It's Not Over

Portland Protest Against the Occupation of the Refuge

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has been cleared of the occupiers/protesters.  Thousands of pages have been written about what they were trying to accomplish, what their motives were and what they did.  Much more will likely be written.  I wondered whether I really had any need to add my drops to the sea of words.

Then I thought: Nobody has written about my experience. I doubt I have an audience with this blog, but it became important to me to articulate why this situation resounded so deeply with me.

First, I have spent time at the refuge, which is unusual, even among my fellow Oregonians because of its remoteness.  My first visit was at the very beginning of my days as a "birder", some 17 years ago.  I barely knew what a wildlife refuge was, but I had heard about this amazing place.  Traveling to Utah to see friends and family, I forsook the freeway to travel two lane highways across a part of Oregon I had never seen. My stop at the refuge was brief and memory of it is confused with other visits, but I remember wanting to go back.

Fast forward a few years.  I was now married to my "birding instructor." We hauled our little trailer to a patch of ground with an electrical and water hookup near the Malheur Field Station.  We didn't spend much time at the trailer because there was so much to see:  my first yellow-headed blackbird, my first white-faced ibis, my first Forster's Tern.

Subsequent visits followed the same pattern: park the trailer and roam the refuge, sometimes meeting other birders, sometimes not seeing another person all day. Return to sleep, get up early, repeat.

Second, I love public lands.  I cannot imagine my life without the opportunity to be outside, exploring the natural world.  Nature is my drug, my therapist.  Without public lands, how could I spend time in the forest, in the desert, in the mountains and places in between?  How to enjoy the variety of the coast, to see geysers and touch glacier-carved granite?  To listen to the variety of birds that sing in the spring or to stand in absolute silence?

I understand that others don't hold the same values that I do.  And many that do are among the quietest and most low-key people around. (One of my observations while attending the Portland protest was that it was difficult to get the crowd riled up!)  Thank you to government representatives and the residents of Harney and other rural counties who come to the table to work out their differences.  I hope that can continue to be a model for the difficult issues ahead.

Finally, some of the occupiers hijacked my religion.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (often called Mormons).  Listening to occupiers use phrases that are familiar to me to justify their actions was offensive.  The Church I know preaches compliance with the law, the support of government and the avoidance of contention.  None of those were evident in what I saw going on.  Can government be a problem?  Can laws be unfair?  Of course, but we have legal means of redress and sometimes even a duty to seek that redress.  Once legal means are exhausted, however, we must buck up and comply.  The chaos and anarchy resulting from folks deciding to take the law into their own hands are worse.

So yes, this affected me very personally.  I'm glad to know that these folks are gone.  And what I loved to see and what I hope will continue is a backlash by those of us who care about and support our public lands.

My fellow protesters