The Land Wars
Field & Stream|September 2016

The recent movement to do away with the concept of federal lands has nothing to do with freedom. It’s just the opposite—and would change hunting and fishing as we know it.

Hal Herring
The Land Wars

WE HAVE TO DO THIS,” Blaine Cooper told me in a rush. “The BLM lit a fire to burn this ranch down because they want the uranium that’s under it! The left blew up buildings, killed people, enslaved people to make this wildlife refuge!”

Cooper was sitting behind the wheel of a white pickup, heater blasting, and talking to me through the open window. It was the middle of last January, maybe 12 degrees above, here at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, with day just breaking over a universe of frost-whitened sagebrush and 6 inches of old snow.

Duane Ehmer, riding by on his cow horse, Hellboy, was dressed for duty in a furry cap with earflaps and an old red, white, and blue leather jacket and well worn chaps, plus a cap-and-ball Colt pistol. The big American flag he carried barely moved in the ice-fogged stillness. Later in the day, Ehmer would tell me that he believed that the federal government had “taken away the land from good hearted American people,” and that soon enough, our public lands would be sold off to help pay the U.S. debt to China. He was worried that he would have no place to hunt or ride his horse if and when that happened. He seemed like a good guy, the kind of person who would be handy to have with you on a tough job, or in a backcountry camp.

I went to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to meet these militants who had taken over the refuge headquarters and talk to them about what they were doing, and why they were so opposed to the public lands that are the sole reason I moved to the West 26 years ago and raised a family here. Cooper and some of his companions seemed to be lost in a shadow world of conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and boilerplate antigovernment fury.

This story is from the September 2016 edition of Field & Stream.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the September 2016 edition of Field & Stream.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM FIELD & STREAMView All
Field & Stream

LIVING THE DREAM

After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Field & Stream

Get the Drift

How to make an accurate windage call under pressure

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
First Sit
Field & Stream

First Sit

An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Field & Stream

A Local Haunt

The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
A Hop and a Pump
Field & Stream

A Hop and a Pump

Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 4, 2020
Welcome TO camp
Field & Stream

Welcome TO camp

Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

THE DEERSLAYERS

Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics

time-read
8 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK

Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else

time-read
10 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Stage Directions
Field & Stream

Stage Directions

When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020
Field & Stream

Rookie Season

A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 125 - Issue 3, 2020