SALEM — Sparks flew Monday during a hearing attended by ranchers and environmentalists in the state Capitol on a proposal to turn 2.5 million acres of canyonlands and desert in southeastern Oregon into a federally protected monument.
Cattlemen said their livelihoods could be threatened.
Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe told a panel of state lawmakers that he was worried armed outsiders would exploit the situation, with families in the remote area having been involved in cattle business for generations and being suspicious of the federal government and what restrictions it might impose.
“If a monument is declared in Malheur County, I am concerned about people from outside the county who will come with their own agendas … and I fear that they will not be reasonable,” Wolfe said.
Declaring the Owyhee Canyonlands, an area known for its spectacular, stark scenery and used by fishermen, rafters, ranchers and others, a national monument would require no legislation. President Barack Obama could endorse the proposal, but it would go through the U.S. Department of Interior first.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the department said: “No recommendations have been made from Interior to the White House about this proposal but we know that this is an important issue to many, and we continue to carefully consider all input about how to best manage these lands for current and future generations.”
The hearing room in the Capitol was so packed with its supporters and opponents that some had to go into an overflow room and watch the proceedings on TV.
Many drove for seven hours from the region — where ranches are often beyond the reach of cellphone service and even dropping off the mail means a long drive — to attend the informational hearing of the House Interim Committee On Rural Communities, Land Use and Water.
Standing in a lobby after the hearing in their cowboy hats, boots and jeans, about a dozen ranchers predicted their grazing rights would be eliminated if the monument is created. They said the proposal is vague.
Asked if they might stage a takeover or put up other armed resistance, the ranchers chuckled and emphatically said no.
Environmentalists and some area residents who also came to testify predicted degradation of the canyonlands if they aren’t given federal protection. They cited threats from oil and gas leasing, from gold and uranium mining and from population pressures, with fast-growing Boise, Idaho, not far away.
They said a patchwork of protection provided by various agencies has no permanence. “These layers of protection come at the whim of whatever government comes next,” Julie Weikel, who has explored the area for years, told a news conference as she urged permanent protection.
Elias Eiguren, a rancher whose Basque great-grandfather came to the Canyonlands to raise sheep, predicted that grazing rights for ranchers would wind up being litigated if the land became a monument, affecting up to 30,000 head of cattle of Malheur County’s total of 70,000.
The opponents have asked Oregon politicians to pressure Obama to reject the proposal.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/05/another_oregon_standoff_sherif.html
How bout We the People take it all back, even the 10 SQ miles of DC and boot these fascists to the curb /…..
They’ll keep taking more and more as long as We the People let them.
When will enough be enough? When will We the People rise up and take our country back?
WTFU !! can you not see this is just another land grab by the feds who do not abide by US laws. This is not legal by our laws . DC is a corp owned by foreiners and have no right to take from you WTFU. The only way they can aquire by our laws if the state legislature decides to sell it to them.
Protect it is bullshit like the delta smelts and snowy owls. Time to protect humans against these theives.
The goal of Agenda 21 and the NWO is to depopulate much of the west. Looks like they are right on schedule and have a jail cell for protestors.
Venezuela is collapsing after nationalizing its resources, the USA seems to be bent on following suit. The USA has sent industry offshore and is collapsing due to loss of its tax base through unemployment. I suggest we send our federal government’s job offshore as well. We will only give the highest bidder a copy of our Constitution and Bill of Right’s with the instructions that if an idea, incident, or question is NOT in those documents, they have NO authority to deal with, nor make legislation on, what is States Right’s.
If you are called to jury duty, exercise your Right to nullification! Vote not guilty for land grabbing (and like cases) cases. Free the defendents, nullify bogus dotgov laws. Nullify tyrannical law that strips we the people of our Liberty!
You do understand that they are talking about land owned by the government. Yes ranchers have grazing permits but the land in question belongs to the government not the ranchers. And, yes it will potentially hurt ranchers who depend on grazing on public lands but did I mention those lands don’t belong to them???
It is natural to think that if your family has owned a ranch for several generations and you grazed on public lands that you have some rights to continue forever and the rest of the citizens have no right to manage their lands if it inconveniences you. I get it. But it is the governments land and it is their choice as to how to manage it and if it becomes a NM it can more easily be accessed by the rest of the 230 million Americans.
No, the land does not belong to the government. The fact is there is not even a legitimate government in this country, as those pretending to be have voided the Constitution/contract through breach. And even if it was legit, the land that they can control is extremely limited by the Constitution to small plots for forts and post offices. The only ones who can complain about the ranchers’ cattle upon the land are the American nationals, and they would have to file a complaint through the common law showing a deprivation of right or property to remove so much as one cow.
You seem to love this government. All these government agencies claiming to own the people’s land are every one a running act of treason, as they have no authority to regulate any American national upon our public lands and are forbidden from the common law, which is the only way any American national can so much as be approached in reference to their activities in living as free men and women.
You obviously have zero understanding of the common law of our people and thus represent the problem, not the solution.
@Gone With The Wind: You MUST be a Northerner. No true Southerner worth their salt would ever say anything remotely close to what you have said here.