Call it a protest of the protest.

Environmental groups and public land advocates will hold a series of loosely coordinated rallies across the state on Tuesday in support of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which has been occupied by militia members protesting the federal government since Jan. 2.

What started as an outcry over the sentencing of two Harney County ranchers convicted of starting fires on public lands has morphed into a broader conversation about the government’s role in land management across the West. Militants say they want the feds to turn over the wildlife refuge near Burns to local control so it can be opened up to more ranching.

Arran Robertson, spokesman for Oregon Wild, defended public lands as a safe haven for wildlife habitat, clean waters and recreation. One thing lost in the narrative, he said, is how local stakeholders have collaborated on management solutions that balance competing interests.

Tuesday’s rallies are meant to shine a light on collaboration, while steering the conversation away from radical viewpoints that Robertson said have dominated the headlines. The Hells Canyon Preservation Council will host a pro-public lands potluck at their offices in La Grande.

“There’s a lot of positive things that come out of our national public lands,” Robertson said. “There’s actually a lot of coming together and trying to work out differences in the same room.”

Robertson pointed to Oregon Wild’s participation in the Blue Mountains Forest Partners, focusing on the Malheur National Forest in Grant and Harney counties. In particular, he said they joined with industry leaders to save the Malheur Lumber Co. mill in John Day after it closed in 2012.

“I think (the occupation has) set us back,” he said. “It’s driving a wedge between people trying to come together.”

Mark Webb, executive director of the Blue Mountains Forest Partners, said it wasn’t easy getting to this point. He remembers after the group first came together in 2006, they had trouble even agreeing on small-scale projects. It took them three years to agree on a 7,000-acre treatment, he said.

Now, because of the group’s working relationship, the Malheur National Forest has received an additional $2.5 million annually to accelerate the pace of restoration. Webb said the group is collaborating on projects up to 40,000 acres every year.

“We’re getting a lot more acres treated a lot quicker,” he said. “It just would not happen without this collaborative effort.”

Certainly members don’t agree on everything, Webb said. But their success is due in part to people’s willingness to have a mature conversation.

“It’s not that we don’t have our own interests, but this group is effective because it’s gotten past the ‘my way or the highway’ attitude,” Webb said.

Speaking for himself, Webb described the occupation as a “holdover from an age that simply won’t work nowadays.” Officially, Blue Mountains Forest Partners has no stance on the protest.

Darilyn Parry Brown, executive director of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council in La Grande, said public lands are a treasure trove of values, and should be kept in public hands.

The potluck will begin at noon on Tuesday. Other rallies will be held in Portland, Bend, Eugene, Medford, Hood River and Corvallis.

“There’s been quite a bit of negativity based on what’s been going on in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge,” Brown said. “This is our opportunity to let local folks know there’s a place to come and have positive conversations.”

STANFIELD, Ore. — Local rancher Terry Anderson awoke to a gruesome discovery Friday morning after learning someone shot, killed and butchered one of his cows in a field near Stanfield.

Anderson, who runs Anderson Land & Livestock Inc. out of Pilot Rock, said the 2-year-old heifer was slaughtered sometime Thursday night in a pasture along Feedville Road, where he raises cattle during the winter.

Judging by the tracks, Anderson believes at least three people were involved. A neighbor reported hearing commotion around 10:30 p.m., though Anderson said they didn’t find the animal until morning.

“We found body parts strung out over the field,” he said. “They basically mutilated it.”

Anderson said the culprits were likely trying to make some money off the meat, but left most of the carcass to waste. He said heifers like his usually sell for up to $3,000.

Theft isn’t unusual in the ranching industry, Anderson said, but this is the first time he’s lost a cow on winter ground so close to the city. Incidents are more common in summer when herds are left to graze in the mountains, but this happened just 150 yards off a well-traveled road.

“It’s tragic to lose an animal to a situation like this,” he said.

Oregon State Police is leading the investigation, and Anderson has put up a $5,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has offered an additional $1,000 in the case.

“They knew exactly what they were doing,” Anderson said. “We need to get this stopped.”

Anyone with information should contact OSP at 541-567-3215 or 1-800-452-7888.

Oregon pot growers wondering about pesticide use have a new guide to consult, courtesy of the state Department of Agriculture.

The guide lists 256 pesticides. It’s intended to help growers sort out which pesticides are OK to use. For the purposes of pesticide regulation, at least, Oregon considers cannabis an agricultural crop.

There are no pesticide products specifically labeled for use on marijuana, but the state has developed criteria for products that may be used. Generally, a pesticide can be used on pot plants if it is intended for unspecified food products, is exempt from a tolerance and is considered low risk, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

The department urges pesticide applicators to consult the guide list and apply according to directions on the product label. Using products not on the list could be a violation of state pesticide law.

On Jan. 15, the ag department removed Guardian Mite Spray, manufactured by All In Enterprises, from its pesticide list because it contains an active ingredient not on the label. The unlisted active ingredient “does not meet the criteria for inclusion on the ODA guidelist,” the department said in a bulletin.

Online

http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/shared/Documents/Publications/PesticidesPARC/GuidelistPesticideCannabis.pdf

For more information on Oregon cannabis production, visit http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/agriculture/Pages/Cannabis.aspx

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State Police are now asking for the public’s help in solving the poaching of mule deer outside of Baker City late last year.

Fish and Wildlife Division troopers say they were notified of three of the killings Dec. 1, and they ultimately discovered that at least five deer and one wild turkey had been illegally killed within the Lookout Mountain Wildlife Management Unit.

Four of the five deer were bucks with their heads removed, and all of the carcasses were left to waste. Authorities say the animals were likely killed Thanksgiving week.

The Oregon Hunters Association is offering a reward for tips leading to an arrest and conviction.

The Washington-Oregon Potato Conference’s potato peeling contest will return at 3 p.m. Jan. 26 in the Toyota Center Exhibit Hall.

The Potato Peel-Off, which debuted last year, is intended to be a fun time for exhibitors and participants, as teams of three compete to see which can peel the most potatoes in 90 seconds, said Ryan Holterhoff, director of marketing and industry affairs for the Washington State Potato Commission.

The number of teams registered has doubled, from six last year to 12 this year.

“It felt like it would be appropriate to bring it back again as we continue to have more vendors and people wanting to be part of the conference,” Holterhoff said.

