OKANOGAN, Wash. — It’s “outrageous and hypocritical” that the federal government imprisoned two Oregon ranchers for a backburn that got away from them and burned a little over 100 acres of public land while federal and state agencies backburned thousands of acres of private land in Okanogan County last summer and were not held accountable, the president of the Okanogan County Farm Bureau says.

“My definition of homeland security is America’s ability to feed itself. There is nothing more important. America has to stop the war on agriculture,” said Nicole Kuchenbuch, 36, Okanogan County Farm Bureau president.

“If this nation’s farmers and ranchers are forced out of business, America has succeeded in staging her own famine,” Kuchenbuch said.

“The media tendency is to turn things into racial or socio-economic issues and vilify ranchers as a bunch of ignorant honkies. It’s important to realize the American government is oppressive to all colors of people and everyone just wants to be free, healthy and prosperous,” she said.

Incidents like ranchers and militia occupying a seasonally closed national wildlife refuge near Burns, Ore., happen when people feel so “abused” by government that “they feel they have no other choice,” Kuchenbuch said.

“I don’t agree with having a standoff, but they captured the attention of the United States,” she said.

The re-sentencing of Harney County, Ore., ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond to five years in prison is just one of many examples throughout ranching areas of the West in the last several decades of the heavy handedness of federal agencies in acquiring more land and squeezing out ranches to satisfy environmentalists who want a national park from the Yukon to Yellowstone, Kuchenbuch said.

It’s not coincidence that agencies have bought many Okanogan County ranches and that there have been problems between the government and ranchers in Nevada and other Western states, she said.

“We believe they are systematically squeezing us out. They use every means possible. Direct buyouts, conservation easements, fire, sage grouse and wolves. The Endangered Species Act. Sometimes they pay 10 times the market value and every parcel sold jeopardizes those left,” Kuchenbuch said.

“We do not trust that they will leave people alone, as witnessed with the Hammond family,” she said.

A couple dozen ranches have been burned out by wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres of Okanogan County in the past two summers. State and federal grazing allotments cover 50 to 80 percent of that, Jack Field, executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, has said. Ranchers are hard-pressed to find grazing land. One-third of 600,000 acres burned in the Okanogan, Tunk Block and North Star fires in 2015 was caused by agency backburning, Okanogan County Commissioner Jim DeTro has said.

Ranches in several parts of the county lost private timber, grazing grounds, hay, barns and equipment to agency backburning that ranchers opposed.

Kuchenbuch, her husband, Casey, and her father, Rod Haeberle, fought a fire alongside firefighters on their ranch last summer and begged them not to backburn 1,000 acres of their private land.

The agency did it anyway to protect homes but jeopardizing people and livestock and destroying Haeberle Ranch timber, miles of fencing, the family’s mountain cabin and a set of corrals.

“We were told afterward that there is no restitution for our losses,” Kuchenbuch said.

Backburning is so touchy that agencies don’t talk about it on their radios, rather commands are given in person, she said.

The homes could have been protected had the USFS allowed the Kuchenbuchs and Gebbers Farms to continue building a firebreak from private ranch land onto USFS property, she said. But the agency never fought the fire offensively, only defended homes, she said.

Protecting towns was the priority and fire resources were spread so thin that rural residents were left to fend for themselves in many places, she said.

When that happens, they don’t have time to wonder whether a backburn they do or other efforts are legal, she said.

“We are forced to defend ourselves in any manner we know. If the Hammonds (in Oregon) are arson-terrorists, then so were a whole lot of people up here including the agencies and civilians who did whatever they needed to save their property,” she said.

“It’s hypocritical for the government to employ the same practices they convicted the Hammonds of,” she said. The Hammonds, who have already served sentences in jail, should be pardoned, she said.

“The law needs to be fixed,” she said. “So they don’t make common citizens into criminals.”

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The occupation of national wildlife area by a small, armed group upset over federal land policies stretched into its second week as the mother of the group’s leader asked supporters to send supplies — everything from warm blankets to coffee creamer.

The group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon’s high desert country on Jan. 2 planned no media briefings. It was quiet at the entrance to the refuge Sunday.

The leader of the occupation, Ammon Bundy, has repeatedly rejected calls to leave buildings at the refuge despite pleas from the county sheriff, from many local residents and from Oregon’s governor, among others. He has said the group will leave when there is a plan to transfer control of federal land to locals.

So far, the authorities have not moved in to remove Bundy’s group. Ammon Bundy is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over grazing rights.

On Saturday, Ammon Bundy’s mother, Carol Bundy, sent an email to supporters asking them to send her son’s group supplies from a list of more than 80 items, including sleeping bags, wool socks, cigarettes, toiletries, food, coffee and “French Vanilla Creamer.”

An Oregon state legislator met with the group on Saturday, despite requests from local officials that he not do so.

