According to a report from the New York Times, Harney County, Oregon, the site of the infamous two week long standoff of a militia against the federal government, is the single most government-dependent county in the state of Oregon.
This 2013 statistic is the most recent one available, and it shows that the fraught relationship between the 7,000 residents of Harney County and the government is far more complex than the militants have led the country to believe.
In the stagnant economy in Harney County, which used to depend upon private industry, government jobs are central to the lives of the people who live there. Jobs in prisons, schools, and the currently occupied wildlife refuge make up for 60 percent of all of the income for residents of Harney County.
Oregon Militia-This land is MY, this land is MY land. New toon @politico https://t.co/ESf1QONjJp #Oregonstandoff pic.twitter.com/dg3SLNrtqx
— Matt Wuerker (@wuerker) January 18, 2016
From the Times:
Government paychecks, like the one Mr. Ward earns at his job at the prison, have helped keep Harney County afloat as private jobs have declined. With nearly 60 percent of the pay earned in the county now coming from the public sector — including schools and federal management jobs at the 188,000-acre wildlife refuge — this was the most government-dependent county in Oregon in 2013, according the most recent analysis by the state.
People like the Wards said that when environmental groups filed lawsuits and applied pressure at the State Capitol in Salem or in Washington, D.C., to reduce logging, forest managers just surrendered. The residual anger of people caught in the economic undertow now affects how residents here think about the takeover at the refuge, and the arguments about what should happen next.
Some residents and local officials say they believe the history and relationship between the people and the government is being distorted by the protesters, and that cooperation across lines has worked well, to the benefit of the community. For instance, an arrangement with private landowners to protect a threatened bird species, the sage grouse — and to prevent even more restrictive government protections — was a model of how cooperation can work, they said.
We spoke with ranchers in Oregon about the militia that’s occupying a federal wildlife refuge: https://t.co/6Cnyjk0i8v
— VICE News (@VICENews) January 18, 2016
“Those are things that Mr. Bundy doesn’t know about or care about it,” said Steven E. Grasty, the county judge and chairman of the county commissioners. “We can keep building on those things if he would get out of the way.”
The economically challenged county could fit Delaware four times comfortably inside it. While it once relied heavily on the booming timber industry for employment, most of the mills which provided those jobs have closed since the 1980’s. This has made earning a living in Harney County so difficult that over 4% of its entire population has left since 201o.
Featured image: Tim Neville
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