“That was our main thing, just get to the truth and because BLM actions affect Washington, they affect Idaho, they affect OR, they affect Nevada-those are the legislators that are involved”, Shea said.
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The militant leader complained that Grasty would not allow the Committee of Safety, which is made up of six local residents selected by Bundy himself as a shadow government, to hold a meeting Friday evening on county property. The militants claim that these ranchers have been oppressed by the federal government and hope to draw attention to their cause.
Militiamen are still holding their position at a federal wildlife refuge in OR, two weeks after taking over. “Any movement of cattle onto the Refuge or other activities that are not specifically authorized by USFWS constitutes trespassing”.
The Citizens for Constitutional Freedom group engaged in the standoff have renamed the federal center the Harney County Resource Center to draw attention to their desire to have public lands removed from federal control and be placed under localized supervision.
Protester LaVoy Finicum told reporters the fence was making a local ranch “not profitable” and “hard to operate”.
Bundy met a day earlier with Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who asked Bundy to heed the will of locals and leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
The Oregon folks occupying the refuge have drawn widespread national ridicule for failing to plan properly for a prolonged stay. A Harney County judge is one of those observing the friction, and he apparently plans to send the group a bill for the security costs they’ve incurred for the community.
“We can work through it like adults, peacefully, with a united front”, Ward said. They are there to oppose federal land-management policies.
But other people are coming from afar to protest the protesters, according to KTVZ.
Even those who support the Bundys’ message want them now to leave. They say they’re there to protect both the local community and the Bundy group and that they are a neutral party.
“What I see is a lunatic fringe of extremists who have taken my land over”, said New Mexico Wildlife Federation executive director Garrett VeneKlasen.
“They’re terrorists”, he said. “They are domestic terrorists”.
“Some of those people are criminals”, Knezovich said of the armed men who continue to occupy the refuge.
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Local residents, increasingly unhappy with the takeover by the out-of-state group, expressed their frustration at a community meeting Tuesday night.