Rep. Dallas Heard, a Republican from Roseburg, talked with the group, The Oregonian reported. Heard’s legislative district is in western Oregon, outside the area where the standoff is occurring. Rep. Cliff Bentz, the Republican state representative whose district includes the wildlife refuge, told Heard not to come because it would be “inappropriate.”

Harney County Judge Steven Grasty, another local official, says he too advised Bentz against the visit. Grasty said Bentz and five other out-of-state elected officials from Washington, Idaho and Nevada accompanied Heard. It wasn’t clear who the other elected officials were. Heard did not return a call Sunday from The Associated Press.

Also Saturday a separate group of armed men arrived but left several hours later after occupation leaders told them they weren’t needed.

The Pacific Patriot Network showed up Saturday in a convoy of about 18 vehicles, carrying rifles and handguns and dressed in military attire and bulletproof vests. They said they were there to help with security. They departed the refuge area after LaVoy Finicum said the network’s help was appreciated, but “we want the long guns put away.”

The standoff is the latest flare up of tensions over federal management of Western lands.

The federal government manages most of the land in many Western states, including 53 percent of Oregon. While ranchers and others object to what they say are unfair rules, environmentalists say mining, logging and ranching have run roughshod for decades on public land and left a legacy of pollution for taxpayers to clean up.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The leader of an armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to protest federal land management policies said he and his followers are not ready to leave even though the sheriff and many locals say the group has overstayed its welcome.

On Friday, Ammon Bundy, leader of the group that on Jan. 2 seized the headquarters of the refuge in southeastern Oregon, said: “How long will this go on? We say to you, ‘Not a minute too early.’”

Bundy met Thursday with Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who asked Bundy to heed the will of locals and leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Ward also offered to escort Bundy and his group out of the refuge to ensure safe passage.

“We will take that offer,” Bundy said on Friday. “But not yet.”

A few hours later, Ward said via Twitter that because of Bundy’s stance he was calling off plans to have another meeting with him.

“During this morning’s press conference, the people on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge made it clear that they have no intention of honoring the sheriff’s request to leave. Because of that, there are no planned meetings or calls at this time,” Ward said.

But Ward said he is “keeping all options open.”

About the same time, members of another armed group known as the 3% of Idaho began arriving at the bird sanctuary, The Oregonian reported.

“They just keep an eye on everything that is going on to make sure nothing stupid happens,” Bundy told The Oregonian on Friday afternoon outside refuge headquarters.

“If they weren’t here,” Bundy said, referring to the Idaho group, “I’d worry” about a Waco, Texas-style siege by federal officials in the early 1990s.

Spokesmen for the Idaho group said they are there to keep the situation peaceful and reassure the community that it isn’t in danger.

Bundy’s group — calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom — comes from as far away as Arizona and Michigan.

Bundy’s protest at the refuge is a continuation of long-running arguments that federal policies for management of public lands in the West are harming ranchers and other locals. Bundy is the son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who in 2014 was at the center of a tense standoff with federal officials over grazing rights.

Ammon Bundy has been demanding that federal land in Oregon’s Harney County be turned over to local residents to be managed.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday called the occupation of the wildlife refuge “unlawful” and said it had to end.

“It was instigated by outsiders whose tactics we Oregonians don’t agree with. Those individuals illegally occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge need to decamp immediately and be held accountable,” she said.

Federal, state and local law authorities have been closely monitoring the situation at the refuge but have so far taken no action against Bundy and his followers, apparently to avoid a confrontation. Ward has been the most visible law enforcement authority during the occupation, and his strategy so far has been to try to show Bundy that locals oppose the occupation and want them to leave.

Ward got a lot of support during a packed community meeting Wednesday night.

At that meeting, local residents said they sympathized with the armed group’s complaints about federal land management but disagreed with their tactics and called Bundy and his followers to leave.

Bundy initially came to Burns to rally support for two local ranchers who were sentenced to prison on arson charges. The ranchers — Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond — distanced themselves from Bundy’s group and reported to prison Monday.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.

By his own description, Eastern Oregon farmer Craig Coleman doesn’t like to get bored. So in addition to growing blueberries, hay, field corn and cut flowers — not to mention renting ground to a potato farmer – he and several partners decided to open a brewery in Boardman.

“Why not?” he said. “The way I look at things is, if we can do one, why not do 10?”

Ordnance Brewing, named for the ghost town across the highway from the defunct Umatilla Chemical Depot that once housed the deadly agents used in chemical weapons, opened for business around Halloween 2014 and this month announced a major expansion.

The brewery, in the Port of Morrow, will jump production from seven barrels per brewing cycle to 50. For perspective, one barrel equals 31 gallons. The company now produces two or three brews per week, head brewer Logan Mayfield said. Production eventually will increase to six or eight brews per day, he said.

The company will focus on producing four types of beer in cans and bottles: A Rye Pale Ale; an India Pale Ale called FMJ, for Full Metal Jacket; Rivercrest Kolsch, a German-style light lager; and an English-style ale called “Old Craig,” named after Coleman, the farmer. Ordnance will make seasonal beers as well. Mayfield, the brewer, jokingly described some of the company’s offerings as “lawnmower beer,” meaning the type you’d drink after yard work.

