Richwood Welcomes Rainbow Gatherers

http://theintermountain.com/news.htm​

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Richwood Welcomes Rainbow Gatherers​

By LEAH DEITZ
Staff Writer

Local environmental officials said the Glady Fork site in Randolph County previously selected for the 2005 National Rainbow Gathering is environmentally sensitive and the event will be better accommodated in Pocahontas County.​

“There are known caves in the area that are hibernacula for endangered bats (Indiana Bat),” Shavers Fork Coalition Board member Ruth Blackwell-Rogers said. “These bats are now giving birth and lactating in the very woods that these Rainbow folk want to camp and they (the bats) are not so tolerant of a disturbance at this time.”
Rogers said she appreciates the environmental friendly history of the gathering, but the lactating bats would be harmed by the massive numbers of people expected at the gathering. “I can appreciate the Rainbow’s history of being light on the land, but maybe there is a better place,” she said. “Ordinarily people would be hiking through the area, (Glady Fork) but not in the kind of numbers expected (at the gathering).”
Rainbow campers said they scouted the area in search of bats and other endangered species and had not found them within the gathering site vicinity.
Running buffalo clover can be found at the Glady Fork site as well. However, the proposed J.F. Allen Co. limestone quarry at Bowden holds the second largest patch of running buffalo clover in the world, and Rogers said it will be destroyed if quarrying begins at the site.
Dan Saville, administrative assistant for the West Virginia Highland Conservancy, said although the Cranberry Glade area location in Pocahontas County was not the best choice on either the Forest Service or the Rainbows’ list, it represented a cooperation on both parties’ behalf.
“The site they (Forest Service officials and Rainbow Scouts) selected is actually down stream of the glades (Cranberry Glades) with large agricultural fields,” Saville said. “The Glady Fork site, which is on the steep banks of Shavers Mountain, does not have as many open fields or clearings.”
Saville also said the Indiana Bat, listed as one of the five endangered species, depends on the open spaces for insect foraging. “The Forest Service has some legitimately serious concerns,” he said. “They (Rainbows) won't have the endangered species issue at the glades and the Forest Service is currently identifying environmentally sensitive areas where they don’t want a large impact and those places will be closed off.
“It is absolutely a better site. It may not be the best site and I don’t think it was the No. 1 site on either list, but it’s a good compromise,” Saville said.
Richwood Mayor Bob Henry Baber said he welcomes the campers.
“Hey, we are glad you are here,” Richwood Mayor Dr. Bob Henry Baber said this morning. “The Rainbow people are good folks.”
Baber said the Rainbow campers are exactly what Richwood needs. “We need some folks to reinvigorate this town,” he said. “We can turn this town around; we just need some young people and some artisans.”
Baber hopes to get the opportunity to take Rainbow campers on tours of the town as well as read Appalachian stories and poetry to campers.
A Rainbow camper known as Glowing Feather said, “The Forest Service has not forced us to leave — we would have done that anyway after learning about the environmental issues in the area.”

 

please be sure an click on the link so ya can see the other story with this one..

 

first encouraging news i've heard so far thank you

 

Thanks for posting this. Maybe the winds (at least the online winds) are beginning to blow in a better direction with a sweeter fragrance