Colorful little guys though...
Posted on 06/23/2006 10:56:13 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - A request for a permit for what's often described as a huge gathering of hippies was denied Thursday as U.S. Forest Service officials expressed concern over wildfire danger and frustration at trying to work with the group.
About 2,000 people have showed up at the Rainbow Family's gathering spot on Routt National Forest land about 30 miles northeast of here. The weeklong July 4th event is expected to draw between 15,000 and 20,000 people to the forest.
"The group showed up without any coordination with the forest service, even after numerous attempts," forest Supervisor Mary Peterson said in a statement. "Events of this magnitude require planning and careful consideration of public safety and natural resource protection. No one is exempt."
Peterson said they first tried working with members of the group in September. They received a request for a permit on Tuesday.
In rejecting the request, Peterson said conditions were ripe for large fires as 60 to 70 percent of the surrounding forest is dead or dying from an extensive beetle epidemic. Only one road leads into and out of the area, which would be inadequate in case of a fire.
No contact information was immediately available for the Rainbow Family, which touts itself as having no leaders, and no organization.
Forty-two people from the National Incident Management Team and the Routt County sheriff's department were patrolling the gathering. More than 200 violation notices have been issued, so far.
On Monday, forest service officers drew their shotguns and abandoned a checkpoint after a group of about 80 people surrounded their vehicle. The officers left without firing a shot and there were no injuries.
The group gathers each year on public lands. Last year, about 15,000 turned out for the event in Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia and the 2004 event drew about 19,000 to the Modoc National Forest in California.
Two motorized trails near the gathering near Big Red Park have been closed through Aug. 20 because it could take that long for all the participants to leave.
Relocate them to the Nevada desert, preferably the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Then they can have a glowing good time.
This is a disaster in the making.
Bummer. What a drag, man.
Call Cartman!
Normally the rainbows don't get violent for real, but with the fire hazard as high as it is, and the rainbow gathererings as self-indulgent as they are, it's not a good combination.
We had the Rainbow family gathering in Dillon MT back in the summer of 1999 I believe, and the Hell's Angels run in Missoula at the same time. The Rainbow crowd was passing through Missoula when the Hells Angels were in town and there were three cops for every Hell's Anngel member. It was quite the attraction. The Rainbow crowd was pissing off the Hell's Angels banging thier drums and antagonizing the cops. The HA guys were telling the cops that if they don't do something about the hippies that they would. Later there was a riot between the cops and hippies. The Hell's Angels and the people who came to watch the Bikers and their bikes were very entertained. It was hilarious.
It was reported in other accounts, but not this story, that the hippies threw rocks at the Forest Service officers. The use request they submitted was full of expletives and only partially filled out.
In the immortal words of Colorado native Eric Cartman, "Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad. "
And at a mass gathering, they put the hurt on the places they camp, leave a huge mess of trash and excrement, and act like they have every right but no responsibility to the land....
The Rainbow crowd also cleaned out the local food bank on their way to their gathering.
I bet it was...given a choice between having to deal with a biker run and a rainbow gathering, I'd choose the biker run every time...
No matter how this plays out, the Forest Service needs to go in there afterwards, document the destruction, and get it on the national news. Then the next location can be ready with an appropriate police response.
Now I see how serious a hippie infestation can be. I mean, come on... two months?
GET A JOB!!!
Problem is getting the MSM to carry it, I believe. It does get documented...but because the rainbow people are a distributed network with no official leaders, it's mighty hard to prosecute.
I do believe even the requirements to get permits for big gatherings happened because of the rainbow people gatherings...
Colorful little guys though...
"Relocate them to the Nevada desert, preferably the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Then they can have a glowing good time."
Why do you want to kill them? Have they done something to you or are you just being sarcastic? I've met these people and while they're rather wacky, well, extremely wacky, they're no danger to anyone. They treated an armed, Tennessee Redneck (me) really well.
There is a rise in shoplifting, though...