“I believe we have a very solid product,” said Coleman. “Is it the greatest beer in the world? Probably not, but we make good beer.”

Coleman is Ordnance’s manager; other partners keep the books, own the brewery building, oversee taphouses that serve the company’s beer and have other roles. Coleman hired Mayfield, originally from Ashland, to do the brewing.

Coleman previously farmed with his extended family in the Willamette Valley, but moved to Eastern Oregon to do something different.

“It was time for a change,” he said. “The business was maturing and it’s not as fun as when your hair is on fire.”

He and partners first opened a couple taphouses that served beer, then decided to up their game and make beer themselves.

Ordnance uses some of Coleman’s blueberries in one of its beer, and buys hops from the Willamette Valley and barley from Idaho. Coleman and Mayfield said they’re looking to use more local ingredients as the business develops.

In its promotional material, Ordnance describes itself as “smack dab in a beer desert,” with very few other breweries operating between Hood River and Pendleton.

An industry group, Oregon Craft Beer, said the state had 234 breweries in 72 cities as of July 2015. Of those, 91 are in the Portland metro area, which some in the industry have taken to calling “Beervana.”

Craft beer brewing, like wine before it and hard cider now coming on, has proven to be a hot economic sector in Oregon. Brewers produced 1.6 million barrels in 2014, a 17 percent increase over the previous year. Craft beer made in Oregon now accounts for 20 percent of the beer consumed in the state, according to the industry group.

Coleman, the Ordnance manager, said the business is in “great spot” geographically and market-wise.

“What I’ve found is, the more questions you ask, the more doors open,” he said. “We’ve been lucky. We have great people around us. The opportunities are out there if you’re willing to capitalize on them.”

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Three Oregon sheriffs met Thursday with the leader of an armed group occupying a federal wildlife refuge and asked them to leave, after residents made it clear they wanted them to go home.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward said via Twitter that he asked Ammon Bundy to respect the wishes of residents. He said sheriffs from two other counties were with him.

Ward said the two sides planned to talk again Friday.

The Oregonian reported that Ward offered to provide Bundy and his group a safe escort out of the refuge.

“I’m here to offer safe escort out,” the newspaper reported the sheriff telling Bundy. “Go back and kick it around with your folks.”

On Wednesday night, residents attended a community meeting to air their views about the two dozen or so armed men hold up at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns.

Locals said they sympathized with the armed group’s complaints about federal land management policies but disagreed with their tactics.

On Thursday, LaVoy Finicum, a leader of the armed group, told reporters, “We want all people to be safe. We want all law enforcement to be safe. We want our lives to be safe.”

Ward said he hoped residents would put up a united front to peacefully resolve the conflict with the group.

“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Ward said.

Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in the small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert.

The group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, says it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land. Participants came from as far away as Arizona and Michigan.

Bundy came to Burns to rally support for two local ranchers who were sentenced to prison on arson charges. The ranchers — Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond — distanced themselves from Bundy’s group and reported to prison on Monday.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.

Oregon farm regulators have cleared the expansion of four dairies classified as “confined animal feeding operations” over the objections of vegans and animal welfare proponents.

Earlier this year, five dairies requested that the Oregon Department of Agriculture approved changes to their waste management plans, with four those facilities seeking to increase their herds.

While such requests are usually routine, the expansion proposals attracted the attention of critics who complained the larger dairies will increase pollution, harm air quality, spur more antibiotic usage and lead to animal welfare abuses.

Many of these objections were heard during an ODA public meeting in September 2015, and critics also submitted written comments about the modified plans.

In a response to comments, ODA explained that it’s role is limited to water quality concerns. Complaints about air quality, animal welfare and antibiotic usage are outside its jurisdiction in enforcing the federal Clean Water Act.

“Most of the comments were not pertinent to our permit,” said Wym Matthews, manager of the agency’s CAFO program, noting that this fact probably won’t appease critics. “They probably will not be happy with our response.”

However, the agency will impose new conditions on the five dairies, which are located in Tillamook, Marion, Coos and Klamath counties.

In fields where manure is applied, the dairies will have to test soil nutrients annually instead of every five years. Those tests must also specifically check the soil’s nitrate levels, in addition to total nitrogen and phosphorous levels.

Dairies were previously required to only check for total nitrogen and phosphorous, but they must now break out nitrates because federal standards set limits for that particular soluble nutrient in drinking water, said Matthews.

While these conditions will currently apply only to the five dairies that requested waste management plan changes, ODA is in the process of updating its overall Clean Water Act permit for CAFOs, which will require other facilities to also comply with these measures later in 2016, he said.

Friends of Family Farmers, a non-profit group that submitted comments about water quality concerns, is heartened that soil tests will check specifically for nitrates and that samples will now be taken more frequently, which is aimed at preventing excessive nutrient buildup.

