Peter Walker is reporting from the no-longer-stolen Malheur NWR. He was allowed in with the journalists today and posted a bunch of photos. This one coupled with his commentary is very striking.
Peter Walker
An example of how things have changed. When I visited the refuge during the occupation, there were always armed militants in this fire tower. They watched everything and had their long guns ready. It was unnerving. Now it’s a fire tower again and getting near it doesn’t give me a sense of deep anxiety. An example of things getting back to some sanity.
Can you imagine? That’s a public facility, and that structure is a fire tower – for spotting wild fires. Armed men who stole the facility stood up there with rifles threatening everyone below.
A happy ending though.
Peter Walker
The liberation of the refuge came just in time. Between early January (when the occupation started) and now, there’s already a dramatic difference in the landscape–the marshes are mostly thawed, there are geese in some areas, and the landscape is warming up for literally millions of birds in April. Life on the refuge, and in the community I believe, will return to normal soon.
Millions of birds, and zero Bundys.
Comments
3 responses to “The landscape is warming up for literally millions of birds in April”
Yea! More birds, fewer Bundys – that’s an equation for success.
The Audubon people should institute a Spring Bundy Count, to go along with the bird one…
… sure, you’d probably need fewer volunteers.
(/’Malheur?’ ‘Still none.’ ‘Penitentiary detail?’ ‘Well, we saw a flash of orange, heard a few calls… Sounded like ‘Gawd did _too_ promise me this land, dammit!’… But we’re not sure if it was the same one twice…’)
I can imagine what would have happened if the armed thugs had still been there when the migrating birds arrived…