A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
G UEST C OMMENT
Speaking
out for rural
Oregon
By Rep. Greg Walden
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
In recent weeks, the people of
Harney County have become no
stranger to national headlines. On Jan.
3 a group of armed protesters over-
took a federal facility in the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge. Two days
later Dwight and Steve Hammond —
father and son ranchers from Harney
County who were convicted of arson
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acres of federal land — reported to
prison to serve the remainder of a
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While these stories played out
across every major media outlet, it’s
important to understand what is driv-
ing this anger and what steps we can
take to improve the situation.
The thread that ties the Hammond
family’s case together with the calls
of those who took over the refuge is
decades of frustration, arrogance and
betrayal that has contributed to the
mistrust of the federal government.
While I understand their passion,
I cannot condone the actions of the
armed protesters, led largely by
people who are not from our state.
They’ve made their point loud and
clear, and local community leaders,
including many ranchers, have asked
them to leave. They should do so.
The day after the Hammonds
went to prison, I went to the U.S.
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folding in Harney County. But when
decades of my own pent-up frustra-
tion with the federal government’s
treatment of rural Oregonians came
to the surface, I spoke before my col-
leagues for nearly half an hour. (You
can watch my full speech at www.
walden.house.gov/speech).
In my years representing the peo-
ple of Oregon’s 2nd District, I have
worked with local ranchers and the
citizens of eastern Oregon to resolve
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create a more cooperative spirit and
partnership with the federal agen-
cies. After all, more than half the
2nd District is under Federal man-
agement, or lack thereof.
The Steens Mountain Cooperative
Management and Protection Act is a
prime example of those cumulative
efforts. But after it was signed into law
in 2000, little by little, the agencies
decided to reinterpret it and follow it
at their own convenience, or ignore
the law altogether. At the suggestion
of local ranchers, the law created the
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States, but the tradeoff was a legal re-
quirement for the federal government
to provide the fencing. And yet bureau-
crats within the Bureau of Land Man-
agement wouldn’t listen and wouldn’t
follow the law. They told ranchers they
had to build the fence. When I pointed
out their error, they ba-
sically told me to stuff
it. When I
provided them with
the
documentation
from more than a de-
cade before that proved
Rep.
the intent of Congress,
Greg
they doubled down. Fi-
Walden nally, when I got Con-
gress to pass a restate-
ment of the original intent, they said
they’d review it.
A similar experience is taking
place across the West through so-
called travel management plans.
Originally intended to minimize dam-
age from off-road vehicles, it quickly
became a powerful tool to close roads
and shut people out of their forests.
What happened in the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest is a
classic case in point. After years of
community meetings, public work-
shops and incredible efforts to up-
date the government’s faulty maps,
a forest supervisor decided she knew
better. Her choice of a management
plan was such an affront that more
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in La Grande in protest. I, too, was
incensed and called upon the Forest
Service to withdraw the plan, and
they did. But the damage was done.
How can people be expected to have
faith in a public process when they
see outcomes like these?
Meanwhile, other threats loom on
these same people. From the onerous
“waters of the United States” rules, to
threats of more national monuments,
the federal government is aggressive-
ly trying to get cattle off the range and
people off their public lands.
The Hammonds were tried and
convicted under a law written after
the Oklahoma City bombing. The
presiding judge in the case made
clear that its penalties when applied
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Oregon didn’t make sense. But a
court found he lacked the authority to
invoke a lesser sentence.
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that landed the Hammonds with a
punishment disproportionate to the
severity of the crime. I’m working
with my colleagues to do just that.
We need to have the president un-
derstand that more monuments may
bring cheers from certain companies
and communities, but in reality they
leave behind more mistrust and mis-
management.
And those not familiar with the
high desert of the West need to under-
stand what we face before they quickly
condemn the frustration and anger that
is so evident.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden rep-
resents Oregon’s Second Congres-
sional District, which includes 20
counties in central, southern and
eastern Oregon.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Court member
should apologize
for comments
To the Editor:
In the Wednesday, Dec. 30, Blue
Mountain Eagle Letters to the Ed-
itor on page A4, there is a letter
titled “County Court decision per-
plexing,” written by Ron Ballard,
Mt. Vernon.
I, Frances M. Preston, request
two things from Grant County
Court as a result of this posting:
1. To make known publicly who
the “member” of the county gov-
ernment was by name and position
who indicated to Mr. Ballard that
if someone retired from the Forest
Service “they have fed at the trough
too long” and intimated their opin-
ion had no credibility.
2. Said “member” of county
government provide a public apol-
ogy to that Forest Service “retiree.”
Respectfully submitted,
Frances M. Preston
Prairie City
Editor’s note: Preston read this
letter at the Jan. 6 Grant County
Court Meeting. County Judge Scott
Myers said he made the comment
to a friend as a joke in a private
conversation outside of his county
duties. He said he did not believe
an apology was necessary for the
joke.