“Those were all issues we had flagged. We were making sure they weren’t engaged in a rubber-stamp exercise,” said Ivan Maluski, the group’s policy director. “I think it’s encouraging they included our suggestions.”

Any new regulatory requirements create challenges for dairies, particularly smaller ones without many employees, but producers tend to be agile in meeting such standards, said Tammy Dennee, assistant director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association,

As for the controversy over the expansions, Dennee said it’s hard to say whether to expect similar objections in the future.

“Unfortunately, it was much to do about very little,” she said.

COOS BAY — The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area is sponsoring the second annual GIRLS ROCK event 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at Sunset Middle School Commons, 245 S. Cammann St., in Coos Bay.

COOS BAY — The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area is sponsoring the second annual GIRLS ROCK event 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at Sunset Middle School Commons, 245 S. Cammann St., in Coos Bay.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Cheers erupted at a packed community meeting in rural Oregon when a sheriff said it was time for a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to “pick up and go home.”

The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan. The group also objects to a lengthy prison sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson.

“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday evening.

Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in this small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert country and tensions have risen. Ward told the hundreds gathered at the meeting he hoped the community would put up a “united front” to peacefully resolve the conflict.

Group leader Ammon Bundy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals.

Several people spoke in support of Bundy and his followers at Wednesday’s meeting.

“They are waking people up,” said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resident. “They are just making a statement for us, to wake us up.”

Earlier Wednesday the leader of an American Indian tribe that regards the preserve as sacred issued a rebuke to Ammon’s group, saying they are not welcome at the snowy bird sanctuary and must leave.

“The protesters have no right to this land. It belongs to the native people who live here,” Burns Paiute Tribal leader Charlotte Rodrique said.

Bundy is demanding that the refuge be handed over to locals.

Rodrique said she “had to laugh” at the demand, because she knew Bundy was not talking about giving the land to the tribe.

The standoff in rural Oregon is a continuation of a long-running dispute over federal policies covering the use of public lands, including grazing. The federal government controls about half of all land in the West. For example, it owns 53 percent of Oregon, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Bundy family is among many people in the West who contend local officials could do a better job of managing public lands than the federal government.

The argument is rejected by those who say the U.S. government is better equipped to manage public lands for all those who want to make use of them.

Among those groups are Native Americans.

The Burns Paiute tribe has guaranteed access to the refuge for activities that are important to their culture, including gathering a plant used for making traditional baskets and seeds that are used for making bread. The tribe also hunts and fishes there.

Rodrique said the armed occupiers are “desecrating one of our sacred sites” with their presence at refuge.

Bundy’s group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, says it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds are long-time local residents who have distanced themselves from the group Bundy’s group. They were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.

At the emotional community meeting Ward, the county sheriff, said he understood the problems some had with the ranchers’ court case. However he said people needed to express but their anger peacefully and lawfully.

“I’ve got my own frustrations, we’ve got visitors in town that have their frustrations, but there’s appropriate ways to work out our differences,” he said.

Southwestern Oregon Community College students who have excelled during the 2015 fall term were honored by being included on the academic excellence, dean's, and honor roll lists. To receive academic honors, students must have had at least 12 credit hours.…

Southwestern Oregon Community College students who have excelled during the 2015 fall term were honored by being included on the academic excellence, dean's, and honor roll lists. To receive a…

The minimum wage for H-2A visa foreign guestworkers in Washington and Oregon has been increased 27 cents an hour to $12.69 for 2016 by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The rate went up 56 cents to $11.89 per hour in California and up 61 cents to $11.75 in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The rate is down 10 cents to $11.27 in Nevada, Utah and Colorado and up 66 cents to $11.20 in Arizona and New Mexico.

The mandatory minimum, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate or AEWR, is based on Department of Labor surveys of agricultural wages by region. It is above state minimum wages and is intended to prevent wages of similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the importation of foreign workers.

“We wish it wouldn’t go up because the (federal H-2A) program is expensive. It’s a high minimum wage added onto housing and transportation growers provide,” said Dan Fazio, director of WAFLA, formerly the Washington Farm Labor Association, in Olympia.

Idaho’s AEWR is 62 percent higher than its minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and “that’s substantial,” he said. It increases industry’s costs, he said.

The increases Idaho and California reflect tightening labor supplies, he said.

Most pickers make more than the AEWR on piece rate because they work fast. But AEWR increases push piece rates higher, Washington tree fruit companies have said.

The highest 2016 AEWR in the nation is the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas at $13.80. The lowest is Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina at $10.59.

A year ago the rate increased 55 cents per hour in Washington and Oregon and yet the use of H-2A workers in Washington still rose from 9,077 in 2014 to 11,844 in 2015.

Increases have been largest after big crop years in which wages rise because of larger labor shortages, Fazio said.