Online

http://www.potatoconference.com/potato-peel-off.html

The Washington-Oregon Potato Conference will be Jan. 26-28 at the Three Rivers Convention Center and Toyota Center in Kennewick, Wash.

The conference boasts 172 exhibitors, up from 133 last year, the biggest number since the Washington and Oregon industries combined for the conference in 2010, said Ryan Holterhoff, director of marketing and industry affairs with the Washington State Potato Commission.

“It really shows that people want to be a part of this, come out and get together as an industry, see what’s going on and make those connections,” Holterhoff said.

This year, most of the big equipment will be outside to allow more room, said Dale Lathim, chairman of the conference trade show.

“The equipment for potato farming today is getting bigger and bigger, and it just takes up so much room,” Lathim said. “We removed the equipment, went with bigger spaces for some of the more prominent companies and we were able to squeeze in at least 40 new companies to be on display. We think that’s going to add some additional faces and products and different ideas to the trade show.”

The conference already had a large waiting list of exhibitors, but when they heard about the increased space, it generated more interest, Lathim said, so the new waiting list is back up to more than 50 companies.

“There’s a lot of demand for the show, but unfortunately in Eastern Washington or Oregon, there’s just not a lot of available conference space, so we’re limited,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to allow as many companies as possible to have exposure to growers and for the growers to see what they have to offer.”

Keynote speaker David Sax, author of the book “The Tastemakers,” will speak about changing food trends.

“With potatoes definitely being a consumer-driven product, it will be helpful to get his perspective as a food writer and someone who studies these trends, to see what’s out there next and how potatoes might fit in that,” Holterhoff said.

Lathim expects farmers to be looking for ways to recover after a relatively tough year due to the hot, dry weather.

“2014 was a pretty hot summer, we thought that was an anomaly and 2015 turned out to be even hotter,” he said. “I think everybody is trying to figure out what they can do if we have another year like that. We hope we don’t have another year like 2015, but odds are, at some point, we will.”

Growers are also concerned about their ability to fight pests, Lathim said. A prominent nematode control is becoming limited or unavailable, and alternate chemicals are not as effective.

“(Farmers) are going to be looking for ideas and ways to control and eliminate them from being a problem this coming year,” he said.

Online

http://www.potatoconference.com/

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Authorities arrested a man they said was driving a government vehicle stolen from a wildlife refuge being occupied by an armed group protesting federal land policies as the standoff in Oregon’s high desert hit the two-week mark.

Kenneth Medenbach, 62, of Crescent was arrested by Oregon State Police at a grocery store in Burns for investigation of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. It was unclear if he has a lawyer. Medenbach is already facing charges in U.S. District Court in Medford after authorities said he illegally camped on federal land between May and November last year, according to federal court records.

Authorities also say they recovered a second stolen vehicle from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge but provided no other details. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service previously reported the vehicles had been stolen.

So far, authorities have not tried to remove the group from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. As the situation drags on, people in the local area are growing increasingly weary and wary of the group.

Cement barriers have been erected to block streets around the county courthouse in the small eastern Oregon town of Burns, where police from around the state have set up a command center.

About 30 miles to the south at the refuge, other protesters carrying what appear to be military-style rifles scan the snow-covered rangeland from atop an old fire lookout that gives them a sweeping view of roads leading into the area.

“If we all keep a calm about us everything will be OK,” Brenda Pointere said Thursday as she exited a Burns restaurant. “It started out calm, but the longer it goes on — you start to hear rumors.”

The occupation started Jan. 2 as a protest over two area ranchers who had been convicted of arson being returned to prison to serve longer sentences.

Afterward, a group led by Ammon Bundy traveled to occupy the refuge to protest the ranchers’ return to prison and demand that the 300-square-mile refuge be turned over to local control.

Bundy said he understood the frustration of Harney County residents. “They have been suppressed to the point where they’re ready to act,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday inside a heated wildlife refuge building while his brother, Ryan, and two women sat nearby.

Burns, nearby Hines and the local area have been in an economic tailspin for decades after the loss of a lumber mill that some blamed on federal restrictions involving timber harvests. Restrictions on other federal lands are a common theme of frustration.

The Bundys had planned a meeting with community members Friday night, but it was in limbo after county officials said they couldn’t use the fairgrounds.

Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a spokesman for the group, told reporters Friday that protesters were still hopeful the meeting might occur next week, perhaps Monday, if they can find a location. He criticized local officials for “making sure we have no access to facilities to talk to the residents.”

The group has said they won’t leave until the ranchers jailed for arson are freed and the refuge is turned over to local control.

Locals who agreed to be interviewed were themselves conflicted, expressing anger toward federal land policies but bothered by the armed takeover. “I don’t agree with anything they’re doing right now,” Ben McCanna said about the occupiers at the refuge.

But McCanna, 54, also said the ranchers’ return to prison was wrong, and that he was irked that the U.S. Forest Service closed off access to one of his favorite camping spots in nearby Malheur National Forest.

Also Friday, the chairwoman of the Burns Paiute Tribe asked federal officials to bring criminal charges if any ancient artifacts are damaged or missing from the refuge currently occupied by the group.

Thousands of ancient artifacts and maps to prehistoric sites are kept at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Tribe Chairwoman Charlotte Rodrique sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging federal prosecution, if warranted.

Ryan Bundy has said the group isn’t interested in the artifacts, but it wants the refuge land opened to ranchers and loggers.

Thousands of archaeological artifacts — and maps detailing where more can be found — are kept inside the national wildlife refuge buildings currently being held by an armed group of protesters angry over federal land policy.

Ryan Bundy, one of the leaders of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon, says they have no real interest in the antiquities. Still, their access to the artifacts and maps has some worried that looters could take advantage of the situation.

“There’s a huge market for artifacts, especially artifacts that have provenance, where you can identify where they came from,” said Carla Burnside, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refuge archeologist.

More than 300 recorded prehistoric sites are scattered across the refuge, including burial grounds, ancient villages and petroglyphs. Some of the artifacts — including spears, stone tools, woven baskets and beads — date back 9,800 years.

——

WHY AREN’T THE RELICS AT A MUSEUM?

About 7,000 artifacts and samples from the refuge are kept at a museum in Eugene, Oregon. But 4,000 more are kept at the refuge for research.

