USFW employees assessing damage

Even though the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ended several weeks ago, getting the refuge back to normal operations is still a ways off.

Refuge Manager Chad Karges explained there is a four-phase plan in place to get the refuge back to operational standards.

The first phase of the plan, which has been completed, was to secure the crime scene and catalog evidence. The FBI was the lead agency on the initial phase.

The second phase of the plan is the assessment phase. Karges said U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees will help assess the damage done at the refuge by the occupiers, which could include damage done to vehicles, equipment, buildings, records, etc.

“During the assessment, they’ll look at everything out at the headquarters to see if any damage was done,” Karges said. “It’s just a huge mess. When they left, they abandoned a lot of personal property. Sleeping bags, cots, clothing, vehicles were all left, and they used every building out there in one way or another.”

The third phase of the plan is damage repair and restoration. Karges said the repair work will include replacing carpets, as well as painting and fixing holes in walls. There will be a prioritized list of needed repairs after the assessment phase to guide the repair and restoration so that the refuge can be operational once again. Karges said volunteers will have the opportunity to help out in the third phase, and they have already received thousands of offers from folks willing to lend a hand. He said another task will be to manage the volunteers, and they plan to reach out to the cities of Burns and Hines and the county to utilize the volunteer work force.

“The refuge is part of the community, and there may be projects outside the refuge where volunteers can help,” Karges said. “It could be helping a rancher build fence, a project in town, just something to benefit the community.”

He said the plan is to use volunteers over time, so they have to figure out dates and times for people to help out.

The fourth phase is returning to normal operations at the refuge. Karges said the headquarters will remain closed for an undetermined amount of time, but the rest of the refuge should be open in time for the annual migratory bird festival in early April.

He added that when the armed protesters took over the refuge on Jan. 2, they had access to employees’ personal information, credit cards, and other private information, so everything had to be canceled, and they are still in the process of setting everything back up.

Karges said other work on the refuge was postponed because of the occupation. Repair work on fish screens didn’t get done. There was also maintenance work scheduled for refuge ditches and canals that had to be postponed, which will affect the runoff now coming from Steens Mountain. Additionally, meetings scheduled to deal with the carp problem, as well as the planning for field work didn’t get done.

Speaking of the 41-day occupation, Karges said, “The militia threw a lot of rocks at the community, and the community is now picking up those rocks. But this community is good at finding gold in those rocks.”

Karges stated that the community has a history of working with different interests, both inside and outside the community, to find solutions that work for everybody. Since that mindset was in place, people knew they could work collaboratively, and that changed the dynamics of this event, he explained.

“There were a lot of offers from people everywhere willing to help out. Community members reached out and expressed their support,” Karges said. “Social media and national media focused on the hate and discontent, but people let us know that’s not how they felt.”

He added, “The hero in this though is the sheriff, Dave Ward. He did an outstanding job, continuing to look down the road and bringing the community together. If any individual stood out, it was him. This could have had a whole different outcome.”