Armed group keeps pressing for US land transfer
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BURNS, Ore. - A leader of the small, armed group that's been occupying a national wildlife refuge in Oregon says the activists will leave when a plan is in place to turn over management of federal lands to locals.
Ammon Bundy told reporters Tuesday at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge that ranchers, loggers and farmers should have control of federal lands. He is a son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.
Ammon Bundy offered few specifics of the group's plan. LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher, said the group would examine land ownership transactions to begin to "unwind it."
Finicum says authorities hadn't shut off power to the refuge's headquarters as of Tuesday morning.
Environmentalists and others say federal officials should run the land for the broadest benefits to business, recreation and the environment.