Only Burnside has a key to the room containing the artifacts and the maps. She’s since seen pictures of the occupiers in her office, adjacent to the room where the artifacts are stored. The group has been looking through government files at the site, but it is unclear if they’ve gone through the room with the artifacts. Bundy told The Associated Press that he’s seen the artifacts and lots of maps, but he didn’t know what the maps illustrated.

The artifacts and maps are legally protected by the 1979 Archeological Resources Protection Act and other federal laws.

———

WHAT IS THE ARMED GROUP DOING WITH THE ARTIFACTS?

Bundy said they’re not interested in the artifacts and would turn them over to the Burns Paiute Tribe, if asked.

“If the Native Americans want those, then we’d be delighted to give them to them,” he said.

He said he didn’t think it was likely that anyone would use the maps to loot the site.

“We haven’t really been thinking along those lines,” Bundy said.

Removing artifacts from federal property without a permit is illegal.

———

WHAT ABOUT THE PREHISTORIC SITES?

Scientists are also worried about unintentional damage that could be done to the prehistoric sites by cattle, vehicles and heavy equipment.

The group at the ranch has driven road graders and other large construction equipment around the refuge headquarters buildings, but Bundy said they haven’t used the machinery to move any earth. He wouldn’t rule out that possibility, however.

In 2014, Ryan Bundy and supporters of the Bundy family rode ATVs on federal land closed to motorized vehicles in Utah as part of a protest. Their route took them along an illegal trail that crossed through Native American archeological sites.

———

HAVE THE SITES BEEN LOOTED BEFORE?

While well-known petroglyphs or other prehistoric sites are occasionally publicized for public viewing, federal land managers often go to great lengths to keep such locations secret when they can’t be safely protected from vandals and looters.

Looting has long been a problem at the refuge, with the first documented instance recorded in 1979, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s comprehensive conservation plan.

“It’s a huge problem in Oregon, especially in the southeast portion of the state,” said Dennis Griffin, the state’s archaeologist. “More often than not, when they are caught, it’s connected to drug running or seeking quick money on eBay.”

An online search of “great basin artifacts for sale” yields arrowheads, stone pestles and other items, many priced at hundreds of dollars each.

———

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Burnside said the artifacts are part of the ancestry of the Burns Paiute Tribe and are priceless to science.

“There’s so much you can gain from looking at one artifact: Where the stone came from, how far they traveled, how it was used, the skill of the person who made it,” she said.

The tribe works extensively with federal officials on the archeology projects. Tribe officials didn’t return multiple phone messages requesting comment.

“Their history is being hijacked by these people,” said Donald Grayson, an anthropologist and archeology expert at the University of Washington.

———

HOW DOES BUNDY WANT THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES HANDLED?

Bundy said people interested in archeology are welcome to explore the refuge, but that cattle ranchers and loggers should have priority when it comes to land use.

“Before white man came, so to speak, there was nothing to keep cattle from tromping on those things,” Bundy said.

Though some countries had domesticated cattle 10,000 years ago, the animals came to the United States with European settlers.

“We also recognize that the Native Americans had the claim to the land, but they lost that claim,” Bundy said. “There are things to learn from cultures of the past, but the current culture is the most important.”

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — The head of the Galice Mining District says some miners are violating a new state ban on suction-dredge mining, telling the state of Oregon to “drop dead” while the two sides square off in a federal court case.

Rick Barclay, the mining district’s president, told the Mail Tribune he knows of about a dozen suction dredgers now defying the five-year dredging moratorium that went into effect Jan. 2, claiming federal mining laws trump state regulations.

Barclay said the miners are working claims on federal lands in Rogue River Basin tributary streams that flow seasonally in winter, making winter the only time they can work enough to keep their claims for precious metals, mainly gold.

“We prefer to think of it as the great American tradition of civil disobedience,” Barclay said Thursday. “Those are federal claims mined under federal law. The state can drop dead.”

Barclay declined to name the miners or the streams they are dredging. He said the district intends to inform state officials that federal law grants the district the authority to regulate mining within its boundaries, which encompass Jackson, Josephine and Douglas counties.

“We’re basically saying we can do what we want. Take us to court to see if we can’t,” Barclay said.

“If they discover where (miners are) working, they can do whatever they want to do,” he said.

Oregon State police Sgt. Jim Collom said Thursday his agency has not received any complaints of active dredging in the Rogue Basin. Collom said he has briefed Fish and Wildlife Division troopers on the moratorium, which bans all suction dredge mining in Oregon through 2021 after the 2015 Oregon Legislature failed to hammer out new dredging rules in wild salmon habitat.

Collom said he would not like to see a repeat of last summer, when armed “Oath Keepers” stood guard over mining equipment at a Galice-area mine co-owned by Barclay during a dispute with the federal Bureau of Land Management over its operations.

The Oath Keepers eventually dispersed after a standoff that never was, but the miners’ dispute with the BLM remains unresolved.

“That would be our first choice, not to have those guys involved,” Collom said. “Whatever it is, there needs to be a peaceful resolution.”

Suction-dredge mining employs a floating vacuum to suck gravel from a stream bottom. Materials vacuumed by the dredge then go through a sluice to allow miners to strain out gold and other heavy metals, while sand, silt and other fine materials are discharged into the water.

Wild-salmon advocates say the process damages spawning grounds and rearing habitat. Miners have argued that current laws already protect salmon and their habitat, and they have argued that no peer-reviewed study on suction dredging proves it ruins salmon habitat.

Barclay is one of several miners who filed suit in federal court in October, seeking a judge to declare the state moratorium pre-empted by federal law. After a flurry of court filings, oral arguments were scheduled for Feb. 18 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke at U.S. District Court in Medford.

In 2013, the Legislature passed a law that severely restricted dredging by cutting and capping the number of dredging permits offered annually in Oregon, and limited some of the times, locations and manner for how dredgers operate. It was designed to protect wild salmon and their habitats and reduce conflicts with riverside landowners and users.

The law was written to sunset at the end of 2015 to give the Legislature time to grapple with permanent rules, which never materialized. The moratorium as written is to remain in effect until 2021.

As the moratorium loomed last fall, state Sen. Alan Bates, D-Medford, said he intended to introduce a bill in February that would create long-term dredging restrictions and lift the moratorium.

Bates said this week that he now does not plan to seek a lift to the moratorium and instead has drafted a new bill that would extend the dredging moratorium beyond wild salmon habitat to include wild bull trout and lamprey streams.

