At Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, actual work needs to be done

Dear Malheur National Wildlife Refuge criminals,

I have listened to your soft-spoken, considerate explanations about why you are illegally occupying the land of the American people. I have read about the issues involved. I’m not convinced. I must now respectfully request that your get off our land since your presence is criminal trespass, and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has important work to resume that you are preventing.

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is T-shaped, with the Headquarters at the intersection. The horizontal part consists of two large lakes — Malheur and Harney — and the vertical incorporates a 30-mile long river valley. The refuge has a complicated system of dikes and floodgates used to control water levels in its waterways and fields. The control has to be done in a precisely timed manner to insure proper nesting and feeding areas for the millions of migratory birds that will start arriving in a month or two. With the refuge occupied, how is this work going to get done?

I have heard you try to justify your presence at the refuge by telling me that because you are local and live here in the West, your concern for the land will be better than people who have gone away to universities. I have lived in Utah for my entire life — except for a hitch in the Army — and I grew up in a rural town with just a few people. I don’t believe you. I have seen your cattle water holes scraped out of the desert and surrounded by a quarter mile of cow crap in all directions. I have seen plants chewed off by too many cows and the land ruined. I have seen the wildlife disappear in my own lifetime, and I think you are to blame. I believe that if it puts one more dollar in your pocket, you will put another cow on the land no matter what happens to the land.

I know that you are playing to the television cameras with your artful camouflage of hiding your arsenal of guns when reporters are around and pretending that you are peaceful. I am not deceived. I know that you have created this crisis to goad authorities into acts that you can then use to create a violent incident that you can use to inspire your followers into more violence. I’m proud of my government for not rising to the bait, but this cannot go on. The birds at the refuge deserve better. We … the people of the United States … the rightful owners of the Refuge … deserve better.

Therefore, as with other criminal acts, I urge the lawful authorities to do what they are authorized to do in other cases of criminal trespass: prosecute you — in absentia if necessary — and confiscate any and all assets that you might have until you abandon this destructive path that you are secretly hoping will lead to violence. And if you choose to initiate violence, I urge the lawful authorities to respond appropriately.