“In the Pacific Northwest we have a severe labor shortage,” he said. “The last time the state conducted a labor survey was almost two years ago. The shortage was nearly 15 percent. We need another survey. It’s crucial, but we can tell labor is short because we get few, if any, referrals from the state.”

He was referring to required advertising for domestic workers at the AEWR rate before an employer can get DOL approval for H-2A workers.

Washington uses more H-2A workers than any other Western state, mainly in cultivation and harvest of tree fruit. Use in packing tree fruit is increasing. Most of the workers come from Mexico.

“We will have nearly 15,000 (H-2A) in 2016. Imagine what we would do if we had 15,000 fewer seasonal workers. We would be sunk, devastated,” Fazio said.

The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire foreign guest workers on temporary work visas to fill seasonal jobs. Employers must show a shortage of U.S. workers in the area and provide housing, transportation and a minimum wage.

Rapid growth of H-2A workers in landscape nurseries, berries and tree fruit is likely in Oregon and in tree fruit and hops in Idaho as annual growth slows from 40 to 15 percent in Washington where use already is high, Fazio has said.

Wafla hired and provided to growers 7,895 of the 11,844 H-2A workers in Washington in 2015, DOL statistics show. Zirkle Fruit Co., Selah, hired 2,889.

The DOL certified 17,942 H-2A workers for Florida in 2015, 17,696 for North Carolina and 14,393 for Georgia. Washington ranked fourth at 11,844 and California was fifth at 8,591. Louisiana, Kentucky, New York, Arizona and South Carolina completed the top 10.

Oregon hired about 250 H-2A workers in 2015 and is expected to increase by 100 this year, WAFLA has said. Idaho was at 30 and likely will increase to 50.

The top 10 H-2A users in 2015 by crop or occupation were: tobacco, 14,544; berries, 12,520; apples, 7,507; hay and straw, 6,989; oranges, 5,882; melons, 5,843; nursery and greenhouse, 5,109; agricultural equipment operators, 4,974; fruits and vegetables, 4,639; and onions, 4,610.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The small, armed group occupying a remote national wildlife preserve in Oregon has said repeatedly that local people should control federal lands — a sentiment that frustrates critics who say the lands are already managed to help everyone from ranchers to recreationalists.

With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, authorities had not removed the group of roughly 20 people from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon’s high desert country. But members of the group — some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan — were growing increasingly tense, saying they feared a federal raid.

Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum said Tuesday evening that he believes federal officials have issued warrants for the arrest of five group members — including himself and Ammon Bundy — but Finicum offered no details.

The FBI in Portland referred calls to the Harney County Joint Information Center, which said in a statement it had no information on arrests or arrest warrants and that authorities were “still working on a peaceful resolution.”

Bundy said they would take a defensive position anticipating a possible raid. Late Tuesday, the group moved a large plow vehicle to block the refuge’s driveway.

Bundy told reporters Tuesday the group would leave when there was a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals — a common refrain in a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

“It is our goal to get the logger back to logging, the rancher back to ranching,” said the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.

The younger Bundy’s anti-government group is critical of federal land stewardship. But environmentalists and others say U.S. officials should keep control for the broadest possible benefit to business, recreation and the environment.

Randy Eardley, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman, said the group’s call for land ownership transfer didn’t make sense.

“It is frustrating when I hear the demand that we return the land to the people, because it is in the people’s hand — the people own it,” Eardley said. “Everybody in the United States owns that land. ... We manage it the best we can for its owners, the people, and whether it’s for recreating, for grazing, for energy and mineral development.”

Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, said in a statement this week that occupation of the refuge “holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers.”

The armed group seized the refuge’s headquarters Saturday night. Bundled in camouflage, earmuffs and cowboy hats, they seem to be centered around a complex of buildings on the 300-square-mile high desert preserve.

Finicum said the power was still on at buildings at the refuge. “If they cut it off, that would be such a crying shame. All the pipes would freeze,” he said.

Ammon Bundy offered few specifics about the group’s plan to get the land turned over to local control, but Finicum said they would examine the underlying land ownership transactions to begin to “unwind it.”

The federal government controls about half of all land in the West, which would make the wholesale transfer of ownership extremely difficult and expensive.

For example, it owns 53 percent of Oregon, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service. Taking over federal public lands in Idaho could cost the state $111 million a year, according to a University of Idaho study.

Bundy said the group felt it had the support of the local community. But the county sheriff has told the group to go home, and many locals don’t want them around, fearing they may bring trouble. A community meeting was scheduled for Wednesday. Harney County Sheriff David Ward said in a statement the meeting was to “talk about their security concerns and the disruptions that the behavior of the militants on the refuge are causing for our people.”

So far, law enforcement hasn’t taken action against the group, whose rallying cry is the imprisonment of father-and-son ranchers who set fire to federal land.

The group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds, who have distanced themselves from the group, were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

The takeover comes amid a dispute that dates back decades in the West. In the 1970s, Nevada and other states pushed for local control in what was known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. Supporters wanted more land for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting.

