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The Audubon Society of Portland joined several Western environmental groups in decrying the acquittal of Ammon Bundy as a precedent that could embolden extremists to seize public lands like the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
"Important restoration work on these public lands was disrupted, federal employees were intimidated, and today—more than ten months after the occupation—the public is still not able to access refuge headquarters," Audubon's conservation director Bob Sallinger said in a statement this morning. "Taxpayers have been left with a bill that is expected to exceed $6 million. Regardless of the verdict, the occupation of Malheur remains an attack on public lands and resources."
Sallinger also joined in an online chorus that has compared the FBI's cautious response to the Malheur occupation to the arrests of Native Americans protesting an oil pipeline this week in North Dakota.
"We also cannot ignore the disparities in the manner in which armed occupiers of public lands at Malheur were handled relative to the current treatment of unarmed Native American-led Dakota Access Pipeline protests on their own lands at Standing Rock," Sallinger wrote. "The two situations reveal deeply troubling inequities."
Related: The Bundy Gang is found not guilty. People were surprised.
The Audubon Society of Portland joins two other conservation groups that decried the acquittal within minutes of the verdict: the Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities and the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity.
"This is an extremely disturbing verdict for anyone who cares about America's public lands, the rights of native people and their heritage, and a political system that refuses to be bullied by violence and racism," said Kierán Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity's executive director. "The Bundy clan and their followers peddle a dangerous brand of radicalism aimed at taking over lands owned by all of us. I worry this verdict only emboldens the kind of intimidation and right-wing violence that underpins their movement."
Related: Ammon Bundy's attorney won the biggest case of his life. Then he was Tased in the courtroom.
Suckling told reporter Leah Sottile this morning that he blames the FBI's caution for leading to an acquittal—saying jurors couldn't tell if crimes were committed because law enforcement treated the Bundys "as Boy Scouts."
Here's Sallinger's full statement.
Willamette Week