A local judge in OR suggested this week that armed militia members occupying a federal wildlife refuge should pay as much as $75,000 a day to make up the cost that their standoff is imposing on the surrounding community.
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The armed protesters, few of whom are local, have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern OR since January 2.
Bundy, son of controversial Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and others started out protesting the sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, two ranchers convicted of arson on federal lands in Oregon. They said it was part of the group’s bigger plan to return federal land to residents of Harney County.
“Unfortunately, we have come to a place where the county must deny use of those facilities to any group associated with, supportive of or on behalf of the armed militants at the refuge”, said Harney County Judge Steve Grasty in a statement. He says he works with federal officials on land management and his employees have repaired the fence.
Though their case set off the occupation, the Hammonds have distanced themselves from the Bundy’s group.
Federal, state and local law authorities have been closely monitoring the situation at the refuge but have so far taken no action against Bundy and his followers, apparently to avoid a confrontation.
Jen Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, called on officials from all levels of government to condemn the armed occupation.
Harney County has told an Ammon Bundy-affiliated group of locals that it can’t hold a planned community meeting at the county-owned fairgrounds.
Local residents, increasingly unhappy with the takeover by the out-of-state group, expressed their frustration at a community meeting Tuesday night.
At a similar meeting Monday, a 15-year-old high school freshman received a standing ovation when she said the group should leave. “We’re still going to have it. It’s just a matter of when and where”.
But some residents also said they share the activists’ frustration with the federal government – though they don’t agree with their tactics.
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