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Associated Press writer Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this story.

An organization that represents a broad range of outdoor enthusiasts said “misguided politicians” who call for taking over or selling off public land paved the way for armed militia members who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters south of Burns, Ore.

Among other things, militia members have said they want to return federal land to full commercial use by loggers, miners and others. In a statement released Jan. 5, the Outdoor Alliance said legislators in 11 Western states have introduced bills that would accomplish similar aims.

The alliance, based in Washington, D.C., said militia members and politicians miss the point of why some land is set aside and regulated by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and National Park Service.

“From the perspective of the outdoor recreation community,” the Outdoor Alliance said, “the most important point is this: It’s not just the gunmen’s tactics that are wrong, but their ideas, as well. These folks want to take over public lands, and their actions do harm to the wonderful idea that these places belong to all of us.”

When politicians advocate “unconstitutional positions” about the legitimacy of federal land management, it “emboldens people willing to point guns at the public servants responsible for managing our American public lands,” the alliance said.

Outdoor Alliance describes itself as a nonprofit coalition of groups representing hikers, climbers, rafters, mountain bikers, backcountry skiers and others committed to conserving public land.

The group’s full statement is at: http://www.outdooralliance.org/policy-news/2016/1/4/gunmen-threaten-to-take-public-land-by-force-in-oregon

A lawsuit over a pricing dispute between an Oregon hazelnut farmers cooperative and the estate of a deceased entrepreneur in the aviation and agriculture industries has been settled.

In September 2015, the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon cooperative was accused of violating a contract with the estate of Delford Smith, the founder of now-bankrupt Evergreen Aviation and Evergreen Agricultural Enterprises in McMinnville, Ore.

The complaint claimed that HGO agreed to pay Smith, who died in 2014, 35 cents per pound above the field price established by the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association, which sets prices between farmers and processors.

Smith’s estate alleged it was owed an added $150,000 for delivering 1 million pounds of hazelnuts to the cooperative because the field price for hazelnuts ultimately increased from $1.15 to $1.30 per pound.

On Dec. 28, a judge in Multnomah County Circuit Court dismissed the lawsuit at the behest of the plaintiffs.

The dispute could have had implications beyond the contract between HGO and the Smith’s estate because members of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association aren’t allowed to pay higher prices to individual farmers.

Jeff Fox, CEO of the cooperative, said HGO reached a settlement with Smith’s estate but could not comment on the specifics.

The disagreement arose after creditors attempted to garnish the revenues of Smith’s estate after his death, HGO became involved in the proceedings because it had rights to hazelnuts delivered by Smith, Fox said.

The estate’s lawsuit against HGO was the result of confusion over the meaning of “field price,” as the cooperative eventually paid its members more than the initial rate set after harvest, he said.

Smith’s estate believed it was owed 35 cents above the final price, rather than the original rate, which led to the dispute, Fox said. “I probably should have done a better job clarifying that within the contract.”

Capital Press was unable to reach the attorney representing Smith’s estate.

As to the question about preferential payments, Fox said the cooperative is not subject to the contract between farmers and the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association. However, a company owned by the cooperative, Westnut, is a signatory, he said.

Even so, HGO tries to “minimize any disruption” over prices, so the contract with Smith was intended to pay the same level above the initial field price as other growers received, Fox said.

Doug Olsen, president of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association, refused to comment on the situation.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The armed activists who flocked to a remote wildlife refuge to take a stand against the federal government also looked prepared for a nippy day of hunting or fishing.

They were bundled in camouflage, plaid shirts, ear muffs and cowboy hats in the bleak, snow-covered high desert of eastern Oregon where they seemed more likely to encounter a bird or animal than a member of the public outside their own group or the throng of news media beyond the pickup trucks blocking the entrance to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

That may be one of the main reasons law enforcement hadn’t taken action Monday against the group numbering close to two dozen who were upset about the imprisonment of father-and-son ranchers who set fire to federal land.

“These guys are out in the middle of nowhere, and they haven’t threatened anybody that I know of,” said Jim Glennon, a longtime police commander who now owns the Illinois-based law enforcement training organization Calibre Press. “There’s no hurry. If there’s not an immediate threat to anyone’s life, why create a situation where there would be?”

Schools were closed for the week in Burns, about 30 miles north of the refuge, out of an abundance of caution, but no one had been hurt and no one was being held hostage on Monday.

The takeover puts federal officials in a delicate position of deciding whether to confront the occupiers, risking bloodshed, or stand back and possibly embolden others to directly confront the government.

The activists seized the refuge about 300 miles from Portland on Saturday night as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

The armed group said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, according to prosecutors. The men served no more than a year until an appeals court judge ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

Their sentences were a rallying cry for the group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, whose mostly male members said they want federal lands turned over to local authorities so people can use them free of U.S. oversight.

The group — led by two of the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over grazing rights — sent a demand for “redress for grievances” to local, state and federal officials.

“We have exhausted all prudent measures and have been ignored,” Ammon Bundy said.

