Bundy standoff
On March 27, 2014, 145,604 acres of federal land in Clark County were temporarily closed for the "capture, impound, and removal of trespass cattle." BLM officials and law enforcement rangers began a roundup of such livestock on April 5, and Cliven Bundy's son, Dave, was arrested. On April 12, 2014, a group of protesters, some of them armed, approached the BLM "cattle gather". Sheriff Doug Gillespie negotiated with Bundy and newly-confirmed BLM director Neil Kornze, who elected to release the cattle and de-escalate the situation. As of the end of 2015, Cliven Bundy continued to graze his cattle on federal land and still had not paid the grazing fees.
Timeline of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
On January 19, Ammon Bundy and several other militant occupiers appeared unannounced at a community meeting in Burns without addressing the crowd. Attendees of the meeting were roughly split between supporters and opponents of the occupation, with some jeering Bundy to leave. Harney County Judge Steven Grasty directly addressed Bundy with the statement, "It is time for you to go home," provoking cheers from the crowd. Others expressed support for the occupation and its goals. An open letter from the staff of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was read to the crowd, marking the first time the staff had broken their silence since the occupation began. The letter was posted to the refuge's official Facebook page; it expressed a reminder to the community that the staff members are part of said community too, that their silence was out of a desire not to make the situation more inflamed, and that the employees hoped to return to their homes and jobs within the community soon. The next morning, Ammon Bundy gave a 90-minute lecture at the refuge firehouse to his supporters describing his views on law and the United States Constitution, which he claims are justification for lending control over land rights from the federal level to the state level.