That's the real problem...they come in in numbers the infrastructure can't handle, make everybody around them miserable, make a big mess, and they don't care. They're communing with nature. It's like a New Orleans Mardi Gras coming in and just as messy...but not as nearly profitable.
Pure sarcasm. No harm intented.
I believe that the danger they cause is the same as with any parasite. They consume without regard for their environment, they damage their host, and they produce nothing positive.
LOL!
But there really is a most serious beetle epidemic...and it's world wide. And they are not exactly sure why.
Yes...shoplifting, and many other petty crimes as well. Several laundromats here were damaged extensively when they tried to overload the machines in order to wash and dry as many clothes as possible in one machine in order to save money. Yes, I know...it surprised me that they cared enough to launder their clothes too.
"I believe that the danger they cause is the same as with any parasite. They consume without regard for their environment, they damage their host, and they produce nothing positive."
What would you suggest we do with them? Perhaps a nice re-education camp would be appropriate? I rather liked their sense of freedom and I never noticed them trashing anything up at their campsites. They were peaceful, non-violent and they loved their children. As for producing anything positive, what do you consider positive? Who should their role-model be, Gordon Gekko?
You could about fill Sedan crater with 15,000 of them.
You never noticed them making a mess?
sigh...Nevermind.
"You never noticed them making a mess? "
I was there the entire time they were camping and they cleaned up everything. They even had a special clean-up squad that stayed behind to make sure all the trash was gone.
Maybe they've changed over the years. Do you have personal experience with the "Rainbow Tribe"?
"a permit for what's often described as a huge gathering of hippies"
"weeklong July 4th event is expected to draw between 15,000 and 20,000 people to the forest."
" conditions were ripe for large fires as 60 to 70 percent of the surrounding forest is dead or dying from an extensive beetle epidemic."
"No contact information was immediately available for the Rainbow Family, which touts itself as having no leaders, and no organization."
---THIS IS RIPE FOR "DARWIN'S AWARDS" IF A FIRE DID BREAK OUT :)
Do you realize how much excrement has to be removed from one of those big camps?
It's not any one of them. It's the overloading of the infrastructure, too many people on an area of land not set up to handle that many people, not enough toilets, not enough water, not enough trash removal facilities. It's all the guys who pee in the creeks. It's all the doggie refuse. it's all the food wrappers.
And just that many people walking around on a piece of ground has a big impact, too, setting up their camping equipment, sleeping...the more numbers you have, the more impact.
It all has to be cleaned up.
It might be different if these people paid for the clean up, the cost of enough portable potties, trash removal, landscape restoration. They haven't been noted for this in the past.
There have been years where the locals have had to haul water to these people because it was too hot and they were having dehydration problems.
This time, they are camping in an area with a high fire danger.
Extra potential problems.
But aren't they the Rainbow group? Aren't they all gay? No, Wait! They're part of Jessie Jackson's group! No, wait . . . I'm so confused. Nevermind.
Let them follow the rules like everyone else, or they can stay home. Their type of 'freedom' comes with us, the taxpayer, bearing the responsibility. Taxpayers have to pay the tab resulting from their free sex, and their liberal votes.
Excellent explanation.
Hey, I wasn't trying to make you mad.
People do forget the logistics. Probably comes from living in cities where so much of it's set up for us so we don't see it.
If I were mad, I would never tell you to have a nice day.
I just don't see any reason for this type of argument. There's no fruitful point, and I'm not that hard up for entertainment.
:-)
Oh, those peace-loving hippies!
I don't know about that. The forest service personnel felt threatened enough to abandon their posts when they were surrounded by 80 people who were, according to some reports, throwing rocks at them.
Too true. They are truly disgusting. I saw what they did to some forest service land near Taos, NM one summer. Being stewards of the land isn't on their priority list.
There's a lot of work to restoring even a well-kept camp site. People don't realize that the taxpayers are paying the tab, mostly.
I've just seen the result of multiple ones out west...and they are not delightful to the locals.
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