Supposedly registration for the Harney County Migratory Bird Festival begins on
February 1, 2016.
Registration for the event will no doubt be impacted by the current criminal
activity at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters.
Also, it would seem quite likely to this writer, that if the criminal
occupation at MNWR HQ is not ended well before the festival dates, the Harney
County Migratory Bird Festival will have to be cancelled entirely.
Such an outcome would deprive Harney County citizens of much needed economic
activity.
Of course that might be only the beginning. If the perpetrators were to achieve
their stated goals of returning all federal land in Harney County to private
ownership, that would eliminate all Forest Service, BLM, and Wildlife Refuge
jobs and work related spending in Harney County. And that would be a
devastating blow to the economy of Harney County, reducing total economic
activity in the county by approximately 30 percent, increasing poverty and
dislocating families that have lived in Harney County for generations.
Leith
“Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull and an unlimited idea of
freedom.”
Jonathan Livingston Seagull