainbow gathering's main camping area.

"They have been coming up all day since yesterday, in and out, with mounted officers too," Gigi said before the 6 p.m. patrol that immediately shut down the road into the gathering.

Routt National Forest supervising forester Kent Foster said a squad of 30 law enforcement officials was brought in from across the country to prevent resource damage and enforce rules and regulations.

"Our biggest concern is fires," Foster said. "I checked things out the other day; they have their own internal fire watch to check untended fires, but I don't know how effective that is."

Michelle Sarubbi, a Forest Service law enforcement officer brought in from California, explained the stakes at the forest service road block.

"This is dead serious. I've done way too many evacuations, and what worries me is that there's only one way in and one way out," Sarubbi said. "There's no other means for fire and rescue. If there's a heart attack or stroke, your golden hour is gone."

Sarubbi said law enforcement teams moved methodically around campsites in the morning to gauge fire pits' proximity to dead trees, whether there was water and shovels nearby and to ensure that campers were aware fires needed to be monitored continuously and completely extinguished.

"If there's no fires or problems, then it's worth every word and every second spent," Sarubbi said.

The timing of enforcement teams' fire checks coincided with a National Weather Service Hazardous Weather Outlook Red Flag Warning issued Monday for eastern Utah and western Colorado. According to the service report, the combination of high temperatures, 30- to 40-mph wind gusts and low humidity created "critical fire weather conditions."

Much of the Routt National Forest also is filled with the dry fuel of dead trees affected by the pine beetle epidemic.

"There's an area stand that's 60 to 70 percent dead just east of where they are, some folks are already camped there," Foster said.

Inside the gathering, Rainbow campers at the centrally located supply site near the main water source were not concerned. Christopher and Blackfoot, a holistic medicine man, were tending a fire they used to boil stream water for portable use into "anything with a lid."

"We've got a shovel and a rake. I was here all last night watching (the fire). The weather's not going to be bad," said Blackfoot, who has attended and treated patients at Rainbow gatherings for 29 years.

"The law enforcement officers have been kind," Christopher said. "This gathering's for everyone, even them. We all have to behave to get along."

The cordial feelings may not last. Starting with Gigi, officers moved into the gathering area Monday evening, issuing illegal-gathering citations that require a mandatory summons before a federal magistrate. The officers also applied notices to vehicles informing participants they are in violation of federal regulations.

The Rainbow Family traditionally has resisted signing the Forest Service's free special-use permit for groups of 75 members or more.

"They see the permit as a way for us to control them," Sarubbi said. "The control is to protect the resources and to help them have a better experience and a better forest when they leave."

[font=&quot]The Forest Service estimates there are from 200 to 500 people at the gathering, with a constant flow of participants driving and hitch-hiking up to the forest roads north of Hahn's Peak Village.[/font]

 

Steamboat Pilot Journal: we been bumped to the front page of the newspaper:

Tensions run high in forest

Forest Service abandons checkpoint after incident with Rainbow group

By Matt Stensland

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

CLARK — The Rainbow Family peace gathering turned hostile Tuesday when a group of attendees began hurling rocks and sticks at law enforcement officers, U.S. Forest Service officials said.

The incident forced the officers to abandon a checkpoint they had established near the entrance to the Rainbow gathering campsite in North Routt County, Forest Service spokeswoman Diann Ritschard said. Officers had not returned to the checkpoint as of Tuesday afternoon.

The incident happened at about 11 a.m. and involved Forest Service officers who were manning the checkpoint set up to issue citations to anyone attempting to enter the gathering. Citations were being issued because Rainbow Family members had not signed a free Forest Service special-use permit, which is required for gatherings of 75 or more people.

Before the Tuesday morning incident, Forest Service officials were blocking people from entering the gathering and telling them to "turn around," Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said.

Officials said a group of about 100 people -- some of whom already were inside the gathering area -- participated in the incident. Other participants included people waiting outside the checkpoint who were told they could not enter the gathering, Ritschard said.

