Armed group calls meeting to talk with Oregon community

A Dont Tread On Me flag flies at the entrance of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, near Burns, Ore.

The armed occupiers who took over a federal wildlife refuge aren’t just wreaking havoc on this OR community, the local sheriff said – they’re also altering the refuge to their liking.

The Oregonian reports (http://bit.ly/1RK65f6 ) that a leader of the anti-government group told reporters on Tuesday that the meeting will be held Friday evening in Burns, 30 miles from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

LOS ANGELES, United States-A small group of armed activists who have occupied a remote wildlife refuge in OR ratcheted things up a notch Monday by destroying fencing surrounding the federal property.

Ammon Bundy, the son of anti-government Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and others have been hunkered down in the wildlife refuge since early January. The winter break was extended by a week at all schools in the district because of the standoff, but residents said a sense of normality was returning.

It started out as a protest against the sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, two ranchers convicted of arson on federal lands in Oregon.

“I’m going to send Mr. Bundy a fine when we’re done”.

But some people are coming from afar to protest the protesters, according to CNN affiliate KTVZ.

So far, there has been only one brief meeting between Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward and the armed occupation’s de facto leader, Ammon Bundy.

A skid-steer loader with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service emblem prominently on the side was brought in to help remove the barbed-wire fence and fence posts that mark the border between a section of the refuge and private land.

Eighty percent of respondents said they support future presidents using the act to protect national monuments, while 75 percent said issues involving public lands, waters, and wildlife are an important factor in deciding whether to support an elected official.

Ward said after a recently issued “call to action”, more armed protesters and “outside militia members” have begun to show up.

He said officers and employees have reported being followed to their homes and observed while inside and that self-identified “militia members” have tried to engage them in debates about their status as federal employees.

“There is a very clear threat to BLM employees”, Eardley said, but he did not cite any specific threats. “They claim to be here in peace, but we continue to see behavior by some that is concerning”.

Ward said that law enforcement agencies – including sheriff’s deputies from other counties around the state, Oregon State Police troopers and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents – “will not be intimidated from doing their jobs”.

“Any movement of cattle onto the refuge or other activities that are not specifically authorized by USFWS constitutes trespassing”, said Jason Holm, assistant regional director for external affairs at the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Because of that (and the damage they’ve incurred on both the refuge and to the local economy), Harney County Judge Steve Grasty said the county would bill the terrorists anywhere from $60,000 and $75,000 a day to recoup the costs the county is now absorbing. They are not peaceful protesters, who use methods of civil disobedience to achieve their goals.

“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”, Garrett VeneKlasen, a protester with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said.