An apology
to Judge Myers
To the Editor:
I would like to formally apol-
ogize to Judge Myers for the is-
sue that took place in the Grant
County Courthouse. I understand
a gentleman came to the court-
house asking for a copy of the
resolution asking Grant County
residents if they wanted to enter
into direct coordination with the
Forest Service. Instead of sim-
ply directing the man on how to
get the resolution, the judge pro-
ceeded in attacking the writer as
dim-wittted and having “fed at
the trough” of the federal gov-
ernment as an employee. I un-
derstand now he was exercising
his First Amendment rights. I
feel responsible for that set of re-
marks, so I want to set the record
straight.
Frances Preston is my aunt,
I’m very proud to say that. She
served as a Forest Service em-
ployee for over 40 years through-
out the West in various admin-
istrative positions, and in that
career she strived to serve the
public.
The reason I’m apologizing
is this: If in any way I caused
Judge Myers to feel that his re-
sponse was an appropriate one,
while conducting his duties as the
Grant County Judge, while in the
courthouse, I apologize. I realize
I’ve caused folks to speak out on
these issues and not always to the
liking of the County Court.
Judge Myers was asked for an
apology in Court on Jan. 6, he re-
fused, and noted he has his first
amendment right, which I com-
pletely agree with. I’m just sorry
the pressures of the job caused
him to speak his personal mind in
an official capacity, as he is the
voice of Grant County.
As we have learned, personal
attacks are getting us nowhere.
And if local leadership would
simply listen to the residents on
these issues, things would not get
to this point.
John D. George
Bates
Federal land
managers’ agenda
to lock up the West
To the Editor:
The big blow up in Harney
County with the BLM over pub-
lic lands is not just about the
Hammonds or even the Bundy
takeover of the National Wildlife
Refuge below Burns. It is about
heavy handed control of people
on public lands that is happening
to all of the east side of Oregon
and beyond and throughout the
West. The abuse of power by
federal land managers — taking
water rights, forcing grazers off
the Public Lands, closing roads
and stalling for years and years
mining plans of operations —
has become onerous at best. It is
the government’s answer to tak-
ing from the public and giving it
to the environmentalists. Where
else but in America could the
environmentalists sue the feder-
al government and make money
doing it? It’s kind of like orga-
nized crime except legal.
In Baker and surrounding
counties, it’s the sage grouse
lock up on BLM and an attempt
for a proposed major lock up by
the Forest Service with a new
forest plan. At the Forest Service
proposed Blue Mountain Forest
Revision planning meetings,
people were mad at this insane
lock down of our forests and
expressed it. The proposed ex-
panded roadless areas, more pro-
posed national monuments, more
roadless de facto wilderness and
proposed game corridors has no
benefit except to lock it up for
the environmentalists. Still the
Forest Service is going on with
their plan to lock out the pub-
lic by proposing to shut down
and decommission almost 1,300
miles of roads on the WWNF.
We have used these roads since
they were built to harvest the tim-
ber. These roads are historic and
are used by the public to gather
natural resources and recreate and
fight wild fires.
The Forest Service has mis-
managed the forest so badly, you
can’t walk through them because
of the undergrowth and downfall,
and now the catastrophic fires
burn hundreds of thousands of
acres. Here in Baker County, two
fires joined to burn over 100,000
acres. The Forest Service has
committed to logging 500 acres
of that burn — really, guys, come
on! The environmentalists fight
every logging sale and sue and get
paid to sue to stop logging sales
just to watch it burn a few years
later. Environmentalists are not
Oregon’s friend.
I and most Oregonians do not
support the Bundy takeover of
the Malheur Wildlife Refuge ex-
cept for the fact it brought before
America the criminal abuse by the
heavy handed land managers with
a definite agenda to lock up the
West for the environmentalists.
Chuck Chase
Baker City
Agencies should
ansZer ¿re Tuestions
To the Editor:
I would like to commend Nicky
Sprauve on his last two letters to the
editor. They were very well written
and did not include threats, insults
or the hyperbole of many of the past
letters on this subject. Refreshing.
He asked two questions that need
honest answers. 1. Why wasn’t the
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ered a legal disaster area? 2. Why
wasn’t an objective criminal inves-
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an early stage?
These questions need answers
from the agencies involved.
John Aasness
John Day
Constitutionalists’
boondoggles
To the Editor:
I feel outraged that one of the
truly remarkable, federally pro-
tected places in the West has been
taken over by a band of armed
criminals. And just like some of
Grant County’s right-wing radi-
cals, they think they are the only
ones that can interpret our coun-
try’s Constitution. Here locally,
our sheriff has even declared he
is the single authority in Consti-
tutional matters. I suspect that the
only thing that has kept him and
some of his newly appointed spe-
cial deputies from publicly giving
their support to the Malheur (Na-
tional Wildlife) Refuge boondog-
gle is that it is not their Malheur
National Forest boondoggle.
Where is Janet Reno when we
need her?
Terry Steele
Ritter
L
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