Oregon Sheriff Says Militia Has ‘No Intention’ of Leaving Federal Land

Harney County Sheriff David Ward told the crowd.

Bundy’s group seized buildings Saturday at the nature preserve in eastern Oregon’s high desert country.

Cowboy Dwane Ehmer, of Irrigon, Ore., a supporter of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, walks his horse Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, near Burns, Ore.

A lawyer for the Hammond family has said the occupiers do not speak for the family.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has urged the protesters to leave, as have members of the Burns-Paiute Tribe, which used to live on the wildlife refuge land. During that time, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward tried to reason with Bundy and facilitate the group’s surrender of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward met Thursday with Bundy.

The sheriff’s office said the two sides planned to talk again on Friday.

The group led by Ammon Bundy says they intend to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters until jurisdiction of the federal land is put back under the control of the county.

Bundy’s group – calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom – comes from as far away as Arizona and MI.

Locals said they sympathized with the armed group’s complaints about federal land management policies but disagreed with their tactics. This rural county was thrust into the national spotlight when a protest in support of two local ranchers convicted of federal arson charges splintered, and a group of armed militants took over a federal wildlife refuge.

Ward told Bundy that the community wanted the group to leave, and he would help them leave peacefully.

Law enforcement has not had a visible presence at the refuge, a mecca for birdwatchers, since Saturday when militia members including sons of Cliven Bundy – who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights in Nevada in 2014 – set up a roadblock, took over buildings and began occupying the federal land. Ammon Bundy said to Ward, “We pose no threat to the community whatsoever now”.

During that meeting, Ward told Bundy that he was seeking a peaceful resolution to the almost week-long standoff and offered to escort the occupiers out of Oregon.

Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which studies extremist groups, says some ranchers who have legitimate grievances with the federal government have been influenced by what he calls fringe ideologies, including some that anticipate a war by so-called patriots against the government. They say they are protesting the imprisonment of two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, who have been sentenced to prison for arson on federally owned land.

“They are waking people up”, said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resident. “Until they can do that, we will be here for them”. In October, a court decided that the Hammonds hadn’t served enough time, citing that the minimum sentence for their offense should be five years.

“It is frustrating when I hear the demand that we return the land to the people, because it is in the people’s hand – the people own it”, Eardley said.

The Hammonds, who turned themselves in to authorities on Monday, have said they started a fire in 2001 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and to protect their property from wildfires, CNN affiliate KTVZ-TV reported.