The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands and Ammon Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.

President Barack Obama said Monday federal authorities were monitoring the situation, but agents made no apparent moves to surround the property or confront the group — an approach that reflected lessons learned from bloody standoffs at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, in the early 1990s.

That prompted complaints from many observers who suggested the government’s response would have been swifter and more severe had the occupants been Muslim or other minorities.

“There seems to be somewhat of a reluctance to think white people are as dangerous as people of color,” said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

Beirich said the group was emboldened by the government’s failure to hold Cliven Bundy or his supporters accountable in 2014 after hundreds of armed anti-government activists rallied to his defense when federal authorities started seizing his cattle over more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees.

Michael Barkun, an emeritus professor at Syracuse University who has studied extremist groups, said not confronting the Oregon group could embolden others.

“You can say, well, a negotiated settlement emboldens them,” he said. “But by the same token it deprives them of a confrontation that some of them want.”

The Hammonds have distanced themselves from the protest group and many locals, including people who want to see federal lands made more accessible, don’t want the activists here, fearing they may bring trouble.

Seeds of the dispute date back decades in the West, where the federal government owns about half of all land.

In the 1970s, Nevada and other states pushed for local control over federal land in what was known as the “Sagebrush Rebellion.”

Supporters wanted more land for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting and opponents wanted federal government to administer lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreational.

The refuge established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect birds from hunters selling plumes to the hat industry has expanded to 300 square miles over the years.

The valley rimmed by distant mountains contains lakes and marshland and now surrounds the ranch Dwight Hammond bought with his father in 1964.

Hammond said his family resisted pressure to sell the ranch as the federal government chipped away at his grazing allotments and increased fees on other lands.

Ammon Bundy said the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes.

Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from Los Angeles.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Father-and-son ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal grazing land reported to prison Monday as the armed anti-government activists who have taken up their cause maintained the occupation of a remote Oregon wildlife preserve.

Federal authorities made no immediate attempt to retake the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the remote high desert of eastern Oregon, which about two dozen activists seized over the weekend as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

There appeared to be no urgent reason for federal officials to move in. No one has been hurt. No one is being held hostage. And because the refuge is a bleak and forbidding stretch of wilderness about 300 miles from Portland, and it’s the middle of winter, the standoff is causing few if any disruptions.

Meanwhile, the armed group said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after the father and son were ordered back to prison for arson on federal grazing lands.

The group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, demanded a government response within five days related to the ranchers’ extended sentences.

Ammon Bundy — one of the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over grazing rights — told reporters that Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, were treated unfairly.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, according to prosecutors. They said they lit the fires to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires.

The men served their original sentences — three months for Dwight and one year for Steven. But an appeals court ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

Their sentences have been a rallying cry for the group, whose mostly male members said they want federal lands turned over to local authorities so people can use them free of U.S. oversight.

The father and son reported to a federal prison Monday in California, said Harney County, Oregon, Sheriff David Ward. He provided no other details.

The Hammonds have distanced themselves from the protest group and many locals, including people who want to see federal lands made more accessible, don’t want the activists here, fearing they may bring trouble.

Schools in the small town of Burns, about 30 miles from the refuge, were closed for the week out of concern for student safety.

For the moment, the federal government was doing nothing to remove them, but the FBI said it was monitoring the situation. The White House said President Obama was aware of the situation and hopes it can be resolved peacefully.

The refuge was established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect bird populations that had been decimated by plume hunters selling feathers for the hat industry.

It sits in a wide snow-covered valley rimmed by distant mountains and contains lakes and marshland. The preserve has grown over the years to about 300 square miles and surrounds the ranch Dwight Hammond bought with his father in 1964. Dwight Hammond said his family has resisted pressure to sell the ranch as the federal government chipped away at his grazing allotments and increased fees on other lands.

The refuge contains about 10 small buildings, some of which had been entered by the occupying group. Other members of the group blocked the entrance to the headquarters.

The takeover prompted an outcry far beyond Oregon from both those who want to see federal lands opened to more ranching and logging and others who were astounded that private citizens with guns could seize government property without any intervention by law enforcement.

The tactics of the group were condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who is familiar with the Bundys from their standoff in his state, said the group could not continue breaking the law, but that everyone should remain patient.

“These people say we want to return (the land) to the people,” Reid said. “The people have it right now.”

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he hoped the group would “stand down peaceably” with no violent confrontation “sooner rather than later.”

Ammon Bundy said his group had sent a demand for “redress for grievances” to local, state and federal officials. The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands. Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.

“We have exhausted all prudent measures and have been ignored,” he said.

The dispute harkens back to a long-running struggle over public lands between some Westerners and the federal government, which owns nearly half the land in the West.

In the 1970s, during the “Sagebrush Rebellion,” Nevada and other states pushed for local control over federal land. Supporters of that idea want to open more land available for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting.

Opponents say the federal government should administer lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreational.

