OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Key things to know about federal land ownership
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
An armed group occu-
pying the headquarters of a
national wildlife refuge in
southeastern Oregon wants
the federal government to
relinquish the land to local
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accessible for ranching,
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wrest control of federal lands
date back more than a century
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government manages most
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How much land does
the government own? ,W
controls about a million
square miles, mostly in
the West, according to the
Congressional
Research
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Utah, 62 percent of both
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Most of the land is
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including the Forest Service,
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ment, Fish and Wildlife
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The federal government
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of California and Wyoming,
at 48 percent each; Arizona,
at 42 percent; Colorado, at
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29 percent; and Washington
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How did the government
acquire so much land? As
the country expanded West,
the federal government
sought to protect some
areas, such as Yellowstone
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took control in the 1900s of
unclaimed areas that were
generally too harsh and
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administers much of the
sagebrush steppe of the Great
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the imperiled sage grouse but
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Is the land-control
conÀict new? 1R 7KH
debate over management
of federal land has spanned
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and others contend that
state control would mean
less regulation and greater
freedom for ranchers, miners,
recreationists and others,
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Critics of that view say the
land would be too expensive
for states to maintain and
would be sold off to private
interests, cutting off access to
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Congress approved a law
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public land would stay under
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What efforts are states
making to control federal
land? State lawmakers,
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have sought a legal way to
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has said the state’s consti-
tution gave up claims to the
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Congress
has
the
authority to turn over federal
land to the states, but efforts
to pass such a law have
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What’s special about
the land in Oregon? Pres-
ident Theodore Roosevelt
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Fish and Wildlife Service,
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is partly a marshland that’s
a key rest area in the Oregon
high desert for migrating
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The number of migrating
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refuge as a Regional Western
Hemispheric
Shorebird
Reserve, the wildlife service
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than 20 percent of the state’s
breeding population of
greater sandhill cranes, as
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pastime at the refuge, which
also draws anglers, hunters
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East Oregonian
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of terrorism requires an act
‘dangerous to human life’
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come up with a different
scenario if these weren’t
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“There seems to be
somewhat of a reluctance
to think white people are
as dangerous as people of
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Project at the Southern
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suggested that from a
tactical standpoint, the
government’s
cautious
response would make sense
no matter who was holed up
in the government building
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“These guys are out in
the middle of nowhere, and
they haven’t threatened
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said Jim Glennon, a long-
time police commander who
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law enforcement training
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not an immediate threat to
anyone’s life, why create a
situation where there would
be?”
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negotiator to try to persuade
the group to leave peace-
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Anti-government
momentum
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Les ZaitzThe Oregonian via AP
Members of the group occupying the Malheur Nation-
al Wildlife Refuge headquarters stand guard Monday
near Burns.
A sign tacked outside a Burns home reflects growing
community sentiment that outsider militia aren’t wel-
come, in mid-December 2015.
REFUGE: Hammonds have distanced themselves from the group
Continued from 1A
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The men served their
original sentences — three
months for Dwight and
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appeals court judge ruled the
terms fell short of minimum
sentences that require them
to serve about four more
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Their sentences have been
a rallying cry for the group,
whose mostly male members
said they want federal lands
turned over to local authori-
ties so people can use them
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The father and son
reported to a federal prison
Monday in California, said
Harney County Sheriff
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The Hammonds have
distanced themselves from
the protest group and many
locals, including people who
want to see federal lands made
more accessible, don’t want
the activists here, fearing they
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Schools in the small town
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from the refuge, were closed
for the week out of concern
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For the moment, the
federal government was
doing nothing to remove
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White House said President
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the situation and hopes it can
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The refuge was estab-
lished in 1908 by President
Theodore Roosevelt to
protect bird populations that
had been decimated by plume
hunters selling feathers for
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ered valley rimmed by distant
mountains and contains lakes
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has grown over the years to
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surrounds the ranch Dwight
Hammond bought with
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Hammond said his family
has resisted pressure to sell
the ranch as the federal
government chipped away
at his grazing allotments and
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The refuge contains about
10 small buildings, some
of which had been entered
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Other members of the group
blocked the entrance to the
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The takeover prompted
an outcry far beyond Oregon
from both those who want
to see federal lands opened
to more ranching and
logging and others who
were astounded that private
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of Texas said he hoped the
group would “stand down
peaceably” with no violent
confrontation “sooner rather
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group had sent a demand
for “redress for grievances”
to local, state and federal
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included a couple of women
and some boys and girls
Monday, did not release a
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would not say what the
group would do if it got no
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“We have exhausted all
prudent measures and have
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outstanding grazing fees,
and no payments have been
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continue to accrue, although
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The disputes harken back
to a long-running struggle
over public lands between
some Westerners and the
Mark Graves/The Oregonian via AP
Protesters watch after taking over a watch tower at federal government, which
the National Wildlife headquarters in Burns on Sunday. owns nearly half the land in
citizens with guns could WKH%XQG\VIURPWKHLUVWDQGRII WKH:HVW
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seize government property in his state, said the group
“Sagebrush
Rebellion,”
without any intervention by could not continue breaking
the law, but that everyone 1HYDGD DQG RWKHU VWDWHV
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condemned by Democrats want to return (the land) to that idea want to open more
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grazing, mining and timber
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Among those leading
the occupiers was Ammon
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headlines in 2014, when
hundreds
of
armed
anti-government activists
rallied to his defense after
federal authorities started
seizing his cattle over more
than $1 million in unpaid
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federal authorities and
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and let him have his cattle
back rather than escalate
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federal authorities are
investigating, no one has
been charged with a crime,
even though authorities
said some of those involved
had trained their weapons
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say that the failure to hold
anyone accountable was a
major victory that embold-
ened
anti-government
groups around the country
and led directly to the situa-
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“They got away with
something pretty serious,”
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a bunch of emboldened
people who think weapons
can be used to settle their
disputes with the federal
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emeritus professor at Syra-
cuse University who has
studied extremist groups,
agreed that not confronting
the Oregon group could
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other hand, however, some
extremists crave such a
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a negotiated settlement
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deprives them of a confron-
tation that some of them
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Terrorism or
trespassing?
Some people took their
criticisms a step further,
arguing that if a radical
Muslim group had seized
the property, many would
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McKay, the former top
federal
prosecutor
in
western Washington and
now a professor of national
security law at Seattle
University, did not see it
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nition of terrorism requires
an act “dangerous to human
life” that appears intended
to intimidate civilians or
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“They’re trespassing and
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Wayne State University
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Henning said their actions
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nition of sedition, which
includes conspiring to
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ment, oppose it by force or
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charges
are
typically
reserved for the most severe
cases, he noted, including
that of Sheik Omar Abdel
Rahman, the “blind Muslim
cleric” who was linked
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tion charge was for a plot to
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Department brought sedition
charges against members
of the Hutaree militia in
Michigan, alleging that
they planned to kill a police
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A judge dismissed those
charges, saying the evidence
did not prove a concrete plan
to oppose the authority of the
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the occupation peacefully,
Henning said, he did not
expect that the Justice
Department would bring
sedition charges, but rather
charges of trespassing or
possibly destruction of
federal property, if that
DSSOLHG
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