Oregon
-
Effort to turn ranchers into scofflaws nets just one so far- Ammon Bundy has been trying to recruit livestock operators who have grazing permits on U.S. public lands to stop paying the rental (grazing fees) for their grazing allotment. He finally recruited one, or at least one showed up Saturday to renounce paying his grazing…
-
Dwight Hammond and his son Steve, the ranchers who sparked the recent Harney County protests, were characterized as “responsible ranchers” by Congressman Greg Walden in a speech before Congress. Walden sought to minimize the crimes the Hammonds have committed by suggesting they merely burned a bit more than a hundred acres, something that he tried…
-
Public Employees for Environment Responsibility (PEER) news release “Federal Inaction for 19 Months on Bundy Spawns More Militia Confrontations” Washington, DC —This week’s armed seize of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by self-styled “militia” stems from the lack of a coherent response to earlier confrontations with anti-government extremists, according to Public Employees for…
-
Boise, ID – Western Watersheds Project is disappointed that the government’s acquiescence to ongoing law-breaking on public lands across the West has led to the armed occupation of one of America’s premier bird sanctuaries. This weekend’s militia takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is another battle in the “War on the West” that extractive industries…
-
They were almost charged with a felony in 1994- Today Dwight and Steve Hammond are said to be reporting back to prison to finish their resentenced terms. There is a debate in the media whether their two convicted arsons were all that serious. It turns out that is not the entire history of the Hammonds…
-
Irregular militia followers claim to be supporting the prison-bound Hammonds- They began to filter into Burns, Oregon about a week ago. Participants in what was to become a protest parade through Burns and later seizure of a national wildlife refuge headquarters, numbered from about 150 to 300, according to several reports and statements on Saturday.…
-
Only 81 wolves in Oregon, but Fish and Wildlife Commission delists- Today, Nov. 9, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission delisted wolves from protection under the Oregon Endangered Species Act. It was a long meeting before the 4-2 vote to agree with the recommendation of the selected wildlife biologists that the wolf population had met…