BURNS — The group that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January and early February caused $1.7 million in damages to the refuge headquarters with the costs continuing to climb, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said Wednesday.

Ashe was one of several officials on hand Wednesday to lead media on a tour of the refuge, including limited portions of the headquarters area where armed militants were based during the 41-day occupation. More than 20 people have been charged in connection with the siege.

Media were not allowed inside the buildings at the headquarters where occupiers set up camp, or given access to the roads and trenches officials have said were cut by the occupiers using federally owned heavy equipment.

The digging and grading performed by the occupiers is believed to have damaged Native American artifacts that remained in the ground near the headquarters, said Jason Holm, assistant regional director of external affairs for the Fish and Wildlife Service. The road built by occupiers, roughly 200 feet long, crosses through an area that was deliberately left roadless due to the earlier discovery of artifacts, he said. A 40- to 50-foot trench built and used by occupiers to dispose of garbage and human waste is also in an area known to contain Burns Paiute Tribe artifacts.

The septic system stopped working due to overuse while the headquarters was occupied, Holm said, and was damaged further when contractors hired by Fish and Wildlife attempted to repair it. Holm said it’s expected all repairs of the headquarters area will be complete by early summer, allowing employees and the public to return.

Holm said his agency had kept an inventory of all personal and agency property at the facility, including Burns Paiute artifacts stored on site. However, because of the volume of items kept at the headquarters, it’s not yet clear if anything is missing.

“Imagine if your home was broken into. It could take you a long time to figure out that a fork was missing,” he said.

Protecting Paiute sites will be an ongoing concern for the refuge staff once it reopens, Holm said. Among the documents kept at the headquarters were maps detailing where artifacts are likely to be found, he said, and while it’s not known if the occupiers accessed these maps, refuge staff are on alert to guard against any unauthorized excavations of significant sites in the future.

Ashe said he felt a “sense of helplessness” watching the occupation from Washington, D.C.

He also singled out Harney County Sheriff David Ward for his conduct during the occupation, calling him “an absolute and total hero to me,” and said he was looking forward to meeting the sheriff for the first time later in the day.

Officials took pains Wednesday to try to keep the focus of the tour away from the occupation and its aftermath and instead focus on the collaborative efforts between refuge representatives and Harney County residents to improve wildlife habitat on the refuge while maintaining ranchers’ grazing access.

Rancher Andy Dunbar, one of 13 ranchers with a permit for limited cattle grazing on the refuge, said the complaints raised by occupiers about government overreach and the failure to use refuge property for ranching didn’t ring true to him. He said he’s spent the last 27 years working with federal agencies managing the land his family has ranched for three generations, and the experience of the occupation only strengthened his relationship with federal workers.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was a slap in our face for all the work we’ve done, what those militia guys did,” Dunbar said.

Harney County Commissioner Dan Nichols said though they were “more extreme,” the occupiers weren’t all that different than others from outside the area who have sought to impose their views of land management on the local residents. He said that although loggers and ranchers may never line up on land use policy with conservation groups, ongoing discussions surrounding management of the refuge and other public lands in the area have convinced him they share many of the same goals and are not natural enemies.

Ashe and refuge manager Chad Karges both said it’s possible the attention the refuge received during the occupation could boost visitor numbers beyond the bird watchers who have historically visited the area. Ashe said he would welcome an influx of new visitors, but asked that they be mindful about not dredging up unpleasantness by questioning refuge employees about the occupation.

Karges said it’s been difficult for staff to return to find almost nothing in their offices where they left it. For now, the 17 refuge employees are working in trailers while the headquarters building is cleaned and repaired, but they’re ready to return to their usual routines.

“Normal will be a new normal,” Karges said. “It’s not going to be the normal of the past.”

Refuge employees made available Wednesday spoke freely about their experiences during the occupation. Linda Beck, a fish biologist in charge of efforts to rid Malheur Lake of invasive carp, recalled how suspected occupiers appeared one night in the driveway of her home. A few days later, on the advice of Fish and Wildlife management concerned about threats to federal employees, Beck and her husband temporarily relocated to the Portland area.

She said she had intended to remove as many carp as possible from Malheur Lake in January, with an extensive fishing operation that would take advantage of the lake’s reduced size and the tendency of carp to gather together during cold weather. The carp eradication program — the plan is to remove the fish and process them for use as fertilizer — is now set to begin in early May, she said.

If anything, the occupation hardened Beck’s commitment to her work at the refuge and her desire to rid the lake of the carp that have damaged plants beneficial to migratory birds.

“It pretty much cemented in me, I was going to come back and conquer the carp,” Beck said. “It was a 41-day occupation, but it’s a small part of Malheur’s history.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387,

shammers@bendbulletin.com