Armed Oregon Occupiers Plan to Tell Town When They’ll Leave

The armed group that took over a federal wildlife refuge in OR more than a week ago will host a community meeting Friday to explain its position and announce when it will leave, one of the leaders of the group said, according to local media.

The group is inside part of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns after gathering outside for a demonstration supporting Dwight and Steven Hammond, father and son ranchers who were convicted of arson.

State Rep. Matt Shea recently visited an OR wildlife refuge that is occupied by armed protesters who want some federal lands turned over to local residents.

Residents of Harney County are reporting an increase in intimidating interactions with self identified militia members and other nonresidents, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said in a statement released Monday night.

Instead, Ward says members of the armed group have been harassing law enforcement officers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees as they go about their business in the community.

In the meantime, Bundy told reporters this week that the occupiers have been pouring through government records found inside the refuge buildings they’ve seized, searching for evidence of wrongdoing against local ranchers. Behind the standoff between ranchers and the US government in OR is a decades-old idea in the West to take back control of federal lands, a proposal that is gaining traction among the GOP and could garner even more momentum should the party recapture the White House this year.

The group tore down a stretch of government-erected fence near the refuge Monday to give a local rancher access to the range. She pointed to school closures caused by the occupation, overtime pay for law enforcement, and setting up a special command center as among the “huge costs” to the county. Late last week, the OR governor also asked the occupiers to leave. “Any movement of cattle onto the refuge or other activities that are not specifically authorized by USFWS constitutes trespassing”. Like many ranchers in the West, Bundy was upset about a lack of access and enhanced restrictions on the use of public land that has been utilized for livestock cultivation for generations. The activists are there to oppose federal land-management policies.

“There is not a stated threat”, one source said.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward speaks during a community meeting at the Harney County fairground on January 6, 2016 in Burns, Oregon.

“These are my public lands, these are your public lands, and what I see is a lunatic fringe of radical extremists who have taken my land over”, said Garrett VeneKlasen, a protester with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation.

“This refuge belongs to the American public”, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jason Holm to The New York Times.

“Harney County is not a wealthy county”, county spokeswoman Laura Cleland said Tuesday, adding it was “on a very strict budget”.