Locals back county judge who won’t resign

Harrney County, Ore. residents show a wall of support, outnumbering  out-of-state ‘patriot’ groups (not pictured) who protested outside the county courthouse on Feb. 1. Photo by Samantha White/Burns Times-Herald

More than 300 Harney County, Ore. residents showed up to counter-protest supporters of the armed militia 

Harney County, Ore. Judge Steve Grasty says that he, his fellow county commissioners and Sheriff Dave Ward have no intention of resigning — as members the Pacific Patriots Network demanded they do.

It’s been more than a month since Ammon Bundy, his brother, Ryan, and a group of supporters seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The Bundy brothers have been arrested, along with two of their followers. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was fatally shot on Jan. 26 by Oregon State Police, according to the FBI.

It was Finicum’s death that prompted members of patriot and militia groups to return to Harney County, where on Feb. 1 more than 100 of them demonstrated in protest outside the county courthouse.

They were met by some 300 local residents with a demands of their own, chants of “Go home, go home” and “Stand down, leave our town.”

Grasty said there are legitimate concerns, both among protesters and some locals, about having little say in federal land policy. “There’s clearly some angst here: this thing of local government, local communities not being heard is true,” he said.

While Grasty and Sheriff Dave Ward have been the faces and voices of the county throughout the ordeal, other county employees have resumed their normal duties as best they can, albeit under tightened security, according to Laura Cleland, an Association of Oregon Counties spokesperson who has been assisting the county.

“Most of the offices are just doing their daily work,” she said, adding that Grasty has spent “the vast majority of his time” dealing with local issues relating to the standoff. “The other two commissioners are part-time commissioners. They are still holding their regularly scheduled court meetings and continuing on as they can.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) has asked the state Legislature to approve $500,000 in emergency funding to offset state and local costs associated with the refuge standoff in Harney County. Because it was largely a federal operation, she said she expects to be reimbursed.

At the heart of refuge takeover are anti-government sentiments about public lands policy. Outside protesters first came to Harney county to show support for two local ranchers, Dwight Hammond and his son, Steve Hammond, who were imprisoned for setting fire to federal grazing land in Harney County.

Grasty said it’s not just a local issue, but one that has national ramifications — especially in western states, many of which have large percentages of federal land within their borders.

There is agreement from the state’s congressional delegation to the State House in Salem to the streets of Burns, the Harney County seat, that local views need be considered on the issue of federal land policy.

“When we say local decision making, we don’t think that means leaving everybody else in the world out,” Grasty said, acknowledging the role of environmentalists and federal agencies. “It’s just that our voices ought to get heard with the same passion that you would listen to a biologist.

“My argument there always is when you’ve got a biologist who doesn’t know where the sage grouse are in the winter, yet the rancher can go point them out to you in five minutes, who’s got the most knowledge?”