If the bill passes, state agencies likely would need about two years to draft the actual rules that he intends to regulate dredging in Oregon from 2022 and beyond once the moratorium elapses, Bates said.

“Right now, the best thing to do is leave the moratorium in place, write the regs and push it through,” Bates told the Mail Tribune.

“We really have gems of rivers in our state,” Bates said. “A lot of people want to close (dredging) down completely, but I’m not. This is going to be a huge step in the right direction.”

Barclay said if Clarke rules in miners’ favor in the federal suit, “then Bates is S.O.L.”

“I don’t care what Mr. Bates wants to do,” Barclay said. “Miners are going to mine.”

Before the moratorium, the dredging season in Oregon differed between rivers and followed the legal summer in-water work period to protect wild salmon eggs and young fry in the gravels.

Barclay said current dredgers are working claims on intermittent streams that don’t flow during the summer period, and federal mining laws require they work their claims to keep them.

“That’s why they feel they have a defense,” Barclay said.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Cement barriers block off streets around the county courthouse in the small eastern Oregon town of Burns where police called in from around the state to respond to a standoff at a nearby wildlife refuge have set up a command center — and when officers go out they travel in pairs.

About 30 miles to the south, an armed group protesting federal land use policy has taken over a national wildlife refuge. Men with what appear to be military-style rifles scan the snow-covered rangeland from atop an old fire lookout that gives them a sweeping view of roads leading in.

As the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge hits the two-week mark, people in this high desert area are growing increasingly weary and wary.

“If we all keep a calm about us everything will be OK,” said Brenda Pointere, who was coming out of a Burns restaurant. “It started out calm, but the longer it goes on — you start to hear rumors.”

It started Jan. 2 as a protest about two area ranchers convicted of arson who were returned to prison to serve longer sentences. Afterward, a group led by Ammon Bundy traveled to occupy the refuge to protest the ranchers return to prison and demand that the 300-square-mile refuge be turned over to local control.

Bundy said he understood the frustration of Harney County residents with the federal government having spent several months in the community earlier.

“They have been suppressed to the point where they’re ready to act,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday inside one of the heated wildlife refuge buildings while his brother, Ryan, and two women sat nearby.

Burns, nearby Hines and the local area have been in an economic tailspin for decades, the biggest blow the loss of a lumber mill with some blaming federal restrictions on timber harvest. Restrictions on other federal lands are a common theme of frustration. The wildlife refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has some good ranchland that Ryan Bundy says will be filled with cattle this spring, though he declined to give details.

“I think the mass of the community, especially the rural community, are 100 percent in favor of what we’re trying to accomplish here,” Ryan Bundy said. But, he noted, “There’s a split camp, so to speak.”

The Bundys had planned a meeting with community members Friday night, but that is in limbo after county officials said they couldn’t use the local fairground.

They have said they will not leave until the ranchers jailed for arson are freed and the refuge is turned over to local control. So far authorities have made no move to remove the group from the refuge.

Locals who agreed to be interviewed were themselves conflicted, expressing anger toward federal land policies but bothered by the armed takeover.

“I don’t agree with anything they’re doing right now,” said Ben McCanna about the occupiers at the refuge, about 4 miles from where he lives. But McCanna, 54, also said the ranchers’ return to prison was wrong, and that he was irked that the U.S. Forest Service closed off access to one of his favorite camping spots in the nearby Malheur National Forest.

But if the wildlife refuge falls out of federal control, he said he expected no trespassing signs to go up.

The issue of land management is one discussed throughout the West. A group of mostly Republican congressmen is holding meetings in southern Utah next week to hear concerns from local officials who worry a Bureau of Land Management proposal unfairly restricts livestock grazing, motorized recreation. Officials in southern Utah’s Washington County said the plan violates terms negotiated under a 2009 law that established two conservation areas.

The BLM plan is intended to restore native habitat for protected Mojave Desert Tortoise, but local officials say it unfairly hurts ranchers and could harm the local economy.

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Republican who represents the area, requested that a House subcommittee on federal lands hold the hearing in St. George on Jan. 22 to hear local grievances about the plan.

In Oregon, Cheryl Drinkwater lives on a ranch near the refuge and said she has adult children working for the Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. She said local federal officials are fine, but edicts from Washington D.C. cause problems. Her view of the current conflict is that the people with the most common sense are the least likely to make themselves heard.

“Hope I don’t get in trouble over that,” she said, describing the atmosphere in the town as tense.

Meanwhile, the influx of law enforcement officials, reporters, politicians and the curious has caused something of an economic boom in January, typically a slow month for the area.

Cherrie Glick, a waitress at the Apple Peddler, said that in the last several weeks she’s earned a couple hundred dollars more in tips, plus been called in to work more hours, as have other employees.

“Everybody who has come in has been nice to us,” she said, noting she wasn’t allowed to talk about the wildlife refuge.

Meanwhile, nobody is too sure how it will end.

“I hope it’s peaceful,” Kathy Warburton of Burns said.

———

Associated Press reporter Michelle Price contributed from Salt Lake City.

SALEM — Two Oregon lawmakers plan to introduce bills that would ratify the decision by state wildlife officials to delist wolves as an endangered species.

The proposals, which will be considered during the upcoming legislative session in February, are planned by Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, in reaction to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

In November 2015, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to delist the wolves under the state’s version of the Endangered Species Act after several criteria for their recovery had been met.

Under a management plan for wolves first created in 2005, the species could be delisted after having established four breeding pairs for three years and no longer facing a substantial risk of extinction in a significant portion of its range, among other criteria.

Wolves were delisted by the federal government in the easternmost portion of the state, but remain protected in the rest. Oregon wildlife officials have the jurisdiction over those wolves under the state ESA.

However, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity recently challenged the state’s delisting decision in court, arguing the decision unlawfully ignored the best available science about wolf recovery.

The bills, which will be introduced in the House and Senate, will provide the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife — which is overseen by the commission — more ammunition in defending itself in court, Barreto said.

“We’re shoring up what the commission has already decided,” he said during a Jan. 14 hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Oregon has 81 documented wolves, but the actual population is likely in the range of 100-120 animals and a delisting is necessary for the ODFW to eventually manage the species, said Sen. Hansell.

