Some who can’t work away from the refuge have taken administrative leave, while others are working from home or another office. At a town-hall meeting Monday night, Harney County sheriff Dave Ward told the militants their stay was limited.
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But Ward said he is “keeping all options open”.
A lawyer for the Hammonds has said the group does not speak for the Hammond family.
“If they take down the fences, it hurts the Refuge, but it also destroys the positive conservation impacts reaped from decades of direct collaboration and sweat equity paid by the Harney County (and surrounding) communities, ranchers, landowners, partners and friends”.
“They claim to be here in peace, but we continue to see behavior by some that is concerning”, he wrote. Bundy is the son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who in 2014 was at the center of a tense standoff with federal officials over grazing rights. He also said he won’t leave until a father and son rancher are released from prison.
Grasty has been strongly critical of the militants – who he calls “armed thugs” – and their plot to take over the county government, even as he complains about the same federal land use issues that drew the outsiders to Harney County. “I think it behooves us to get to the bottom of it and find out what is actually fact on the ground”. That cause includes turning control of federal land over to local ranchers.
The group had planned to hold a meeting Friday evening in Burns to explain themselves and inform residents when they will leave.
Watch a local report on the story in the video above, via KTVZ.
Leader Ammon Bundy told reporters that Harney County officials won’t let them use the fairgrounds, as they had hoped.
VeneKlasen is taking a stand against members of the armed militia that seized the refuge in Burns, Oregon.
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”.
“It appears that he must be trying to hide something because he’s getting very belligerent towards the Committee of Safety and, of course, towards us”, Bundy said.
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“And I just want them to go home so I can feel safe and I can feel like it is home again”, 15-year-old Ashlie Presley said with tears in her eyes, referring to the armed men. “And time is going to run out”.
