RADICAL RANCHERS OCCUPY MALHEUR BUILDING

Once again in-your-face ranchers are trying to show that the federal government cannot control when and where they graze their free ranging cows…or hunt.  This time the case involves eastern Oregon ranchers and the case is in court in Burns so the supporters of free free-range grazing and lack of government regulations have decided to make their point by occupying the HQ building of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  The occupiers manage to overlook the arson and poaching charges as irrelevant, or maybe just men being men?  They want the federal land put under local control.

Malheur is a refuge first created over a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt, himself considered a radical within his own Republican Party at that time.  He was one of the few Presidents in U.S. history who did not put business interests of large corporations ahead of everything else while in office.

These occupiers are the political cousins of the group of ATV riders who trashed another piece of public property in Utah, tearing up trails and landscape.  There are abroad in America self-selected groups of white males who think “public” means they should be entitled to shoot, burn, trash, ride rough-shod in polluting vehicles and graze all they want regardless of what the rest of the country and population would prefer to see done with our collectively owned land.  They may honestly believe they represent a righteous movement of the downtrodden.

Here you can read Portland Audubon’s statement on the occupation and the risks to the wildlife and the refuge habitat.

Here is one pertinent and critical section of this statement: “The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions—the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups.”

Here is one updated news report on the situation.  This makes it clear that this action is being taken by a group considering themselves a militia in opposition to the federal government.  The occupiers are already talking up the possibility of violence.  One prominent talking point among similar right-wing groups is the fire-fight and destruction of a Waco area cult years ago in Texas.

Here’s some further explication if you don’t follow right-wing politics in your daily life.

I have personally led at least a dozen birding trips to Malheur in recent years and visited a couple times on my own.  It is woncderful place precisely because hunting, burning and ATVs are controlled so that wildlife may survive. Malheur NWR is bordered by many square miles of private ranch land.  Fortunately, this is the slow time of year, bird-wise and hopefully this will be settled before spring migration.  First event annually is the Burns bird festival in April, probably the single biggest event of the year for tiny town of Burns.  There are less than 8000 people in the whole of Harney County which is huge.