READER’S EDITORIAL: OPEN LETTER TO BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT: DO YOUR JOB TO PROTECT OUR PUBLIC LANDS FROM PRIVATE INTERESTS

After a takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon by armed militia members, local wildlife biologist Renée Owens has sent an open letter to Bureau of Land Management directors and staff in Burns, Oregon.

"Your inaction to stop them only emboldens such criminal activity, and makes you vulnerable to a lawsuit by others such as myself whose public land rights and interests have been violated," she writes. 

Below is the full text of her letter:

By Renée Owens

January 5, 2016 (San Diego)--As an environmental consultant for the past 20 years in the U.S. and Latin America, as a conservation biologist, on-air presenter, college instructor, and a long time environmental consultant for the Sierra Club and other NGOs, I have worn many hats and worked with all kinds of people. I have worked side-by-side with agents from USFWS, USDA,  BLM, with developers, hunters, ranchers, ORV recreationists, and others. Therefore I appreciate the fact that in your job it is sometime important to be diplomats as much as scientists, rangers, interpretive guides, planners, bureaucrats, and government enforcement agents.

But this situation at the Malheur Refuge is not complicated: your job with these out of state criminals is to ensure they are arrested and tried for their illegal actions. How you do this may be a point of debate, but at the end of the day it is your primary job to defend our precious public lands and the species they protect, not the personal preferences of irate vigilantes.

The lands that they have usurped are my property as much as anyone else’s. My rights to visit it, and have the species on site protected  species that I enjoy as a hiker, birder, and photographer  - have been infringed upon and violated by the Bundys and their cohorts. Your inaction to stop them only emboldens such criminal activity, and makes you vulnerable to a lawsuit by others such as myself whose public land rights and interests have been violated.

I have spent years studying dangerous predators, including catching and releasing over 1,000 anacondas and endangered Orinoco crocodiles, plus rattlesnakes, jaguars, and other feisty creatures. The truth is I would gladly take on any of these animals, any day, over having to deal with the likes of Bundy and his clan. However, like it or not, that is now part of your job.

If these men are not arrested on site, they had darned well be identified now and arrested later after they return home.

I appreciate that your office has a long history with some of the members involved, including death threats; it can’t make work easy. But if you feel you cannot safely deal with these criminals yourselves, you should be urgently appealing to other federal enforcement authorities to step in to help you fulfill your job responsibilities. In fact, you should be demanding such assistance.

I am dismayed and angry, and I am hardly the only one. I have dedicated a good chunk of my life to helping protect our natural places, habitats, wildlife, and the right of Americans to enjoy these things, non-consumptively, peacefully. So when people like this Bundy clan charge in with self-serving, hypocritical demands even after having degraded public lands for their private profit for years, you bet I am angry. Meanwhile these men continue to squat, heavily armed, on public land, in public offices, all the while having a captive audience of every news outfit who interviews them for their sensational propaganda, while your office remains silent as schoolchildren cowering in a corner.

For you communication directors: Your silence on this matter is sending a message as powerful as the invader’s inane rhetoric, and it is not a message that is serving you or your colleagues well.

In case you are hoping that this incident will quietly burn itself out over time to be forever forgotten, you are seriously misguided. I cannot imagine this problem will go away at any time in the near future for the men and women in the regional Oregon offices. Neither will it disappear for those of you who work from 3000 miles away in D.C. and here is why: when Clive Bundy and his cronies defied the BLM in 2014, including committing the felony of pointing guns at BLM agents (or so it was reported), they were emboldened.

We are now seeing the repercussions of a lack of punishment for their past transgressions. These people do not behave based on logic, facts, or a sense of fair social justice. By their bigoted rhetoric they are clearly not the type who respect the common good or laws adopted by a democratic process. Worse, they will embolden like-minded extremists nationwide with the message that if you have guns and a dozen or so armed supporters, you can do whatever you want on BLM lands and no one will stop you.

I sincerely appeal to you to do your job and make this right by representing the taxpaying citizens and peaceful public lands stewards and recreationists of America who look to you for leadership. If you have already appealed to other enforcement powers for more aggressive action with no results, feel free to forward them my email.

On a final note: For those of you who have been actively fighting these battles in the past as true defenders of the land, the wildlife, and public rights to enjoy such (as opposed to apologists for ranchers who profit from allowing non-native cows degrade native habitats), for those of you who have placed yourselves in uncomfortable or risky positions on the front lines of public land protection, and for those of you who have pushed back against compromising authorities to defend what you feel is right at risk of losing your jobs, you have my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude, and my continuing support.

I look forward to your response, meanwhile I will be sharing this email as an open letter to your Office.

Renée Owens is founder/principal of Sage Wildlife LLC, an environmental consulting firm, and serves on the Imperial Valley College.