Federal authorities logged 30 incidents of threatening behavior, vandalism and other acts at 13 wildlife refuges in the west while armed militants held the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, according to a new report.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the bird sanctuary southeast of Burns, deployed 150 law enforcement officers to increase security at 63 agency properties in 15 states. That cost the federal agency $2.2 million, contributing to an estimated $6 million in expenses related to the 41-day occupation.
Details about the other threats and security costs were contained in a four-page summary of the wildlife agency’s response to the occupation released this week to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Idaho businessman Ammon E. Bundy, 40, his two brothers and others took over the Oregon refuge on Jan. 2 to protest the imprisonment of two Harney County ranchers and to demand federal land be turned over to private parties or local control. The occupation ended Feb. 11 with the surrender of four holdouts. To date, Bundy and two dozen others have been indicted on federal charges related to the takeover.
The wildlife service report said that costs are still mounting for the occupation. Besides the extra security, the agency spent $2.2 million on direct occupation expenses and $1.7 million on repairs. It hasn’t yet estimated the cost of restoring ancestral tribal grounds damaged during the occupation.
Supporters of the occupiers this week contested the damage claims, asserting in four news conferences in western states that the occupiers didn’t cause the damage depicted in photos released by the wildlife agency last week.
Two other federal agencies this week provided figures to The Oregonian/OregonLive about their costs during the occupation.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the federal government’s chief land manager in Harney County, said that as of March 22, its costs totaled $1,026,482. That agency operates a district office in Hines, which was closed during the occupation.
Spokeswoman Jody Weil said the agency spent $197,555 on additional law enforcement services and $828,927 for the salaries of those dealing with occupation issues, installing a perimeter fence at the Hines office, and for posting additional security at the office. She said agency employees also had to be escorted when they tended to the agency’s wild horse corrals each day outside of Burns.
The U.S. Forest Service also closed its Emigrant Creek Ranger District office in Hines because of the takeover, which the agency said cost $170,000 for salaries, temporary lodging and other charges.
At the wildlife refuge, the headquarters compound about 30 miles outside Burns remains closed for repairs.
The wildlife agency’s report said its “Operation Western Support” was designed to protect agency properties in 15 states, providing security for sites that had only one or no law enforcement officers normally assigned. The agency has its own law enforcement staff of 255 officers.
The agency report didn’t identify the 13 refuges with the 30 incidents, and said there were another four incidents involving agency employees away from refuges.
“Incidents included individuals approaching federal employees in a confrontational manner commenting on the death of a rancher in Oregon, and a vehicle traveling aggressively around a marked service vehicle for miles,” the report said. “Vandalism was painted on refuge signs with messages regarding the need for federal employees to leave.”
The report provided little more detail than has been previously disclosed about the agency’s $1.7 million tab to repair damage at the Oregon refuge.
“The refuge headquarters area was substantially damaged, including voluminous amounts of trash and debris remaining on site, vehicular and heavy equipment damaged by unlawful operation, and substantial damage to the headquarters and bunk house buildings,” the report said.
Jason Holm, assistant regional director for the wildlife service, said the fire bunk house “requires a full gutting.” The building was used as a command post by the occupiers. He said nearly every building was entered “either forcibly or through access to the station’s master key collection – taken from a lockbox.”
The agency report also said there was a “heavy rodent infestation” because of food and waste left behind and that the compound’s drinking water supply was “compromised.”
The report provided more details on the $2.2 million the wildlife agency listed as “occupation” costs. The report said 18 refuge employees were “advised to evacuate their residences in Harney County” and “four employees from other remote refuges were displaced.”
The wildlife service brought in contractors to “safeguard personal identifiable information like names, addresses and banking information of employees, volunteers, permittees and businesses after locked files were broken into.” The tally also included a peak of 60 employees working fulltime on occupation matters, including helping staff an information center in Burns.
The agency has yet to calculate restoring cultural sites damaged by illegal road construction and trenching for latrines.
“The illegal occupiers’ actions resulted in significant damages to cultural resources near and around the refuge headquarters facilities,” the report said. It said the agency was working with the Burns Paiute Tribe to continue assessing how to restore the sites.
Cherilyn Eagar, handing communications for the family of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, said occupiers deny causing any damage. Finicum, an Arizona rancher, was a spokesman for the occupiers at the ranch and was shot and killed by police Jan. 26 when he attempted to evade arrest.
Eagar said any mess at the refuge was left by occupiers fleeing after Finicum’s death and the arrest of occupation leaders. Supporters have created a newwebsite featuring photos from the occupation.
Two witnesses Eagar said could help dispel damage claims said in interviews Friday that they were at the refuge for one day in early January. They said they saw no damage or messes created either by the occupiers or left by government employees.
Guy Finicum, LaVoy’s brother, said that in one building “there was a lot of office-type clutter – things stacked up.” He said he sat in on a meeting of the occupation leadership that Jan. 8, listening to a discussion about keeping the compound tidy and causing no damage.
“It was not in the character of the people there to allow any damage to happen,” Finicum said. “It wasn’t in their goals.”
@leszaitz
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/04/oregon_standoff_incidents_repo.html
“Oink, oink, come on boys, let’s all of us stick our nose’s in the trough! Suuuueeee!!!!!! Oink, oink, F’N oink!!!!!” $6 million dollars? What a party!
Probably strippers and prostitutes flown in by the FBI for “undercover” work! Then, the coke and weed, yep, with a party like that, expenses can add up fast! Oh, you say, our boys in blue are true blue? Do you think all the drugs get “handed in” after a bust? “Hey Judge, they busted me with 20 lbs, not 2 lbs!” With no moral standards instilled to begin with, how do you expect these DA’s and pigs to respond at the chance for easy money? Put in a position of public trust, it appears that, with today’s “pillars of the community”, a man’s word ain’t worth spit.
So now they come up with bar fights and stumbling drunk reports and post them as quelled by their “heroic” and expensive efforts. It’s pig city, judges bought and paid for, the only laws enforced are decided in the boardrooms of corporations.