On the third week of the armed standoff at Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Westerners gathered outside state capitol buildings and in city and town centers to express their support for our national public lands and the public employees that care for them.
Ammon Bundy and the group of armed, anti-government extremists that seized Malheur Refuge earlier this month have kept U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees from their desks and local sportsmen from enjoying access to the land.
The fragile wetlands of Malheur are home to more than 320 bird species—colonial waterbirds, sandhill cranes, and migrating shorebirds stopping along the Pacific Flyway. Ron Cole, a veteran of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon, called the refuge a “jewel out in the high desert.”
First designated in 1908, by President Theodore Roosevelt, Malheur has a public legacy that deserves to be honored.
In that spirit, more than 1,000 Westerners rallied on Tuesday, gathering across the West to voice their support for our natural heritage and stand behind the public employees that care for our treasured landscapes.
In Portland, more than 300 gathered despite steady rain, carrying signs and banners and singing ‘This Land is Your Land.’
Several ranchers from Harney County (home to the Malheur Refuge) accompanied around 200 outdoor enthusiasts at the rally in Bend. Voicing the concerns of the protesters, rancher Julie Weikel said:
“I’m here because the Malheur Refuge absolutely doesn’t deserve this. It has worked so hard to be collaborative with the community, to serve the community. That community, and the employees of the refuge, are intertwined at a family level, at a school level, at a community level, and this is just so wrong.”
Protesters call for end to Malheur occupation. #inBend #Oregonstandoff https://t.co/nRm2sH4HWx pic.twitter.com/LIv5Zu1BmP
— The Bulletin (@thebulletin) January 16, 2016
Hundreds of public lands supporters also turned out in Boise, Seattle, and Spokane.
THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Public Lands For All Rally in Seattle today! Roughly 100 people braved the…
Posted by Conservation Northwest on Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Additional rallies were held throughout Oregon, in Bend, Eugene, Le Grande, and Salem.
And in Nevada, home to Cliven Bundy, supporters rallied at a press conference to express their support for public lands. They also released a petition calling on the Department of Justice to arrest the Bundys in Nevada and Oregon, noting that “Nevadans have witnessed the Bundy clan break the law for over a decade and in the process take public land hostage and bully the local community without any consequences.”
On Thursday, sportsmen and women will come together in support of our national public lands outside the capitol in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more details, click here.
Photo: Beth Nakamura / Oregonian Staff