Saving the West

The 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is over.

It's going to take a while for Oregon to heal up. Damage to the Refuge will need fixing; damage to relationships in Burns and the surrounding countryside may leave some permanent scars. From any perspective, the shooting death of Robert LaVoy Finicum is a tragic episode that will leave an indelible mark on his family, his friends - and the officers who pulled the triggers.

And the quixotic, futile gesture of the Bundy outfit has done lasting damage to the effort to work through some very real issues surrounding the use of public lands in the West.

The urban-rural divide in Oregon and across the West is a real gulf (see related column, page 15). Actions like those of the Bundys only widen the chasm.

It doesn't have to be this way.

There are plenty of folks who want both to see the landscape that feeds our souls AND the livelihoods of those who live on the land protected and preserved. Those goals are - despite our conflict-driven "discourse" - NOT incompatible. There are many people who are working toward a sustainable, natural approach to land management that works to accomplish a multiplicity of goals. It is they, not militant agitators, who deserve recognition.

The Malpai Borderland Group, along the New Mexico/Arizona and Mexico line is worthy of admiration and emulation. Those involved embody the right mind-set and - more importantly - the right kind of action. Here's their mission statement:

"Our goal is to restore and maintain the natural processes that create and protect a healthy, unfragmented landscape to support a diverse, flourishing community of human, plant and animal life in our borderlands region.

"Together, we will accomplish this by working to encourage profitable ranching and other traditional livelihoods, which will sustain the open space nature of our land for generations to come."

Right here at home, there is the fine example of Doc and Connie Hatfield. Doc Hatfield died at his home here in Sisters almost exactly four years ago. On his death, High Country News offered up a tribute:

"The Hatfields helped found Country Natural Beef because they hated the fact that cattle often beat up the land. They disliked the conflict between ranchers, bureaucrats and environmentalists. And as businesspeople, they resented the negative way urban people looked at public-land ranching.

"So the Hatfields tried something radical. They started talking to people outside of the ranching world. The conversation began in Sisters with 30 or so ranchers and environmentalists and federal agency people sitting in a circle and talking about ways to bring back grasses, heal gullies, convince springs to flow again, and manage cattle to coexist with wildlife. Doc and Connie were the glue that held the group together and the grease that helped even quarrelsome individuals slide past each other."

Also here in Sisters, Dorro Sokol and Cris Converse worked with local nonprofits and the Forest Service to devise an equitable plan that allowed restoration of Whychus Creek and preserved and enhanced the access to irrigation water for Pine Meadow Ranch.

Loud, futile - and fatal - stunts like the Bundy occupation of Malheur will not save the West. The actions of people like the Hatfields and partnerships like those between local NGOs and agencies and Pine Meadow Ranch will. Tip your cowboy hat to these folks. They're the Western heroes of the 21st century.

Jim Cornelius, News Editor