Such management could involve hunting to keep populations in check

Ranchers in Oregon have abided by restrictions on wolf management for the past 10 years, so now that the criteria for delisting have been met, the state government should uphold the wolf plan’s credibility, said Rocky Dallum, political advocate for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

“The goal was to strike a balance between reestablishing wolves in Oregon and meeting the needs of those producers,” he said.

During the decade that the plan has been in place, ranchers have felt a great deal of “heartburn” as state wildlife officials have refused to remove wolves that repeatedly prey on livestock, said Todd Nash, a rancher and chairman of the OCA’s wolf committee.

The wolf plan should be followed as planned rather than allowing the courts to take over the process, he said. “I want to bring some sanity to this and let the scientists and wildlife managers manage, instead of some conservation groups and a judge.”

Environmental groups oppose the proposed legislation, claiming that it will unnecessarily interfere with the authority of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Oregon has fewer than 90 wolves, but the state could sustain up to 1,400 of them, said Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild.

Currently, the species occupies only 12 percent of its potential habitat, he said. “The status of wolves in Oregon is still tenuous.”

In the past year, wolves have only been confirmed to have killed four cows, while the state has more than 1.3 billion cattle, he said. The cattle industry generatied more than $1 billion in revenues, making it Oregon’s top agricultural sector.

“The industry’s growth has not been stymied by the arrival of wolves,” Stevens said.

The proposed bills would set a dangerous precedent of the legislature inserting itself into delisting decisions on a species-by-species basis, said Quinn Read, Northwest representative of the Defenders of Wildlife environmental group.

“We’re concerned by initiatives that would circumvent the (wolf) plan,” she said.

Scott Beckstead, state director for the Humane Society of the United States, an animal rights group, said he’s worried about the possibility of trophy hunting of wolves in Oregon.

Hunters in Idaho, where such hunting is allowed, have demonstrated a “cruelty and depravity” in killing wolves that wouldn’t be tolerated by the public in Oregon, he said.

“It’s certainly something I don’t want to see in Oregon, and I worry about us heading down that path,” Beckstead said.

SALEM — Forty-six people from Malheur County, half of them involved with agriculture, traveled 400 miles across icy roads Jan. 14 to Salem to tell Oregon lawmakers that increasing the state’s minimum wage would devastate Eastern Oregon’s economy.

The group, which wore “Any raise equals lost jobs” stickers on their backs, were heavily outnumbered by supporters of the various proposals to significantly raise the state’s minimum wage, who loudly chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, poverty wages have got to go” as they entered the Capitol building.

After arriving in Salem following an eight-hour bus ride, the Eastern Oregon contingent was told they could not carry their picket signs to counter-demonstrate at a rally held on the Capitol steps in support of a minimum wage increase.

They were told that state police decided there was a high risk of a conflict occurring and were concerned about their safety.

But members of the Republican minority party praised them for making the trip and told them their very presence at the statehouse was a loud message.

Though outnumbered, testimony during a three-hour public hearing on the issue was split between supporters and opponents because committee members gave preference to people who had traveled more than 100 miles.

The group traveled by charter bus and headed back to Ontario after the meeting to complete its 800-mile round trip.

“Coming from 400 miles away and spending (more than a day) getting here and back is unbelievably powerful,” said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who helped organize the event along with farm industry leaders.

“I can’t tell you how important it was for you to have come here today,” said Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day. “The fight you are making today is the fight that may be the key skirmish in this whole (issue).”

During public testimony, the Malheur County residents told legislators that increasing the state’s minimum wage any amount would result in businesses and jobs moving to Idaho.

They reminded them that Oregon’s minimum wage of $9.25 is already $2 higher than Idaho’s rate of $7.25 and Malheur County borders Idaho.

Owyhee Produce General Manager Shay Myers said that if Oregon increases its minimum wage, it will force his onion packing facility to automate or move to Idaho. Either option kills Oregon jobs, he added.

As an example, he said that increasing Oregon’s minimum wage to $13.50 would increase Owyhee Produce’s overall costs by 10 percent, while the company’s margin is only 8 percent, Myers said.

If it comes down to staying in business, “There’s really only one decision for us to make,” he said. “And if we’re going to stay in business, it’s either automate or move to Idaho.”

Tim Newton, who has worked for Peterson Farms in Nyssa for 26 years, said a lot of businesses would move to the Idaho side if the minimum wage goes up.

“What we’re hearing is that the majority of the onion sheds (in the area) will be moving to the Idaho side because of the difference in the minimum wage,” he said.

Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen and others asked the state to leave Malheur County out of any minimum wage increase because farmers and businesses there compete directly with their Idaho counterparts.

“Carve us out (of any increase) and save our jobs,” he said. “You’re going to ruin us if you don’t.”

The Malheur County contingent included several small business owners, who said that if agriculture suffers because of a minimum wage increase, they will suffer also.

If the minimum wage increases, “our onion shippers will move to Idaho,” said John Kirby, a hardware business owner. “It’s not a threat, it’s a promise; they will move to Idaho.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown defended her minimum wage proposal, which she released while the Eastern Oregon group was en route.

It would raise the minimum wage outside the Portland area by $1 in 2017 and gradually increase it to $13.50 by 2022. The Portland area minimum wage would be set at 15 percent above the statewide rate and would increase to $15.52 by 2022.

Phasing in the increase over several years will provide “a glide path for Oregon businesses to plan and prepare for the increase,” said Brown, who added that a single parent in Oregon would have to work 72 hours a week or make $16.61 an hour to afford the state’s average monthly cost of $864 for a two-bedroom apartment.

Brown said she felt her proposal would stop the need for the various, stiffer minimum wage ballot initiatives that have been proposed.

“We are concerned about the number of families that struggle to make ends meet,” she said. “We felt this was middle ground.”

Members of the “Oregonians for 15” group that is pushing for a statewide $15 minimum wage told lawmakers that if they don’t pass a proposal this year that raises the state’s minimum wage to $15 within three years, a ballot initiative is guaranteed.

“We’re not here to debate or negotiate,” said Jamie Cartridge, who added that legislators have two options: “$15 or the ballot.”

LANGLOIS — An eight-week clay hand-building class will be offered to adults starting on Friday, Feb. 5, at the Village Gym in Langlois.

LANGLOIS — An eight-week clay hand-building class will be offered to adults starting on Friday, Feb. 5, at the Village Gym in Langlois.

Members of the armed group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge traveled to John Day Tuesday to ask the Grant County sheriff to join their cause.

