150 Militia Take Over Makhuer National Wildlife Preserve Headquarters

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The environmentalists side of the Malhuer Protest. The common denominator in these land grabs has been some environmental group sued the BLM to remove the cattle from the public land or otherwise cause hardships for the targeted rancher using endangered species acts or other environmental laws. Where do thes groups get their funding? Federal grants.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/0...s-and-feds.htm


Bundy Militia's Takeover Dreams Dashed by Bond Between Ranchers and Feds


By KARINA BROWN

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PRINCETON, Ore. (CN) - When Ammon Bundy took over the federal headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2, he hoped his presence would ignite an explosion of extremist activism in support of the conservative movement to seize control of federal lands across the American West. But his plans were thwarted by the unique bonds local ranchers, environmentalists and government employees forged over years of collaborative land management.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, who runs the local government alongside two county commissioners, said the community's close relationships immunized residents against the political agenda peddled by Ammon Bundy and his minions.

"We have it - a way forward," Grasty said. "That's why Bundy picked the wrong county. In 1999, it might not have been the wrong county. Things might have turned out worse. But this was the wrong time and the wrong county. Because we're moving things ahead."
The threat of similar standoffs over federally owned land is spreading across the American West. But officials at the highest levels of government say this remote rural community should serve as a model for the rest of the nation to emulate.

With Ammon Bundy and dozens of others in jail over the occupation of Malheur and the 2014 standoff at his father Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch, the movement to take public land out of federal hands could fizzle.

But it could also intensify, according to Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

"It may be that the FBI will break the back of the militia movement," Suckling said. "But it's too early to know. With the Bundys in jail, will new leaders rise up? The threat of another armed standoff is very real. And there is absolutely a very real threat of federal employees being harmed or possibly killed. But that's not just a threat. It's something that's really happening."

Since 1997, there have been between 15 and 42 violent attacks every year against employees of the Bureau of Land Management, according to a report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The FBI may have chopped off the head of the snake, but public lands watchdog group The Center for Western Priorities says that may not end the militia movement's push to "steal our public land."

"It's fair to say we're at a crucial juncture right now," Aaron Weiss, the group's spokesman, said. "The concern is extremist groups are still looking for a "constitutional sheriff" to give them cover. They believe that Bundy failed not because his message was flawed or because the community didn't support him but because [Harney County] Sheriff Ward didn't do his job.

"They live in a bizarro world where the sheriff has ultimate authority. There's zero backing for that legally. But they're looking for a sheriff to give them cover."


Unusually Strong Bonds in a Small Rural Community

Harney County, home to the refuge and 7,100 people in south-central Oregon, sprawls over horizons of flat sagebrush rangeland, towering slabs of mountains and wet meadows teeming with wildlife. Here in the high desert, a collaborative process of land-use planning has forged strong relationships between people with backgrounds that range from environmental activism and cattle ranching to birding enthusiasts and botanists. Together, they have pioneered a model of cooperative management of federal land that has made partners out of adversaries who, in other parts of the state, are more likely to end up on opposite ends of a lawsuit.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/0...Refuge%203.JPG Ammon Bundy's political arguments - that the federal government ignores the concerns of ranchers and makes ranching a dying way of life - resonated with some in this rural community. But most locals have personal relationships with the amorphous "feds" Bundy referred to in his daily news conferences. Nearly half of the county's residents work for the local or federal government. The families of some of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife employees on the refuge have lived in Harney County for generations.

Bundy, who is not a rancher but does run a vehicle maintenance service in the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona, based his decision to use Harney County as a test case to spread his movement on a shallow understanding of the community.

"When I first heard about the occupation, I was really sad because they basically hijacked the narrative out here for their own narrow political purposes," Bob Sallinger, the conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland, said. Sallinger is also a participant in the collaborative process that led to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan.
In 2005, Harney County rancher Gary Marshall and refuge manager Chad Karges founded the High Desert Partnership - a group dedicated to facilitating a process of listening and cooperative land-use planning between ranchers, environmentalists and the government. The nonprofit was the key to getting people who hadn't spoken in decades to the table in order to come up with the refuge conservation plan.

Collaboration transformed local land-use politics from a stagnant process where litigation reigned and very few actionable decisions were ever made to one that rebuilt eroded community bonds and sparked novel resolutions to contentious issues.
"It's always interesting to really sit down with somebody and truly figure out where they are coming from as a person," Karges said. "And they get to understand what you're thinking as well. They're not just a rancher. They're not just a conservationist. They are a person. And once you build that trust, then you begin to find unique solutions for some of these long-standing problems we've been dealing with because nobody ever thought to have that conversation.

"Going into these processes, you always have some idea in the back of your mind about what the outcome is probably to look like. But I've found that it never turns out to be what you thought and it's usually better than you ever could have imagined."
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/0...gon%20Ashe.JPG During a visit to the refuge in March, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Director Dan Ashe estimated that it will take at least three years and $6 million to fix the ecological damage caused by the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. But those involved say the 41-day occupation could have been even more detrimental.

Standing at a viewpoint high above the refuge's meadows, refuge ecologist Jess Wenick said the community had created a buffer against Bundy's attempt to spearhead a political movement through years of listening, compromise and shared success.
"Without all that relationship-building, we could have very well been a militia stronghold at this point," Wenick said.


Miel Corbett, deputy assistant regional director of migratory birds for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said in an interview that there is a spirit of connection in the Harney County that Bundy didn't count on.

"The division in this community was significantly reduced during the occupation because we know each other and we trust each other," Corbett said.

And ranchers here know the government will hold up its end of any bargain because they have years of experience telling them exactly that.

Dan Nichols, a local rancher and Harney County commissioner with a thick white moustache, said ranchers had gradually grown to trust local federal employees during the years of negotiations that led to the refuge conservation plan.

"It's kind of intangible to some people why things have changed in the last 20 years, but it's largely due to the collaborative process at the refuge and the ability to have a voice in something," Nichols told Courthouse News. "And that was the big thing. Not everybody locally participated, but still they had somewhat of a voice in how it would be managed into the future. And that kind of took away some of our concerns."

But not everyone is satisfied with the process.



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