Harney County ranchers look back at refuge occupation

The occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge had many origins. From the imprisonment of the Hammond family to Constitutional rights.
At the heart was always Harney County ranchers.

“We want to get the rancher back to ranching,” occupation leader Ammon Bundy had said in January during a press conference. “We’re here to help the people of Harney County.”

Some ranchers in the area do not feel like the occupiers were representing them.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was a slap in our faces,” said Andy Dunbar, a 3rd generation Harney County rancher.

Many of the ranchers have worked with the Bureau of Land Management and the people on the refuge for generations. They said the collaboration doesn’t always go smoothly bu they didn’t need the occupiers in their county to help them.

“Everything that was going on (at the refuge) was very upsetting to me, my family and my neighbors,” Dunbar said Wednesday.

Ken Bentz, another Harney County rancher feels similarly. “(The occupiers) certainly didn’t represent me,” Bentz said.

Bundy had talked many times about government overreach and how it impacts ranchers in the area.

“Because of that need that we’ve seen in assisting them to become free from that fear and intimidation,” Bundy said during a January press conference.

The occupation split the Harney County community. Many supported the message of Bundy and his group.

“I believe that what they’re doing is right,” Harney County resident Linsay Tyler said in January. “If they didn’t do what they’re doing, our voices in Harney County would not have been heard.”

Many others, like Bentz, disagree.

“(The occupiers) were from somewhere else and certainly didn’t represent this community,” Bentz said.

It’s not all sunshine and roses for ranchers in Harney County.

“Currently a lot of us are being managed by lawsuit,” Bentz said. “Normally we’re being sued by an environmental group.”

The group of ranchers NewsChannel 21 spoke to on Wednesday said in Harney County they’ve never had a us vs. them, government vs. ranchers mentality.

“It’s really not like that,” said Harney County rancher Garry Miller. “You know, we all live here, our kids go to school together.”

Now that the occupation is over, the community can slowly start the healing process.

“We didn’t want (the occupiers) here,” Dunbar said.