He declined, but county commissioners throughout Eastern Oregon have discussed the possibility that the protest could “migrate” elsewhere in the region.

Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer said three members of the militia asked him to travel to Harney County, but he refused to do so without the approval of the Harney County sheriff. Palmer would not say whether he agreed with the occupation, but described those participating as “patriots.”

“I think it’s brought some things to light that might not have otherwise got the attention that they did,” he said of the occupation. “I do believe that the resolution and solution to the way this is going to be handled, if it’s handled properly, could have a long-lasting effect on our county as well.”

Palmer said any positive outcome, however, would require the government to make some concessions.

“I believe the government is going to have to concede to something,” he said. “I don’t think these guys are going to give up without knowing that they’ve done something that benefits the people of our country or our region.”

Palmer said the members of the group did not discuss their future plans of their occupation with him. He said he met the militants Tuesday at a John Day restaurant. He was invited to lunch by a constituent and was unaware members of the militia group would be there. He said “a few” other Grant County residents attended the meeting as well.

“I had no idea who I was meeting with when we had lunch (Tuesday),” he said. “I walked in, I realized who they were and I sat and listened to them ... They actually wanted me to come down there and make a stand, and I said ‘Not without the (Harney County) sheriff’s blessing.’”

Palmer said he has spoken to Harney County Sheriff David Ward and told him he would not interfere without permission. Palmer said he has “a pretty good working relationship” with the sheriff from the neighboring county.

Palmer said, however, that he was not willing to excoriate the occupation either.

“About the only thing (Ward) really told me is I’m welcome to come down there if I would shame and humiliate them into giving up and I said, ‘No, I won’t do that,”’ Palmer said. “I’m not in the business of denouncing or shaming or humiliating anybody.”

Ward could not immediately be reached for comment.

Grant County Court Judge Scott Myers said his Harney County counterpart Steve Grasty warned him that members of the armed group may have been traveling to Grant County.

Myers said he participated in an Association of Oregon Counties conference call with Grasty and leaders of most Eastern Oregon counties on Wednesday. They discussed the possibility that the armed group could migrate elsewhere.

“Grasty said that we should all be concerned about the likelihood of arrival (of the armed group) and the safety of our citizens,” Myers said. “My biggest concern would just be public safety. I don’t know that they would try to take over a building or anything like that ... I am concerned, but I don’t expect an occupation. I don’t expect them to come and hold up (here), but there’s always that possibility.”

Palmer has previously expressed disappointment with some federal land management policies, specifically U.S. Forest Service road closures in Grant County. In 2015, he deputized a group of residents to create a county natural resources plan in hope of providing local government more leverage when working with federal agencies. The plan was not approved by county governance, but a petition has been filed to put it up for a county-wide vote.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden didn’t have much of an audience Jan. 5 when he stood on the floor of the House of Representatives to talk about the militia takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in southeast Oregon. That’s how it works; Members of Congress give even their most impassioned floor speeches to empty chairs and a single camera.

But in the days since, attention has turned to Walden’s 24-minute description of the area he represents and the “decades of frustration, arrogance and betrayal that has contributed to the mistrust of the federal government.”

Judging from more than 120,000 YouTube views of his speech and even-handed editorial response from the largest news organizations, Walden and others who represent, live in and work in the rural West appear to have gained the nation’s attention.

The message: No, we do not approve of the armed men who took over the refuge. But the underlying frustration and anger at federal land management and loss of economic opportunity is real.

So now what? Walden said he’s discussed such issues with the Republican leadership, but it’s unclear how much can be accomplished in the current political atmosphere.

On Wednesday, the House voted 253-166 to overturn the EPA’s “Waters of the U.S.” rule, which farmers and ranchers say gives the feds control over what Walden called “every stock pond and intermittent ditch.” Walden said the vote sends a “very clear message” to the Obama administration about environmental “over-reach.”

The Senate approved a similar measure in November, but the White House has threatened to veto it. Congress is unlikely to assemble the two-thirds majorities required to override a veto, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Meanwhile, Walden said it’s unlikely federal land will be turned over to the states or counties, as many in the West favor.

But he and others said a number of incremental changes would help matters. For starters, the statute requiring the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for Dwight and Steven Hammond, the Harney County ranchers at the center of the issue, could be revised, Walden said.

He said the statute was written after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City and was aimed at acts of domestic terrorism that damage federal property. The fires set by the Hammonds burned acreage managed by the BLM. “But in Oregon, the punishment doesn’t fit this crime,” he said.

The idea received support at the recent American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Orlando, Fla.

Delegates approved a policy recommendation that Congress prohibit prosecution of farmers and ranchers under federal anti-terrorism statutes for common agricultural practices, like setting back burns to protect their property from wildfires.

If this threat isn’t neutralized, it will have a “chilling effect” on farm practices among growers who fear facing mandatory minimum prison sentences, said Barry Bushue, Oregon Farm Bureau president.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has long been engaged with congressional leaders about problems with fire management and reduced grazing on federal lands to seek a legislative fix, Bushue said.

Zippy Duvall of Georgia, who was elected AFBF president during the convention, said federal land management agencies should find common ground with ranchers instead of behaving like “bullies.”

“Everybody needs to step back from it to look for solutions,” he said. “With every challenge, there should be an opportunity to find solutions.”

Walden, the only Republican among Oregon’s congressional delegation, said President Obama could defuse tension by backing away from proposals to establish an Owyhee Canyonlands national monument or wilderness area on 2.5 million acres in Malheur County, in Oregon’s southeast corner. County residents say the designation would cover more than 40 percent of the county, would eliminate grazing on federal land and decimate the cattle industry.

“The community is beside themselves,” Walden said. “They’re being told either cut a deal with the enviros or have it shoved down their throat.”

Walden said he hopes to tell the president, “If you do this, it will put gas on the fire for no good reason.”

He and others say a barrage of litigation against logging, ranching and mining is encouraged by a process that pays legal fees to environmental groups when they prevail on even a single point of a lawsuit.

Walden said environmental groups have already shut down the timber industry and now want to get cattle off the range. “It’s a pretty cold-hearted strategy,” he said.

Walden said the administration and Congress need to realize that rural poverty and inner-city poverty are quite similar, brought on by a loss of opportunity.

“If they understood the rate of poverty and the rate of despair in our rural communities, in rural Oregon, maybe they’d go, ‘Gosh there’s a problem we need to address.’” Walden said.

