The group acted to allow a rancher access to what they said was public land, in a move condemned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.
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An armed group that has occupied a wildlife refuge in OR for more than a week plan to hold a community meeting on Friday to explain why they took over a building there and when they will leave.
Ammon Bundy, the leader of the armed group occupying an OR wildlife refuge, said Monday that he and his fellow occupiers are searching through government documents stored in the facility.
Why the government hasn’t just turned off the power at the building in Burns, Ore., is a question the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and local law enforcement officials have yet to answer.
Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, and Graham Hunt, R-Orting, were part of the delegation that met with local officials as well as protesters who seek to return the refuge – as well many other federal lands – to local control. The ranchers – Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond – distanced themselves from Bundy’s group and reported to prison Monday. Bundy says the Malheur occupation will not end until the Hammonds are freed and government prejudice against ranchers is exposed.
They’re angry and they want the armed protesters to get out.
Protesters have been examining federal files at the refuge headquarters.
Militia leader Ammon Bundy reportedly said that his group’s members had not breached the computers.
Asked if it was likely that another stand-off could in the future, as OR has a history of disputes between the Bureau of Land Management and ranchers, Mr McArthur said: “I hope not”. While the standoff in rural OR was prompted by the jailing of two ranchers convicted of arson, experts say the issue at the core of the dispute runs much deeper and concerns grazing OR timber rights as well as permits to work mines on government land in Western states. I hear a lot of jargon, I hear a lot of we want the Bundys out, but a the same time what is that going to take?
In addition, self-identified militia members “have attempted to engage (Fish and Wildlife) employees and their family members in debates about their status as federal employees”, Ward said in his statement.
But other people are coming from afar to protest the protesters, according to KTVZ.
“What I see is a lunatic fringe of extremists who have taken my land over”, said New Mexico Wildlife Federation executive director Garrett VeneKlasen.
A man representing hunters and anglers, who arrived in OR from New Mexico this weekend, condemned the Bundy group at the earlier news conference. “They are domestic terrorists”.
He said he received death threats via email and, at a community meeting last week, told Harney County residents that his parents had been followed in their auto and that his wife left town after her tires were slashed.
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“I shouldn’t have to be scared in my own hometown”, she said openly weeping as the adults at the meeting applauded her.
