Rainbow Family - Controversy

Controversy

The environmental impact of the Rainbow Family is often significant; easily overwhelming the meager resources available at most National Forest campgrounds. Members of the Rainbow Family have previously used nearby medical facilities and have left significant bills unpaid, as well as costing local animal control agencies who treated parvovirus amongst the dogs at the Rainbow Gathering in 2006. Though the Rainbow Family removes its trash after a gathering, the Forest Service has criticized their cleanup efforts as being only "cosmetic" and "not rehabilitation by any stretch of the imagination." Cleanup crews have had to bury compost piles and cover fire pits.

Conversely, The Rainbows received high marks for their clean-up efforts after the Utah Nationals in 2003. "The Rainbows did a good job of cleaning up the site and following through with their commitments to restore the site," stated Stephen Ryberg, district ranger for the forest's Evanston and Mountain View districts. "Things went well from a resource standpoint."

Summit County health officials also had a positive assessment of the site, said Bob Swensen, environmental director for the agency.

"My opinion is, it looks as if no one had been there," Swensen concluded. "I'd have to give them an 'A' for their cleanup."

Similarly, in Montana in 2004, then governor Marc Racicot declared a 'state of emergency' because of the alleged coming environmental destruction of the Rainbows on the National Forest. A year later, Dennis Havig, the District ranger from the nearby town of Wisdom commented that “There were 23,000 people here and you can find virtually no trash. There’s an aspect of diminished vegetation, but you’d have to look hard to see the damage. The untrained eye isn’t going to see it.”

At the California National Gathering in 2004, in Modoc County, after public health officials reported speaking with their counterparts in Utah, opted to take preventive measures apart from law enforcement, which the Utah individuals found to be the source of many of the problems encountered at their event. The Public Health Department reported that the Forest Service officers were observed being confrontational and antagonistic towards the Rainbows at the Gathering site, which "did not facilitate a cooperative response from the Rainbows," the report states. "The explanation that was given is that this was an illegal gathering because no permit had been signed. However, even after the permit had been signed, this attitude was unchanged."

In July 2011 a woman, Marie Hanson, went missing in Washington State after attending a Rainbow Gathering event. The local Sheriff's office reportedly refused to use tracking dogs at the site, stating they were not sure a crime had taken place. In October 2011, human remains and jewelry were found near the woman's campsite.