BURNS, Ore. (AP) – The leader of a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in southeastern OR said Monday he and his followers are going through government documents stored inside refuge buildings.
Advertisement
Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation stand guard at the Burns Municipal Airport, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Burns, Ore.
As the occupation of an OR national wildlife area enters the second week, the armed militia is recognizing that if they are really going to stay there forever then they are going to need some supplies.
The department manages the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where an armed militia has occupied buildings since January 2.
Ammon Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.
A group of armed protesters took more action on Monday at a wildlife refuge in Burns.
Ken Salazar, a former secretary of the Interior and a graduate of Colorado College, told reporters in a conference call, “These findings show us that the Bundy family, their militant supporters and the politicians who sympathize with them are far out of touch with most folks living in the West”. “If they did, they, too, would work to bring this situation to a peaceful close“.
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.
“Any movement of cattle onto the refuge or other activities that are not specifically authorized by USFWS constitutes trespassing”, he said in a statement.
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward has asked the group to leave, and called them outsiders who “hijacked” the peaceful protest over the convicted ranchers, father and son Dwight and Steven Hammond, in order to advance their own agenda.
A crew used a Fish and Wildlife excavator to destroy the fence, and Bundy said the removal is “The first step of many in restoring ranchers’ rights”.
Walden said that frustration stems from constant pressure by environmental groups who want to leave public land untouched and from the arrogance exhibited by some federal government bureaucrats who don’t follow the law and disregard the opinions of residents in the rural region.
At a community meeting of a few hundred people in Burns, Franki Gould told CNN that she wants the protesters gone.
Ammon Bundy reiterated that message when he said “a war among the people” is possible. Pete Santilli, an alternative militant journalist, spoke into his web camera and commented that if a business or homeowner’s property was left in that condition they’d be shut down and have their kids taken by the state. The ranchers served their time and went back to raising livestock to fulfill the beef desires of hungry Americans, until a judge determined they had not spent enough time behind bars and sent them back to prison.
Advertisement
Ward said he’s been told by officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that their employees have encountered similar incidents.
