Come prepared to camp and be self sufficient. Bring your own bowls, cups, utensils, personal water containers, water jugs. Bring drinking water and/or personal filtering gear if you can. Tents or shelter, camping equipment, sleeping bags, blankets, mats, flashlights and extra batteries, camp shovel, camp tools, rope. Snacks for your tent & friends. Bring green energy for the magic hat and some bulk food for the kitchens. Stuff to share. Prepare for warm days and cool nights. Bring rain gear, layered clothing, hiking footwear, sunglasses, sunscreen & a hat. Bring toiletry supplies including extra toilet paper, menstrual necessities, biodegradable soaps & shampoos, first aid supplies. Bring acoustic instruments, drums. Please bring bags to take out your trash & recyclables. Please remove any trash or recylables from the gathering site any chance you may get. Cleanup starts when you get there!
Please do not bring any firewood into the Allegheny National Forest. Firewood brought onto the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) can only come from Warren, Forest, Elk and McKean counties. All other firewood (from all other PA counties or from out of state) will be confiscated by forest service personnel, checked for the emerald ash borer, and then burned.
What I don't understand IS : IF there was going to already be an "unwitting dupe, sacrificial lamb, or scape-goat" gotten to do the dastardly deed (ie: sign the permit, in fraudulenta) why give them more ammo (precedent) with a totally unasked for O.P. ??? Next they (the assH's in D.C.) will want siggies on both, allready they are mentioning multiple back-ups for their laison convenience.
(just ask'in, in my extra-humble sort of way) (not trying to start someth'in) (trying to be extra-nerfie cute and kind) (wouldn't want to cause any angst)
Here's what went down in PA (roughly) regarding the permit:
We went into this venture trying to get an approved operating plan in lieu of the permit, aka. "The Arkansas Option". We developed an ops plan weeks before the gathering and had a meeting on-site to discuss the operations plan well ahead of time giving the FS a chance to take care of any site-related issues (flag off archaeological areas, do soil/water analysis, etc)
We ask the local FS to make accommodation for our rainbow style gathering.
Local FS denies validly of "Arkansas Option" in this case.
Garrick et al write appeal letter to Mark Rey, John Twiss, other Washington Types asking for consideration and "Accommodations from rainbow style gatherings" as per "Arkansas Option"
Meeting of big-wigs FS gov't types happens on Monday at 10AM in DC.
We discover via Garrick that appeal is denied.
Thursday of the gathering (maybe it was Wednesday) Stovall (Deputy District Ranger) and Scardinia (District Ranger) visit gathering asking for a permit signer. Individuals on the land call for a "co-operation council".
Stovall, Scardinia sit in council, pass feather and explain their request for a permit signer. Individuals gathering talk about their feelings and concerns. Its all quite beautiful and most of it is on video tape.
All mention of "Rainbow Family" and language "Rainbow gathering" are removed from permit application. During the council.
A brother volunteers to sign the permit for "Individuals Gathering in Peaceable Assembly" the following morning if there are no objections. There are no clear objections. Council ends with the gathering basically telling the FS to come back in the morning and we'll let them know what we've discussed. As council is ending a sister from Michigan approaches the FS and volunteers to sign the permit and does so after some discussion.
So that's basically how the permit thing went down, others will correct any errors I've made or we could go to the video record.
Here's the strangest part of the entire interaction with the FS - there basically wasn't any. For the first few days of the gathering the FS LEO(s) did a few drive throughs along the road and parking lot but never walked into the site. The Deputy Ranger and District Ranger showed up a few times but only entered the site to attend council. Excluding the brief interactions that took place 3 weeks before the gather no resource people were to be seen anywhere, at any time. Very odd. They also never showed up to check out cleanup, but how would they have even known where to look having never visited the site once??
There were a few State Trooper LEOs who visited on horseback for a few consecutive days and basically left horse shit and trail damage everywhere they went but there were no tickets or harassment and they basically just seemed to be enjoying an excuse to take their horses through the woods.
Once the permit was signed all LEO presence vanished.
No tickets were issued to my knowledge barring one or two minor traffic infractions (driving without a license).
OK don't harsh the messenger (me) I'm permit neutral, but thats how it went down.