By Barbara Tetreault
BERLIN SUN
KILKENNY — With an estimated 350 Rainbow Family members already on site by Thursday, June 22, U.S. Forest Service officials report thousands more are expected to make their way to their annual gathering being held July 1-8 in the White Mountain National Forest. The numbers are predicted to reach 5,000 by July 4 when the event culminates with a community prayer for peace.
Local reaction to the gathering in the unincorporated place of Kilkenny has ranged from curiosity to opposition. Sixty-five people Thursday night tuned in to a virtual U.S. Forest Service public briefing on the gathering. During the question-and-answer segment of the briefing, the agency was asked why it was allowing the gathering to take place given that the Rainbow Family has not applied for a special use permit as required. The written question asked why the Forest Service did not evict the family members and asked if the National Guard could be used for that purpose.
Gene Smithson, commander of the Forest Service’s national incident management team, said it is correct that the Rainbow Family has never applied for a special use permit required for groups with over 75 people using the national forest. He said a permit application was delivered to them this week and the Forest Service will continue to seek their compliance. But, Smithson said, there are too many people for the Forest Service to evict.
“The numbers are too great to evict — physically evict and remove all of the participants at this point,” he said.
Another question asked if the Rainbow Family members will be ticketed for attending an unauthorized event on the national forest. While acknowledging technically it is a violation of federal law, Smithson said they are not planning to cite anyone for attendance.
“At this time, our management strategy is to try to gain compliance and educate,” he said, stressing the goal is to protect the natural resource and the public.
White Mountain National Forest Supervisor Derek Ibarguen said the Rainbow Family is as a loose knit group of people from across the United States and other countries that gather annually, and this year happened to pick the WMNF. He said the family claims it is an unorganized group and has no leadership that could apply for a permit. He said the Forest Service does not condone the group’s unauthorized use of the WMNF.
“We have significant concern with the location that’s been selected and the challenge of having 5,000 people there,” Ibarguen said.
But with the numbers increasing daily, Ibarguen said the focus has shifted to protecting forest resources, mitigating and minimizing impacts to the community, and protecting the public and incident responders. He said his staff has identified areas in the York Pond area that will be off limits to the gathering in order to protect the city’s water supply, the state fish hatchery, and Barry Summer Camp.
Ibarguen said the WMNF did not find out the group was coming here until June 12 and immediately started to coordinate with state and local agencies as well as Forest Service resource specialists and incident responders.
Ibarguen said Smithson and the incident management team arrived last week, bringing with it significant experience with Rainbow Family gatherings and tremendous staffing capacity, including law enforcement personnel.
He said there has been a significant amount of coordination already established with local emergency service providers, law enforcement, and hospitals.
Describing the gathering as a small city descending in the middle of the WMNF, Smithson said there will be some bad elements and the Forest Service will have law enforcement on the ground. He said extensive drug use is one common problem with the gatherings, estimating drug-related offenses make up 80 percent of law enforcement’s workload.
Responding to written questions submitted during the briefing, several people reported that they were yelled at and chased when they were in the Kilkenny area, Smithson advised people to report such incidents to Berlin Police dispatch. He said Berlin dispatch is providing dispatching for the Forest Service and will forward the report to officers on the ground.
Forest Service Public Information Officer Hilary Markin said the gathering location is on the Kilkenny Loop Road on an area of approximately 300 acres. She said a closure order is in place making the Bog Dam Road one way to allow access to fire and emergency vehicles. The speed limit was lowered to 25 mph on that road.
Family members have been on site for close to two weeks, building the camp kitchens that are spread throughout the site, laying water lines, and constructing latrines. Markin said the Forest Service has resource advisors and managers at the site, providing expertise and guidance. They are also collecting water samples, documenting existing conditions, and monitoring changes being made to the environment. The information will be used to gauge impacts from the gathering. Markin said the Rainbow Family has a clean-up crew that remains for a week or two after the gathering and works with the Forest Service staff to rehabilitate the site.
The Forest Service promised to update the public on the gathering, and information is being posted at https://www.fs.usda.gov.goto/rainbowgathering.
— This article is shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
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