"Incident Management Team" Casper WY Article RE: Rangers
- From: Neo McKennedy <SMcQuiggin@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:07:29 -0700 (PDT)
By CHRIS MERRILL
Star-Tribune environment reporter
Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:04 AM MDT
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@xxxxxxxx or at (307) 267-6722.
.
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