Watch out! The Mutants are in town!
Forest service expects gathering of "autonomists" to disperse by Monday

By Kate Wennerstrom
The 12th annual Mutant Fest is taking place in the Ochocos this weekend, bringing several hundred self-described autonomists to the region.
"It's a mixed bag. It's a lot of different things going on. Basically, it's a large outdoor camping event," Mutant Fest participant Jacob Mooney said. "It's for people who want to be able to run their own show, their own life, create their own world and take responsibility for their community and themselves. A lot of the people that will be involved in this are creative artists, musicians, and performers."
While organizers of the event have been in the area located approximately 30 miles east of Prineville for about a week, the U.S. Forest Service was only recently notified of the group's presence.
"We just, I think, became aware of it either Wednesday night or the day before," Deschutes and Ochoco Forest Spokeswoman Sue Olson said. "It's very early to know exactly how we will be dealing with this. We're just getting preliminary reports at this point."
"I met with them today (Thursday)," Lookout Mountain District Ranger Bill Queen added. "I think their gathering is potentially going to grow to as many as 500 or 600 folks. It's started already. I think there's maybe up to 300 folks up there now (Thursday evening). By Monday, the bulk of those folks will have rooted themselves up and returned to wherever they're coming from. We would expect by a week from now, they'll be gone."
Mooney, who has attended the event twice before, continued to explain the purpose behind the festival.
"Every year it's in a different National Forest," he said. "We, as taxpaying citizens, have the right to be in our National Forests, gathering as we choose, as long as we're not committing crimes and such. It's open to anybody who wants to participate. It's a non-coercive, non-threatening, non-authoritarian environment. At the Mutant Fest, the rule is there are no rules. But there's also an unsaid rule that you don't infringe upon the happiness in other people getting to figure out what their way is."
Hoping for a positive outcome, Queen noted the agreeable nature of the four participants he met with on Thursday.
"What little information we have about the Mutant followers is that they tend to be more compliant. They tend to police themselves and they tend to be more responsible," he said. "Whether or not that's what happens with this gathering or not, obviously we won't know until it's over. They did agree to work with us on an inspection of the area once most of them have left. I found that to be, at least tentatively, somewhat reassuring that they intend to try and police themselves. We did issue them a non-commercial special use permit that we require at no fee for gatherings of 75 folks or more. It kind of outlines our basic requirements of them to keep the area free of litter and once they leave, leave it in a condition that is similar or better than the way they found it."
"My experience with the Mutant Fest is I've actually been surprised at how good a job people do in respecting the land," Mooney added. "Most of the people that are of the ..leave no trace' ethos will break down their camps, take all of their garbage and reposition the branches that they moved out of the way for their tents and things."
"I am pleased. I did take a look on their Web site and they say right on the home page to clean up after yourself and leave no trace," Olson said. "I'm really glad to see that on behalf of the forest."
"Something that local folks should be aware of, is there will be definite integrated federal, state and local law enforcement presence," Queen added. "Not particularly up there, but between town and up there. We certainly stressed that with the folks that we met, that they should also be trying to monitor themselves."