WildEarth Guardians

Monday, January 4, 2016
Clash Over Federal Lands Takes a Lawless Turn in Oregon

Self-identified militia drawn by public lands ranching dispute
Contact: Bryan Bird (505) 699-4719

Burns, Oregon - The conflict over federal lands once again took an anarchic turn as armed, anti-government extremists seized a federal wildlife refuge building in southeastern Oregon. It’s another, ill-fated chapter in a long history of violence and intimidation against federal land managers in the West, most recently with Cliven Bundy in Nevada. These violent episodes have escalated, as entrenched interests that traditionally enjoyed taxpayer-subsidized profits on publicly owned lands lose their indulged place.

“For too long, private interests have enjoyed a near monopoly on western public resources,” said Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “The people barricaded in the refuge say federal government is tyrannical, but each has likely benefitted from federal subsidies. They should not be allowed out without first agreeing to never take another dime of taxpayer money.”

The privatization of federal, public lands is expensive for taxpayers. For example, the 21,000 public lands ranchers in the west - just 2.7% of US livestock producers - cost taxpayers at least $500 million dollars annually. This averages out to an annual subsidy of $23,809 per rancher. The bulk of these subsidies comes in three forms: leases of public lands at far below market rates, the "emergency feed program," and the government's "Wildlife Services" predator-killing program, which slaughtered over 26 million animals between 2004 and 2011.

“Our country’s federal, public lands benefit a wide diversity of Americans,” Bird said. “Managing these resources for the benefit of a minority that profits at taxpayer expense in not defensible. These lands are one of the great benefits to all of us in the United States.”

The anti-federal protesters taking up the cause of federal land ranchers ignore the fact that protected, federal lands like the refuge often improve local economies. According to Headwaters Economics, on average, western non-metropolitan counties have a per capita income that is $436 higher for every 10,000 acres of protected public lands within their boundaries.  Harney County, OR contains 713,565 acres of protected lands and $2,583 of per capita income can be explained by the presence of public lands. Based on Headwaters data, from 1970 to 2014, employment in Harney County, OR grew 16% and personal income grew from $181.7 million to $254.5 million (in real terms), a 40% increase.

Despite subsidies, the now infamous rancher, Cliven Bundy, stopped paying the federal government grazing fees for public lands in Nevada and owes about $1 million to taxpayers. Bundy was the center of an armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management in April 2014 that ended with the BLM backing off.

Again a dispute over public lands grazing has incited an armed standoff. The Malhuer National Wildlife Refuge’s headquarters was seized on Saturday. The standoff follows a judge’s order of prison time for two public lands ranchers convicted of arson in 2001 to cover up the unlawful killing of a deer herd. Armed militia descended on Burns, Oregon to ostensibly defend the ranchers.