The self-proclaimed “Citizens for Constitutional Freedom”, started by a rancher from Nevada named Ammon Bundy, appear to be a group assembled for the sole objective of forming a group and finding somewhere to take a stand. On Jan. 2, the group occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Oregon.
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BURNS, Ore. (AP) An Oregon rancher whose cattle graze next to the national wildlife refuge that an armed group is occupying says he didn’t give them permission to enter his property and remove part of a fence.
Harney County covers more than 10,100 square miles. They also want the release of Dwight and Steven Hammond, father-and-son ranchers convicted of arson who returned to prison earlier this month to serve longer sentences.
A man representing hunters and anglers, who arrived in OR from New Mexico this weekend, condemned the Bundy group at the news conference.
“I wish it were different circumstances, but we do love it”, Tammy DeLange, manager of Bella Java & Bistro, said. “Those individuals illegally occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge need to decamp immediately and be held accountable”, she said.
At community meetings about the situation, some residents in Burns have called for the group to pack up and go home, while others said they were grateful that the occupation has raised the discussion of land management to a broader audience. He said many sheriff’s offices across the state, along with city police departments and Oregon State Police, are addressing militia activities outside the refuge, including reports of harassment and intimidation of residents, federal employees and law enforcement officers. The group then took over buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and refused to leave despite appeals by Harney County Sheriff David Ward. Like many ranchers in the West, Bundy was upset about a lack of access and enhanced restrictions on the use of public land that has been utilized for livestock cultivation for generations.
“I thanked them for what they were doing”, one resident said.
Bundy is claiming to represent sportsmen and ranchers and is demanding those federal lands be handed over to the states. Cliff Bentz, a Republican state representative whose district includes Harney County, has also taken a stand against the occupation.
“It was instigated by outsiders whose tactics we Oregonians don’t agree with”.
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Meanwhile environmental groups have announced they’ll hold rallies in OR and Washington to support national public lands and federal workers who oversee them.