Retired Harney County rancher Bill Wilber said he welcomes the renewed attention to the area’s problems and hopes federal agencies will resume a partnership role with ranchers, loggers and others.

Wilber was on a steering committee that met 39 times to hammer out greater sage grouse habitat conservation plans on private property. The Harney County agreements between ranchers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service became a model that kept the sage grouse off the endangered species list in 2015, and the collaboration was widely praised.

But Wilber said the BLM’s subsequent sage grouse plan on land it manages, and on which many ranchers graze cattle, is much more restrictive than in the past.

“We busted our butts and did the right thing for the bird, and get screwed in the end as if we hadn’t done anything,” he said.

“I would submit the rancher is the ultimate environmentalist,” Wilber said. “If they don’t take care of that ground, that grass, that water, they’ll be out of business.”

SALEM — Linn County plans to seek more than $1.4 billion in damages in a class action suit against the state for breach of contract in management of forestland in 15 counties.

Linn County special counsel delivered a letter to Gov. Kate Brown and State Forester Doug Decker Wednesday to notify them of the county’s plan to file the suit after a mandatory 30-day waiting period.

Up to 150 local taxing districts that receive timber sales receipts from harvests from the Oregon Forest Trust Lands contract could be eligible join the suit. That includes schools, libraries, public safety agencies and other districts.

The other counties that benefit from the trust are Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Washington.

“There have been general discussions and angst for years about the distribution formula and how counties have been deprived of revenue by state,” said attorney John DiLorenzo, who is representing Linn County in the suit. “It’s no surprise they’re not getting as much of a return from the arrangement as they should be.”

The 15 counties have contracted with the state since the 1930s to manage forestlands for the land’s “greatest permanent value.” Linn County and the state are at odds over the meaning of that term. The county claims that the term means greatest economic value allowable under state and federal regulations and that returns ought to match what a private land manager could glean off the land. The state in 1998 defined the term to mean economic, ecological, recreational and aesthetic returns and implemented a management plan based on that definition starting in 2000, DiLorenzo said.

Linn County estimates that the 150 local districts in the 15 counties have missed out on $35 million per year in revenue in the past 15 years from the state’s management of the forestland. That number is based on forest modeling, much of which was borrowed from the Department of Forestry, DiLorenzo

“All of those local districts in need of funding especially in the area of public safety,” he said. “Lives would be vastly improved if these monies were distributed to these districts.”

DiLorenzo and Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist declined to specify whether the county first approached DiLorenzo’s law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, or whether the law firm approached the county to propose the class action suit.

DiLorenzo said the class action suit was “one of those perfect storms when everything came together.” He said he had been watching how the state had been managing the forestland. Meanwhile, timber counties had expressed growing contention over the state’s performance.

The Governor’s Office was not immediately available to comment.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — You work, you get paid. You don’t work, you still get paid.

It’s a deal that helped longshore union members at the Port of Portland collect more than a million dollars in salaries last year, even as cargo container traffic almost ground to a halt and workloads fell fast.

The longshore union has reaped the benefits for decades of a port-supported fund that pays members whether or not they work. During a lockout at the Port of Portland’s grain terminal in 2013, the fund paid $1 million over the course of a year — while no work was going on at all.

Terminal 6, Portland’s container port and the former lifeblood of the state’s small and medium-sized exporting industry, now receives a single ship per month. Between April and July, the container terminal had no work at all.

Elvis Ganda, the head of terminal operator ICTSI Oregon, said the company hires for just 30 eight-hour shifts a month now — down from 500 jobs a week before February. That means longshore workers are doing 1 percent of the work they were doing before.

But dock worker pay at the Port of Portland barely took a hit. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has a pay guarantee plan that assures many longshore workers will be paid for nearly a full week of work at nearly four times minimum wage, regardless of how much work there is to do.

Union advocates say the plan gives members financial certainty in a business that can ebb and flow over time.

But critics of the longshore union say the plan is why union members aren’t working with the port operator to bring shipping lines back to Terminal 6. “It’s not much incentive to go back to work,” Ganda said.

Without the union on board, port officials say bringing Portland’s direct ties to Asia and Europe back is a hard sell. Greg Borossay, a general manager of the Port’s marine trade development, said that ongoing litigation between the Port of Portland, the union and ICTSI Oregon doesn’t necessarily need to be resolved to bring interested carriers back, but a workforce with a history of slowdowns could hurt Terminal 6’s chances.

“It would certainly be helpful if the labor issue could be fully resolved,” Borossay said at an Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in December.

The Portland chapter of the union has been found guilty by the federal labor board and judges several times in the past few years of intentionally slowing work on the docks at the container terminal, making threats to ICTSI Oregon officials and other unfair labor practices. Hanjin Shipping Co. and Hapag-Lloyd both stopped calling at Terminal 6 in the midst of a West Coast-wide slowdown, but the Port or Portland issue started before and likely will continue long after other ports are back to normal.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In 2013, a union spokeswoman said the pay guarantee plan is necessary for workers who have families and mortgages to survive during disagreements with the port.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents 29 West Coast container port operators, maintains the pay guarantee fund and each port contributes based on the tons of cargo going in and out. That means the ports in the Puget Sound and in Los Angeles are heavily subsidizing the lack of work in Portland.

In 2014, the fund paid out just over $600,000 to Oregon longshore workers in total, with Portland workers averaging less than one day of pay without work over the year, according to the Pacific Maritime Association’s annual report.

Last year, the 426 eligible longshore workers in Portland exceeded that total by August. The full 2015 tally will be released in a few weeks, and will likely climb much higher than the $1.2 million figure racked up as of the end of September.

Longshore workers are hired in batches, when a ship is pulling into port. They load and unload containers, which are then sent by truck, train or barge elsewhere to be filled and returned.

Usually, unions use members’ dues to create their own contingency funds for strikes and downtimes. The ILWU negotiated the pay guarantee fund into its contract with the port operators as early as 1971, according to previous reporting from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

There are three classes of longshore workers who can receive money from the pay guarantee plan. When 2015 started, the highest class, Class A, could earn up to 38 hours of pay at a rate of $35.68 per hour — $1,355.84 per week. Under a newly struck contract, Class A workers are now eligible for 40 hours of pay, regardless of available shifts.

Many longshore workers make six-figure salaries with a busy port, so the $70,000 yearly wage of the pay guarantee plan is a drastic cut.

