Armed group going through government documents

Burns, Ore.- (KTVZ) As the occupation of a southeast OR wildlife refuge entered its second week Monday, the leaders of the takeover cut fences – at the request of a local rancher, they said – as part of their plan to return the federal land back to the people of Harney County.

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. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages the wildlife refuge.

“We can’t get things to normal until we unite as a community and ask these folks to go home so we can start working together”, he said to raucous applause at a community meeting of a couple hundred people. “In addition, self-identified militia members have attempted to engage employees and family members in debates about their status as federal employees”.

Echoing Grasty’s sentiment at the meeting, Sheriff David Ward added, “There’s an hourglass, and it’s running out”.

Only Robert “LaVoy” Finicum spoke and he announced that his group of militants will leave the refuge and hold meeting in town where they will reveal their exit strategy.

The Harney County Sheriff’s Office and federal authorities have ordered the militia to leave the refuge, but those demands have been rebuffed.

They’ve also been going through government documents stored at the wildife refuge headquarters.

In Nevada, where the Bundy family ranches, sentiment was also relatively narrowly divided, with 52% saying they opposed transferring control and 39% supporting the idea.

Bundy has repeatedly described this as a grass-roots protest, one that splintered out of frustrations and anger during a planned public protest in support of two local ranchers in Burns on January 2.

“If I were the manager there, I’d turn off the heat and power and everything else and let them sit there in the cold and dark”, Rick Smith, a retired National Parks Service law enforcement official, recently told NPR. He did not provide any additional details about the meeting. The buildings are fenced off and secured by deputies around the clock.

The FBI has also stationed at the small Burns airport, which is now blocked by armed agents. Officials with the Harney County Joint Information Center declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation.

A reporter from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) witnessed members of the militia using computers, which are only accessible by employees with ID badges. In recent days, they issued a “call to action”, which resulted in the arrival of numerous outside militia members.

“They claim to be here in peace, but we continue to see behavior by some that is concerning”, Ward writes. There have been reports of harassment and vandalism as well, Ward said.

“There is a very clear threat to BLM employees”, Eardley said, but he did not cite any specific threats.

He says Fish and Wildlife workers have seen vehicles driving slowly or idling in front of their homes.