Bundy said the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes.

Keith Landon, a longtime resident of Burns who works at the Reid Country Store, said he sympathizes with the Bundys’ frustrations. Landon was a logger until the federal government declared the spotted owl a protected species in the 1980s — a decision that hurt the local logging industry.

“It’s hard to discredit what they’re trying to do out there,” he said. “But I don’t want anybody hurt.”

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

Add the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association to the list of groups that don’t approve of the militia takeover of a federal building south of Burns.

In a prepared statement Jan. 4, OCA President John O’Keeffe noted that Harney County ranchers have been “very resourceful” in working with federal agencies on wildlife issues in particular.

“Furthermore, OCA does not support illegal activity taken against the government. This includes militia takeover of government property, such as the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.”

However, OCA Executive Director Jerome Rosa said the organization continues to support Burns-area ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, who reported to federal prison Monday to serve additional time for burning BLM land. The OCA believes their re-sentencing was a “classic case of double jeopardy” and is calling for clemency.

The self-described militia members are led by Ammon Bundy, who took part in the 2014 armed standoff at the Nevada ranch of his father, Cliven Bundy, over the family’s non-payment of federal grazing fees. The younger Bundy and fellow believers arrived in Burns vowing to “support” the Hammonds. They took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters during the New Year’s holiday weekend when it was closed and vacant.

The militia members appear to have few if any ties to the case or to the local area.

Ironically, as O’Keeffe referenced, Harney County ranchers worked extensively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other local, state and federal agencies on improving habitat for Greater sage-grouse. The voluntary conservation agreements signed by county ranchers set a standard for habitat protection on private property throughout the West and are credited with keeping sage-grouse off the federal endangered species list in 2015. A county rancher, Tom Sharp, coined the phrase that summed up the collaboration: “What’s good for the bird is good for the herd.”

O’Keeffe said the OCA is circulating an on-line petition asking the White House to review the Hammond’s case.

(AP) An attorney for two Oregon ranchers whose impending prison sentences led an armed group to take over a national wildlife refuge says they will seek clemency from the president.

Kendra M. Matthews, a lawyer for Dwight and Steven Hammond, said Monday that the father and son will ask President Barack Obama to pardon them. They were convicted of arson for setting fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 and served some prison time.

A judge said in October that their terms were too short and ordered them back to prison. Matthews reiterated that the Hammonds intend to surrender Monday to begin serving their terms.

Their sentences have been a rallying cry for the group who say they ultimately want to turn over the refuge land to local authorities so people can use it free of U.S. oversight.

The self-described militia members occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building south of Burns, Ore., don’t seem to be getting much support from groups that might otherwise share their political views.

The Oath Keepers, a group of current and former military, police and other “first responders” who pledge to “defend the Constitution” against government intrusion, is telling its followers that the Oregon ranching family at the center of the issue doesn’t want an armed confrontation.

“We cannot force ourselves or our protection on people who do not want it,” Oath Keeper founder and President Stewart Rhodes said in a post.

“Dwight and Steven Hammond have made it clear, through their attorney, that they just want to turn themselves in and serve out their sentence. And that clear statement of their intent should be the end of the discussion on this. No patriot group or individual has the right or the authority to force an armed stand off on this family, or around them, against their wishes. You cannot help someone who does not want your help, and who are not willing and ready to take a hard stand themselves.”

The discussion takes an odd turn, however, in a “false flag” post carried on the Oath Keepers website (www.oathkeepers.org). It alleges some of the militia members are actually federal “provocateurs” whose role is to provoke a shootout that will justify “citizen disarmament” by the Obama administration, which it refers to as “the regime.”

“My initial reaction was to observe that at least afterward we’ll know who the federal snitches are because they will be the only ones who survive the raid to take back the building,” wrote a poster identified as Mike Vanderboegh.

“For the regime, this could not come at a better time. The old Roman adage ‘cui bono’ (a Latin phrase meaning “To whose benefit?”) applies here. There is nothing on the talking heads channels as yet, but by Monday, when Obama meets with his Attorney General on the subject of citizen disarmament, you can bet the farm that this will play right into that narrative. Perfect timing. You’ve got to give the federal handlers of these pukes credit. This is precisely the sort of offensive action on the part of the ‘militia terrorists’ that they needed.”

Meanwhile, Harney County Sheriff David Ward, criticized by militia members for not taking up their cause, made his thoughts clear:

“On January 2, 2015 in Harney County, Oregon, a group of men and women seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters located in Harney County, Oregon. The refuge headquarters was empty at the time of the seizure due to it being the weekend.

“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to over throw the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.

“We are currently working jointly with several organizations to make sure the citizens of Harney County are safe and this issue is resolved as quickly and peaceful as possible. At this time we do not have any information that any other areas in Harney County are in immediate danger.

“We ask that people stay away from the refuge for their safety. We also ask that if anyone sees any of these individuals in the area to please contact law enforcement and do not confront the individuals themselves.”