Fire restrictions may greet Rainbows
Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
Published June 22, 2006 at midnight
A ban on open fires could be the next potential bummer for those attending the upcoming Rainbow Family gathering.
Denise Ottaviano, a spokeswoman for the National Incident Management Team of the U.S. Forest Service, said fire restrictions may be imposed in the Routt National Forest before the scheduled July 1 start of the weeklong Rainbow Family gathering there, about 35 miles north of Steamboat Springs.
Estimates of possible attendance at this year's event have topped 25,000.
"There are no fire restrictions currently on the Routt National Forest, but we are considering placing some fire restrictions in this area, possibly by early next week, and that will be in coordination with the county, as well," said Ottaviano.
The forest service and about 1,000 early-arriving members of the free- spirited Rainbows have been at odds already over the group's refusal - so far - to obtain a required free special-use permit to camp in the area of Big Red Park on the Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District.
Roughly 100 citations for assembling on the federal land without a special-use permit have been issued.
Whether or not that permit is obtained, the deliberately unorganized counterculture tribe - which refers to mainstream society as "Babylon" - might soon also be making do without campfires.
"A decision on starting fire restrictions will be based on the dryness of the forest and the potential for wildfires to start," Ottaviano said.
"We would still be considering fire restrictions even if the Rainbow gathering wasn't even there," she added. "Anybody who is around here knows it's dry, knows there hasn't been rain recently and that there are fires starting all over."
In an e-mail response to an inquiry concerning the threatened fire ban, a Rainbow already on scene who goes only by the name Henry the Fiddler wrote, "It would certainly be a problem."
brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742
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