Voters in a rural southeastern Oregon county have registered their opposition to proposals to expand federal protective status within 2.5 million acres of scenic canyonlands near the wildlife refuge recently occupied by anti-government militants.
The referendum follows calls by an environmental group to designate the area as a conservation zone, a move local ranchers and many others in the area perceive as a potential land grab by the federal government.
Of more than 6,300 ballots cast in the non-binding Malheur County referendum, 90 percent voted “no” on whether a national monument, wilderness or other conservation designations should be extended in the Owyhee Canyonlands area.
More than half the county’s registered voters cast ballots in the March 8 election. Final results are to be presented to President Barack Obama, along with Oregon’s governor, state lawmakers and congressional delegation, the county said.
“We just wanted to show what the local people wanted,” county Commissioner Larry Wilson told Reuters on Thursday.
Environmental activists point to the sprawling Owyhee region – known for its red-rock canyons, rolling plains and untamed rivers – as one of largest stretches of still-unprotected wild land in the Lower 48 states. The Oregon Natural Desert Association has called for designating 2.5 million acres as a National Conservation Area, with 2 million acres set aside as wilderness.
Opponents of such proposals see the region as the latest flashpoint in a long-simmering conflict over federal regulation of public lands in the West.
The vote tally, first reported on Wednesday, came as participants in the six-week armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, roughly 30 miles west of the canyonlands, were indicted on additional criminal charges stemming from their protest.
The Malheur takeover was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property and broader anger over U.S. control over cattle grazing and other industries in the region.
At least one supporter of the militants, B.J. Soper, a founding member of the Pacific Patriots Network, called the Owyhee controversy “a very hot button” in an open letter last month to elected officials.
There is no move afoot on Capitol Hill to designate the Owyhee as a wilderness, a level of protection requiring an act of Congress, though more than 1 million acres already is managed as de facto wilderness under prior law.
A U.S. Interior Department spokeswoman said there has been no discussion with the White House about national monument designation, which the president is empowered to make by executive fiat under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
Local concern over the Owyhee apparently was heightened when Obama designated 1.8 million acres in the California desert as national monument land last month.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Andrew Hay)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oregon-canyonlands-idUSKCN0WD0AG
To say this national monument is not on the agenda is bullshit as the designations would be required for mitigation for the uranium mines.
http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/uranium-one-and-eastern-oregon/152735
Let the whole state vote with this understanding, then watch the federal government say f the people of Oregon, we’re doing it anyway.
That is exactly what the watermelons and the feds are going to do Henry, they will gleefully tell the people of Oregon to GFT.
Don’t worry, like the Democratic Party does with Hitlery during the Primaries, our foreign government in occupation will just say, “Yea, we know that the people voted no, but since it’s our party, we’re just going to say yes to it anyways.”
And of course they will get away with it because NO ONE DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
Oregonians (and Westerners in general) have recently shown that we are done with the continued government sponsored theft of our land. Go ahead and ignore this vote and see how well things go for both the feds and/or the foreign-owned BLM thieves.
“Invisible Resistance To Tyranny” by Jefferson Mack
“For everyone living in a country where the authorities limit everyone’s civil liberties while increasing their own perks and power, engaging in invisible resistance can be a giant step toward achieving greater freedom now and in the future. Read this book. You have nothing to lose but your chains.”
An “act a day” keeps the tyrants at bay.