Some of the longshore workers are likely commuting to Seattle and Tacoma ports, which are much larger and busier. The pay guarantee plan numbers indicate that many are staying in the Portland region, even though no other port or terminal has filled the void left by Terminal 6.

“That work is not being shifted anywhere else in the Columbia River region,” Ganda said. “No one is adding those kinds of man hours to this port.”

Southeast Oregon’s Harney County, the scene of the militia takeover that brought the area national media attention, has been economically stagnant for nearly 40 years.

Residents and elected officials who represent the area say that’s the reality at the root of the area’s muted support for the takeover, even as they disavow the militia’s tactics.

While the rest of the state increased jobs 74 percent since the late 1970s, the number of jobs in Harney County dropped by 10 percent, according to a study by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

The county has lost 99 percent of its wood products jobs since 1978, dropping from 768 then to six in 2014, analyst Josh Lehnersaid in a new report.

“Relative to the late 1970s — just before the state went into the severe early ‘80s recession and timber industry restructuring — the number of jobs today in Harney County is 10 percent below back then,” Lehner said. “Clearly, that is a really long time with essentially no growth.”

Harney County residents know that first-hand.

County Judge Steven Grasty said there is a “feeling of despair” in the county due to job losses. Federal and state agencies, primarily the Bureau of Land Management, manage about 75 percent of the land in the county. Those agencies are so locked into process and so fearful of lawsuits from environmental groups that they become paralyzed and do no management at all, Grasty said.

As a result, many residents are no longer able to depend on logging, mill or ranching work to sustain themselves.

“We believe the wealth of a nation is based on its natural resources,” he said. “We’ve lost access to natural resources, in particular, timber.

“Our community wants to be good stewards of the land,” Grasty said. “When we managed the land it looked better than when the BLM does it. Because of rules and pressure from special interest groups, it forces them to focus on single (wildlife) species and spend their dollars on planning rather than on the ground.”

The decline of Pacific Northwest timber industry is an old story, but rural residents point out that nothing has replaced it, economically. The government’s role is borne out by statistics: In Oregon, the federal government manages 60 percent of the state’s forestland but produces only 12 percent of annual timber harvest, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

Harney County’s population stood at 7,126 in 2014, a 4 percent drop since the 2010 U.S. Census. Since 1980, when the population was 8,314 and the job losses began, the county has lost nearly 1,200 people.

Those remaining represent an aging demographic, as young people seek opportunity elsewhere. As of 2014, 22 percent of county residents were 65 or older, compared to 16 percent statewide.

The county unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in November 2015, compared to the statewide average of 5.7 percent.

Bill Wilber, a retired rancher in Harney County, said a drumbeat of government action or proposals involving the federal EPA, BLM, state Department of Environmental Quality, sage grouse, “waters of the U.S.” and other issues is tough for residents to take.

“It’s continued rules and regulations that do everything to make it more difficult to make a living, to pay your bills educate your kids, pay your mortgage and lead a good life.” Wilber said.

State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, whose district includes Harney County, said the actions of the “Bundy bunglers” who took over the wildlife refuge should not diminish the “incredible problems” that dog rural residents.

Bentz said the Forest Service spends its budget fighting fires instead of preparing timber sales, and the BLM creates “study after study” and “haystacks of regulation” in anticipation of litigation. The complexity of management rules becomes “crazily exaggerated,” he said.

“Pretty soon nothing happens because the land managers are so busy trying to create a plan that’s bulletproof, and fail,” he said.

Meanwhile, struggling rural business owners are faced with such things as a state proposal to raise the minimum wage, Bentz said. Businesses operating in larger cities may be able to absorb the increase, but in rural Oregon, only businesses that are part of national chains will be able to pay it.

He said the small town of Halfway, in Baker County, needs $4 million to build a sewage treatment plant as required under the federal Clean Water Act, but has no way to afford it.

Grasty, the Harney County judge, said economic problems in rural areas have ripple effects that might not be noticed elsewhere. If a ranch goes out of business, for example, the local firefighting association loses someone who’s out on the ground and can spot problems early, he said.

Grasty said he’s trying to put together an economic strategy for the county.

“People are so frustrated that they’re slowly being undermined out of existence,” he said. “We’re not being heard. We’re listened to, but not heard.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The armed activists occupying a national wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon said Tuesday that they plan to hold a community meeting this week to explain themselves and inform residents when they will leave.

A member of the anti-government group told reporters that the meeting will be held Friday evening in Burns, 30 miles from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum said the location has yet to be determined. He said “there should be a dialogue” but declined to give any specifics about the group’s exit plans.

The small group is under pressure from many locals to end the occupation that began Jan. 2. The activists are there to oppose federal land-management policies.

Ammon Bundy, the group’s leader, has previously said the group would not leave until a plan was in place to turn over federal lands to local authorities. They also want the release of Dwight and Steven Hammond, father-and-son ranchers convicted of arson who returned to prison last week to serve longer sentences.

The Hammonds’ case set off the occupation, but they have distanced themselves from the activists.

Federal, state and local law enforcement are monitoring the occupation but have not taken action. Officials with the Harney County Joint Information Center declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation.

The group tore down a stretch of government-erected fence near the refuge Monday to give a local rancher access to the range. The armed men also have accessed government files and equipment.

At a community meeting that hundreds attended that night, Harney County residents repeatedly asked the group to leave. They included a Burns High School freshman, who got a standing ovation from the crowd.

“And I just want them to go home so I can feel safe and I can feel like it is home again,” 15-year-old Ashlie Presley said with tears in her eyes, referring to the armed men. “I shouldn’t have to be scared in my own hometown.”

But some residents also said they share the activists’ frustration with the federal government — though they don’t agree with their tactics.

That same frustration was also at the heart of a message about the refuge occupation delivered by Republican Oregon Congressman Greg Walden on the U.S. House floor last week. The speech by Walden, whose district includes Harney County, has gone viral online.

Walden told the AP on Monday that while he does not condone the occupation, the armed men “have elevated the knowledge of frustration people feel in this high desert county.”

Walden said that frustration stems from constant pressure by environmental groups who want to leave public land untouched and from the arrogance exhibited by some federal government bureaucrats who don’t follow the law and disregard the opinions of residents in the rural region.

“Western culture, it’s being threatened,” Walden said.