Feds Plan To Cut Power To Oregon Refuge Occupied By Militia

Saturday’s takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Oregon, marked the latest protest over federal management of public land in the West, long seen by conservatives in the region as an intrusion on individual rights.

“The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk”, the Audubon Society of Portland said in a statement on the occupation, now in its third day.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward said the Hammonds reported to court on Monday. Lawyers from the Hammonds have sought to disassociate themselves from the occupiers, saying that the action did not represent their clients’ will. It is time for you to leave our community.

The group is led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of Cliven Bundy, who made national news in 2014 during a weeks-long armed standoff with federal officials over grazing rights. LaVoy Finicum said when asked about the school closures, pointing in the direction of the city.

“I need to get home”, he said.

“If they cut it off, that would be such a crying shame, all the pipes would freeze”.

The Oregonian also reports that Ammon Bundy tried to recruit several militiamen from the local community into the cause, but they declined to join.

Ward is also expected to hold a community meeting Wednesday, where he plans to talk to residents about the impacts the community has faced since the refuge was taken over, a sheriff’s official told BuzzFeed News.

Environmentalists and others say federal officials should run the land for the broadest benefits to business, recreation and the environment.

A Twitter page under Bundy’s said the group had no intention of leaving the refuge until its conditions are met.

The occupation of the refuge reflects a decades-old dispute over land rights in the United States, where the federal government controls just over half of territory in 13 states.

While he sympathizes with the militants’ overarching message decrying government land control and its impact on private enterprise, the rancher said he disagrees with their approach. A judge later ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

“They (the federal government) are coming down into the states and taking over the land and the resources, putting the people into duress, putting the people into poverty”, Bundy said, wearing a brown hat and flanked by supporters.

The Hammonds have set themselves apart from the armed movement, and from Bundy in particular.

John Freemuth says most Oregonians are appalled at the confrontation sparked by outside activists “who have rolled in, armed and threatening, and have gone way beyond what the local folks were protesting”.

The few exceptions include ranches like the one owned by the Hammond family, whose troubles with the BLM served as a catalyst for this week’s standoff.

The Hammonds were found guilty in 2012 of setting a string of fires, including a 2001 blaze that federal prosecutors said was meant to cover up evidence of deer poaching, that wound up burning 139 acres (56 hectares) of public lands. Al Jazeera wrote about the perceived double standard on reporting of the issue – many posited that if the protesters were black or Muslim, they would be referred to as terrorists or thugs.

She added if there was something to tell the militia, it’s “go away”.

The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands and Ammon Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.