ENEMA goodI faEmiSly bu rnOed bFy th eT fedsH. By EHan kS VogTler ATE hen CJ asked me to write a story all kinds of bad names. Ben Franklin was to their children. Susie always was smiling about Dwight and Susan Ham - given credit for saying, “Democracy is no and laughing. Dwight was always in good mond and Hammond Ranches Inc. more than two wolves and a sheep voting on spirits as well. They were the western version W(HRI), my first thought was that should be what to have for dinner,” and “a well-armed of June and Ward Cleaver. In the sitcom or in easy. A quick overview and then go for the sheep is freedom.” Thomas Jefferson was this situation I was Eddie Haskell, the neigh - jugular of how the government that is sup - credited with saying, “A government in fear bor always getting them in trouble. posed to serve the people tried to destroy this of its people is freedom and a people in fear HRI includes nearly 13,000 acres of pri - ranch family and the next generation of of their government are slaves.” That is why vate property from 4,300- to 7,200-foot ele - Hammonds by dragging down their we are supposed to have a republic form of vations, in addition to the federal grazing youngest son, Steven. government. permits allowed on adjacent federal lands. I am going to start this story in 1971 The Hammonds were distant neighbors These lands are interspersed with irregular when I first met Dwight and Susie, and it in Diamond, Ore. They had a young family ownership boundaries (left over from the should scare you when you hear about the of three boys about the same ages as my four Homestead Act) which are contradictory to arrogance and the power of the government children who would meet at 4-H, school natural boundaries. Very deep and treacher - riding herd on the governed. activities and dances. They were very hard - ous 1,000- to 3,000-foot gorges are used as Our founding fathers called democracy working people and taught the same virtues natural fences. Without grazing—and the Y L I more than 50-year-old “cooperative” man - M A F agement of these lands—there would be D N O very little production or value economically. M M A The environmental movement was just H Y S getting legs in 1971. Ironically, a bunch of E T R U new rules and regulations were being signed O C S into law by Republican President Richard O T O Nixon. It was said that he was trying to pla - H P cate the democratically controlled congress with seemingly innocuous issues in exchange for the Democrats laying off on Watergate. We now know how well that worked. In the deserts of eastern Oregon, water is the central issue. Control the water, control the land. The Hammonds ran on the Mal - heur National Wildlife Refuge. All told, in 1971, about 62 different ranch families ran on the refuge. It became a showplace for the symbiotic relationship between ranching and wildlife. My grandfather raised grain across the fence from the refuge. The ducks and geese would blacken the sky. He had water rights on the Silvies River, both the west and the east forks. A neighbor used to say that when Old Man Vogler got through with the water it was no good because he ran it around so much he took all the moisture out of it. The Hammonds and other ranchers tied to the use of the refuge and other federal lands were being pressured from all sides by the new so-called environmentalists. Divide and conquer was the rule. The Hammonds had private-property grazing land and graz - ing rights on the Steens Mountains. They had a permit to run on the refuge. Total From left: Earlyna and Steve, Susie and Dwight, plus little Emery, Claire and Corbin. 36 • RANGE MAGAZINE • SPRING 2013 interdependence was the norm. The govern - ment seemed to imply that if you said noth - ing—as it systematically eliminated different ranch families with changes in their per - mits—you would be the beneficiary of the destruction of others. At the same time, the refuge managers changed and rather than use their adjudicated water rights in P Valley, they let the water run into Malheur Lake, a body of water that was in the Great Basin. There was no outlet to the ocean so the lake grew, covering additional private and public property and infrastructure, including the only highway to town. My family was affected by this policy. The lake that used to provide fall and winter feed for cattle for the ranchers in the Lawen area was being drowned out by the rising ABOVE : Grandkids play in the reservoir where water the family won from the refuge is stored to irrigate hay. BELOW : Antelope and other wildlife love it. Thanks to the Hammonds, it now looks like the refuge of lake. A couple of wet winters and dozens days gone by. more ranch families were destroyed. For meeting after meeting, Dwight, of fire suppression by the feds and the more sensational the report, and the more Susie and I seemed to be thrown together in removal of livestock from the range. Govern - money is thrown at the situation. Firefighters opposition to the government’s policy ment agents were creating a perfect storm for are always heroes. Congress is more willing changes. One day we met with a water engi - fire and were using the Hammonds as whip - to fund rehabilitation after a fire than they neer from Idaho. We were going to try and ping boys. Just because a fire starts on your are to prevent and manage before one gets file suit against the feds to force them to area of use and you might benefit from started. The fuel loads throughout the West start irrigating with their state adjudicated improved forage doesn’t mean you set the have grown and grown. The crazy thing is water rather than use it as a weapon to ruin fire. To the rumormongers, it is easy to con - that with the new infrastructure of firefight - local ranch families. This engineer’s conclu - nect the dots. The environmentalists have ing, one must let the fire grow large enough sion was that no precedence of law allowed further exacerbated this situation and rather to justify its huge expense. The term “Hol - for the forcing of the use of water. The law than these so-called earth guardians and stein Fire” was coined—meaning, “Milk it was clear that if you could prove abandon - managers realizing they may have made a baby, milk it.” ment of the water, and could use that water mistake, the Hammonds provided them Once again a solution to problems or elsewhere for beneficial use, you could with an alibi for their own failings. even admitting that, as a manager, you are claim it. The Hammonds did that and the Fire in the West is now big business. I going in the wrong direction is like Super - war began. The feds were extremely indig - once had a firefighter tell me, “Black trees man handling kryptonite. A huge cottage nant that “inholders, civilians, interlopers, mean green pockets.” The bigger the fire, the industry has grown around fire. Support ser - or NGOs” (nongovernmental organiza - tions) could get their water rights. When the refuge was fenced by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the ’30s, a water gap was made every five miles all around its edge. In many instances, it was the only water to be found in many BLM allotments. After years of use, suddenly to save the world, fencing the Hammond ranch from a water hole that they had used for decades was of the highest priority. At every turn, this family was violating some rule. Dwight was hauled off in handcuffs because he used the water he had rights to and then had the audacity to ask for due process. The family prevailed, but not with - out having a file built against them as mal - contents. A case was even being built to show that all the fires for years in the area were started by the Hammonds. It was ignored that the fires were a result SPRING 2013 • RANGE MAGAZINE • 37 vice to firefighters and rehabilitation is a Steven set a backfire to prevent the loss of think that is the question. There is a civil money pit. The bigger the fire, the longer you feed for his livestock and to help control the proceeding going on in Pendleton and they can earn. erratic fire. It was successful. In conversation can take care of that there.” In reality, many of the fire camps at night with BLM employees, all agreed that it How can a vindictive bunch of bureau - resemble a fraternity party. Once a fire gets worked. In the real world, Steven should have crats, who have done more harm than good, some size to it, you can’t do much but watch been commended because the backfire basi - do such a thing? The government is still pur - and mop up. Costs involved are enormous. cally put the main fire out. suing a civil suit for $750,000 in damages No consideration is given for the fact that The other fire related to Steven was com - against the Hammonds. If that is what it replicating Mother Nature with controlled municated to the BLM Interagency Fire Cen - costs to “fight a fire” that burned a little fence fire would bring more balance to the range.