No arrests were made, and the officers left the scene because they did not want to escalate the situation, Ritschard said. No officers were injured.

"This incident will be investigated, and we're not exactly sure what course of action will be taken," Ritschard said. "The Forest Service is deciding what action to take."

In addition to Forest Service law enforcement officers, a Routt County Sheriff's Office deputy also was at the checkpoint at the time of the incident, Ritschard said.

"The Forest Service is very serious about the safety of our officers and cooperators," Ritschard said.

Also Tuesday, an incomplete special-use permit application was submitted to the Forest Service, Ritschard said. She said the application contained profanity where the applicant was supposed to write the location of the gathering. The application can't be accepted as submitted, Ritschard said.

Between 60 and 70 illegal gathering citations had been issued to Rainbow gathering attendees as of Tuesday morning. As many as 20,000 people are expected to attend the official peace gathering from July 1 to 7. About 500 people already have arrived.

Citations will be issued to people who use the closed trails or ignore other regulations, including:

■ Public nudity

■ Camping within 150 feet of any running stream or body of water

■ Placing kitchen facilities, food preparation areas, gray water pits or slit trenches within 300 feet of any running stream or body of water

■ Placing kitchen facilities, food preparation areas, gray water pits or slit trenches within 150 feet of any open road

■ Cutting any standing trees in the area described as: north of Forest Road 505, west of Forest Road 498, south of the private property in Big Red Park and east of Forest Road 500.

Also, about 15 miles of National Forest system motorized trails (numbers 1204 and 1199) near the Rainbow gathering have been closed. Ritschard said the trails were closed to keep the public away from the gathering.

"Most people would enjoy (trails) more at a place that is less congested," Ritschard said.



___Throwing rocks, huh? that's not what I've heard from eyewitness acounts. Rainbow kids say that they Om-ed the feddies away. FS says people threw rocks at them. Who's version of the story do you believe

 

Slightly different article from the Denver Rocky Mountain News, with comments from His Robness:

"Peace flees somewhere over the Rainbows ...

Forest Service says communal group menaced officers

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
June 21, 2006


It's not starting out with an abundance of peace and love.

Federal forest officials Tuesday clashed with members of the Rainbow Family north of Steamboat Springs, where the free-spirited tribe plans to hold its annual summer gathering of as many as 20,000 celebrants next month.

The 35th annual Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes for World Peace & Healing is to be held July 1-7 in the Routt National Forest but so far hasn't gotten a special-use permit.

Denise Ottaviano, an information officer for the National Incident Management Team, said about 15 U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers were forced to abandon a safety-and-information checkpoint after being encircled in a hostile manner by more than 200 Rainbows.

The conflict was sparked by the U.S. Forest Service's decision to start issuing citations to early-bird Rainbow campers entering the Hahns Peak-Bears Ears Ranger District - roughly 30 miles north-northeast of Steamboat Springs - without a special-use permit.

Ottaviano said the permit is required for a gathering of more than 74 people on Forest Service land.

About midday Tuesday, Ottaviano said, "a group of between 60 to 80 Rainbows started approaching the law enforcement officers from the interior of the gathering area in a very hostile manner.

"They broke up into groups and started surrounding the law enforcement officers at the checkpoint, and that incited the group of about 200 that was outside of the gathering area to then also approach and join in with the group that was already there, and start surrounding the law enforcement officers."

Ottaviano said that when the officers saw they were encircled, they drew their weapons but did not fire. They were then able to get into their cars and leave.

News of trouble in a planned paradise 10 days before the start of the Rainbows' mass summer reveries didn't sit well with Rob Savoye. He's a 47-year-old Rainbow Family member who lives near Nederland and helped locate this year's gathering site. He wasn't present at Tuesday's confrontation.

The problem with securing the required permit for the use of the federal land, Savoye said, is "nobody is in charge (of the Rainbows), and so nobody can sign a permit.

