LANDER - U.S. Sen. John Barrasso slammed the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thursday, calling the Forest Service's management of this year's Rainbow Family gathering "unacceptable."

Barrasso condemned what he called "the failures of the U.S. Department of Agriculture" to properly manage the gathering in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, in a letter he addressed to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer. He asked the secretary to give the situation in Wyoming "priority attention."

"The Rainbow Family Gathering displaced the Boy Scouts of America who had planned to do an ecological project," wrote Barrasso, R-Wyo. "In addition, livestock permittees, recreationists, cabin owners and lodge visitors are impacted by this gathering. All of these users have completed the appropriate permit process and worked with the agency to properly plan their activities."

The Rainbow Family, on the other hand, was not required to complete these steps, Barrasso wrote, and "has been allowed to displace all other users."

The senator said in the future that all public land users "must be held to the same standards and unauthorized users must not be tolerated."

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. This year's gathering is taking place in the Big Sandy area of the Wind River Mountains and will culminate on July 4.

The assembly is intended to be a celebration of peaceful living and love for the planet earth. It is also, famously, a so-called alternative congregation featuring craft trading, dancing, drum circles, Eastern-style meditation and prayer, and where varying degrees of nudity and drug use are not uncommon.

In an interview by telephone from his Washington, D.C., office Thursday afternoon, Barrasso said he'd been in contact with some of his constituents who use cabins in the Bridger-Teton and others who use the land for recreation. Some residents are upset, he said, because it seems they are required to live up to a higher standard than the Rainbow Family is.

"When you visit with cabin owners, you hear about regulations they must follow," Barrasso said. "They can't put out a hummingbird feeder. They can't string a clothesline between two trees, or they'll lose their ability to use these places. Meanwhile, they allow the entire Rainbow Family to do anything they wish."

Mary Cernicek, spokeswoman for the Bridger-Teton, said she hadn't yet seen a copy of the letter late Thursday, and because it wasn't addressed to the forest she couldn't respond specifically to Barrasso's concerns.

Asked about the absence of a permitting process for the Rainbow event, Cernicek said the USDA decided to use an "operating plan" instead, as a substitute for a permit, which in this case has requirements similar to those found in permits.

"It's the tool that the department chose to use to manage this event," Cernicek said. "The operating plan that the Rainbows will be gathering under does in fact give them limits and requirements that help us as a land management agency to ensure the welfare of the resource and the participants."

The operating plan will require the Rainbow participants to restore the site back to the way it was before they arrived, and will also include rules for fires, and such things as locations of latrines in order to protect water sources, she said.

Cernicek also noted that the decision to move the Boy Scouts' fence removal and wildlife habitat improvement project was made by the Boy Scouts of America, and not by the Forest Service.

Barrasso said Thursday he was disappointed that local and Sublette County officials were "shut out" of the planning process, as County Commissioner Joel Bousman argued last week.

In a previous interview with the Star-Tribune, however, District Ranger Tom Peters, the official who has been attempting to work directly with the Rainbow gathering, said it was only a matter of a few days between when the Forest Service was first notified about the Rainbows' choice of location and when they began arriving on site.

Policing the event

In his letter to Schafer, Barrasso asked the secretary to "please submit in writing your department's commitment to offset impacts to local government and public land users." He requested Schafer's "personal attention to this matter" to ensure the Forest Service will immediately "contain the Rainbow Family Gathering and maintain control of the situation."

Rita Vollmer, information officer with the Forest Service, said as of last week the Forest Service had assembled an incident management team in Wyoming of more than 40 law enforcement officers from throughout the United States, as well as police dogs and administrative personnel, to police the event.

And as of last Friday the agency had already installed rotating crews of officers to police the gathering around the clock, Vollmer said.

Resource advisers are also on site, she said, working with the Rainbows to "help manage and protect resources in the area and to minimize impacts to the local environment."

The incident team has set up a local magistrate court, Vollmer said, to process arrests and citations issued during the event.

In his letter Thursday, Barrasso indicated he felt these measures haven't been sufficient.

"Given the state of the current situation, it is incumbent upon your agency to commit personnel and resources to minimize conflict between the Rainbow Family and other public land users," Barrasso wrote.

Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com or at (307) 267-6722.