Photo from Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was established on August 18, 1908, by President Theodore Roosevelt as the Lake Malheur Reservation. Roosevelt set aside unclaimed government lands encompassed by Malheur, Mud and Harney Lakes "as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds." The newly established Lake Malheur Reservation was the 19th of 51 wildlife refuges created by Roosevelt during his tenure as US President. At the time, Malheur was the third refuge in Oregon and one of only six refuges west of the Mississippi.

The standoff in Oregon reflects a simmering controversy over who manages land in the West as well as a misunderstanding of constitutional law, Stanford scholars say.

On Jan. 2, dozens of armed people seized a federal wildlife refuge center in remote southeast Oregon. They say they are upset about a mandatory minimum sentence two local ranchers received for an arson conviction, and demand that the surrounding federal lands be ceded to local control.

David J. Hayes, a distinguished visiting lecturer at Stanford Law School, said the Oregon situation is a "dangerous one, given the 'call to arms' issued by the armed militants and their strong rhetoric." Prior to teaching at Stanford, Hayes was the second-highest ranking official at the Department of the Interior, serving as the deputy secretary and chief operating officer from 1999 to 2001 and 2009 to 2013, respectively. He had direct involvement in many Western land disputes.

Hayes suggests that once the armed protestors leave the complex, they must be prosecuted firmly and without delay for their illegal actions. "Armed takeovers cannot be tolerated in our country. Respect for the rule of law is, and must continue to be, a central tenet of our democracy."

The Bureau of Land Management leases many millions of acres of public lands to ranchers for cattle grazing, in accordance with historic practices. Ranchers pay fees for the privilege of having their livestock graze on America's public lands and, as lessees, they must adhere to good stewardship practices, Hayes said. Grazing fees on public lands have been maintained at very low levels for many years, he added, noting that typically these fees are lower than fees charged by private and state landowners. 

Still, Hayes said, some people — apparently including the ranchers at the center of the controversy — philosophically object to federal ownership of land and federal oversight of these lands.

Dwight Hammond Jr., 74, and his son, Steven Hammond, 46, were convicted three years ago of setting fires in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the US Bureau of Land Management. They had grazing rights leased to them for their cattle operations in the area.

Prosecutors charged the Hammonds under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which was passed by Congress after the first World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City. The court ruled that the defendants' actions triggered the section of this law that makes it illegal for anyone to destroy US property. 

The Hammonds are being resentenced because the court did not apply the mandatory minimum sentence required by that statute. When that became widely known, the armed protestors began showing up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

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