"We always say, anybody who looks like they're in charge, obviously isn't."

That reasoning won't wash with the feds.

"They have the constitutional right to gather on national forest system land, as does any group for any reason," Ottaviano said. "But they also have the legal responsibility to obtain the free special-use permit."

The Rainbows' permitting conflict has been played out for several years in a row, Savoye said.

"The last several years, somebody - most of the time unbeknownst to the rest of us - typically just jumps out of the woodwork to sign a permit, to save everybody from harassment," said Savoye, who describes himself as the Rainbows' "self-appointed Web site maintainer."

The Rainbows' literature describes the purpose of their annual summer communing with nature and one another as "expressing our sincere desire that there shall be peace on earth, harmony among all people."



brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742"

 

Wonder when the LEOs & FS are going to realize that the fire danger of the Gathering area is going to drop once them hippies get all that dead wood cleaned up? Many kitchen & fire watch folks were in WY and helped fight that big fire; our kitchen folks developed newer & safer cook stoves every year after that. The cook stove in MT was all rock, 2 1/2 feet of the ground with wind protection on 3 sides and plenty of clear ground in the cooking room (the kitchen was so big in MT that we had a cooking room, a prep room, a kid room & a front room, plus the bliss pit & 2 hidden supply tents!)

 

Refering to a No shirt, No shoes, No service sign.
"I had to put it up," Saari said of the sign. "You can't come in here with no shoes. This is an old country store - my floor couldn't take it."

I've had to stop going barefoot in my house, because I kept putting holes in my floor, my feet are dangerous. I wear combat boots to bed now, they are less destructive.

 

wow it sure starts off negative & way way down towards the bottom turns positive with the store ownders saying how nice & freindky we are & how they plan on going to the gathering
wonder how many locals read past the 1st few paragraphs though

 

Somehow I don't think a bunch of people saying Om would be enough to make FS leave.

 

no my guess is there was a permit signed tween then an now.. :H

 

it certainly could, theyre threattened by offers of hugs & 200 people united in an om would scare the shit outta them
i've seen them chased away by hugs before

 

hhehehhehe they want hugs without bugs!!

heheheheehehehhe

 

wow something we have in common.. there uniforms just make them not understand..

 

outta uniform theyre no different then us, ya gotta remember that.
leavin cali we stopped at a convienience store 4 states away (driver was real sick ..ocpd..& needed to get to er) we asked a cop to call us an ambulance & the cops like "hey, dont take this the wrong way, but are you guys commin from a rainbow gathering?" we were shocked by the question being so far from cali at this point & he goes on to say "i worked a gathering a few years back & i just cant wait to go back to one outta uniform, you guys are all so vcool, sure ya might smokealil weed & muncha buncha shrooms but ya'll are so peavceful, i just loved it" really made ya think..these guys in these uniforms are jst people with belly buttons doin a job they may hate, acting the way they are told to act
they maybe pricks in uniforms syure, but you many times get from them what u give em, u act confrontational or be an asshole to em & ya get beat up & dragged away in cuffs, but if u treat em with the respect & courtesy & freindliness u do all your brothers & sisters they do respond toit & they leave feeling the ol rainbow love we all feel..its theyre gathering too, make it good for them even if they're there to make it bad for you (dont worry they cant possibly riun it)

 

Amen

 

From the Colorado Springs Independant, too long to cut and paste into here:
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2006-06-22/cover.html

 

best article so far, & the only 1 i've seen that did any real research & approached it trying to understand all sides

 

goodness me goodness me,, ya meen mouse is famous now???





man that article at a quick browse took my ass home an made me smile!!

ill read it thru,, well not right now,,..
luvin you turn up..

hehheehhee

 

Ahh, I also give big thanx! With all this talk of trouble from the leos I was getting a little scared I wasn't going to get home, but to read this and see the pics made me smile and my soul can't wait to be home Sunday!!!