top
US
US
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Rudio Mountain Mustang Massacre Prineville Bureau Of Land Management

by Breaking News
In the spring of 2011 a Bureau Of Land Management rangeland supervisor working for the Prineville Oregon BLM was caught red-handed subleasing his own cattle grazing permits issued for federal land allotments on Rudio Mountain. This BLM employee was breaking the law and BLM is keeping this confidential to protect themselves. The guilty BLM employee lives nearby. He is well known as an avid mustang hater. In his opinion cattle should not have to compete with mustangs on federal grazing allotments. He would like to see all mustangs hauled to slaughterhouses. This guy provided input and was one of the preparers for BLM's new management guidelines for Central Oregon federal lands titled "John Day Basin Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement". The record of decision for this new management plan is due out in the near future.

Then one late summer morning a band of mustangs were resting on a high plateau in a remote place on Rudio Mountain overlooking the John Day River. Suddenly the sound of rifle shots exploded across the high mountain meadow. The proud black stallion ran frantically to get his herd onto their feet and they ran for their lives across the plateau some falling to the ground and thrashing with death throws as the bullets ripped into them taking them down one by one. The first mustang to topple was only a baby not more than 6 weeks old. During the following days the smell of blood and rotting flesh attracted scavengers and birds of prey that fed upon the bodies of the murdered mustangs. It was during this time that hikers visiting this remote part of Rudio Mountain came across what has been dubbed (THE RUDIO MOUNTAIN MUSTANG MASSACRE.) The band of mustangs were killed smack dab in the middle of a remote section of federal land managed by the BLM as a cattle grazing allotment and to add insult to injury the cattle grazing allotment where the mustangs were murdered was being utilized by none other than our notorious untrustworthy BLM employee.
PRINEVILLE OREGON BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT WORKER CAUGHT RED-HANDED WITH HIS OWN FEDERAL LANDS GRAZING LEASE IN HIS OWN DISTRICT WITHIN ARMS REACH OF WHERE THE RUDIO MOUNTAIN MUSTANG MASSACRE HAPPENED AND THE GOVERNMENT SWEPT IT ALL UNDER THE CARPET


In the spring of 2011 a Bureau Of Land Management rangeland supervisor working for the Prineville Oregon BLM was caught red-handed subleasing his own cattle grazing permits issued for federal land allotments on Rudio Mountain that are managed by his employer the BLM. This BLM employee was breaking the law but BLM decided to keep him anyway because he is part of their clan. The Bureau Of Land Management is keeping this confidential to protect themselves and they are not telling anyone because they certainly don't want anyone to know they do these weird things. This BLM employee is described as a male in his forties that has worked for BLM for years. The BLM employee was acting in violation of Federal Law 43 CFR 20.401 (a), [Statutory prohibition applicable to employees of the Bureau Of Land Management. (1) In accordance with 43 U.S.C. 11, employees of the Bureau Of Land Management are prohibited from voluntarily acquiring a direct or indirect interest in Federal lands.] It seems this fellow is employed by the BLM and he was using his position to reward himself with federal land cattle grazing allotments for his own personal benefit and monetary gain.

This BLM worker utilized federal land grazing allotments for several years without getting caught even though co-workers and other permittees knew what was occurring. More than once a few people complained to his supervisor at Prineville BLM but their words fell on uncaring ears. Finally a complaint went to the Office Of The Inspector General in Washington, DC and that complaint generated a 2011 Case File No: OI-HQ-11-0271-R. With the complaint in hand the OIG forced the BLM into action. The BLM conducted an investigation and found that the allegations were true and their employee had violated ethics rules. After the internal review the BLM did nothing to their employee for his years of misdeeds and corrupt unethical behavior except ask him to remove his cattle from the grazing allotments. A conversation was overheard in which the Prineville BLM District Manager and Central Oregon Resource Area Manager actually shook the hand of the guilty BLM employee and patted him on the back while commenting ("What happened? How did you manage to get caught? You should have been more discreet this makes us all look bad".) Can you imagine, instead of terminating his employment for misconduct and for violating federal rules the BLM just told him to be more careful next time. The BLM didn't even consider firing this guy. Instead they fired a group of Senior BLM Volunteers that spilled the beans on the actions listed in this report. Looks like the Bureau Of Land Management is operating organized crime instead of managing federal lands.

This all happened in Central Oregon at a place called Rudio Mountain in the John Day River Country of Grant County, Oregon. Rudio Mountain is located near the towns of John Day, Dayville, Spray, Long Creek, Monument and Kimberly Oregon. Rudio Mountain offers lush grass lands, mountain meadows, old growth forests, a variety of animals, wildflowers and many streams that are tributaries to the John Day River. It is a very popular recreation area and it has been a point of conflict for decades in that ranchers and BLM have closed thousands of acres of federal land to the public and actually created a private retreat for people that own private lands that adjoin and surround the locked up federal land. They most likely did that so people would not stumble upon weird or inappropriate situations that could get them into trouble.

The guilty BLM employee lives nearby. In his hometown and among his co-workers he is well known as an avid mustang hater. He is a leader in asking the BLM to rid the range of mustangs. In his opinion cattle should not have to compete with mustangs on federal grazing allotments and he believes mustangs destroy the range, pollute water holes and take profits away from ranchers that use our public lands for cattle grazing purposes. He would like to see all mustangs hauled to slaughterhouses and butchered. This same untrustworthy BLM worker actually had a big part in the preparation of an important upcoming resource management plan prepared by the BLM. This guy provided input and was one of the preparers for BLM's new management guidelines for Central Oregon federal lands titled "John Day Basin Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement". The record of decision for this new management plan is due out in the near future. We can't even imagine how important it must have been to be a paid federal preparer and have the opportunity to help cook up a resource management plan so great that it would have a tremendous effect on his hometown, his community, his friends, family and neighbors that are all surrounded by federal lands. We do know that when you are cooking you don't want to burn yourself and by all means you don't want to burn down your house cause if you do you will lose everything. This untrustworthy employee most likely provided plenty of input so this new management plan would benefit himself, his friends, fellow ranchers and his own personal matters for years to come. He has already proven that he is very concerned with protecting his personal interests at any cost. We all know there is nothing finer or smoother than having an outspoken unethical friend spicing up the stew and throwing just the right ingredients into the government cooker.

To cast a darker shadow over this sad situation and to show how corruption is occurring within the BLM, during the past several years cattle grazing permittees in the Rudio Mountain area have petitioned the BLM demanding that all free roaming mustangs be removed from public land grazing allotments because they are destroying their public grazing lands, water holes and livelihood. The ranchers accuse the mustangs of eating grass needed for cattle and their cattle cannot compete. Ranchers in this area including the guilty BLM employee want all public grazing lands reserved solely for their cattle and any mustang found on public land is considered a nuisance that should be removed or destroyed.

The BLM actually assisted these ranchers in capturing many of the mustangs but it seems it was all carried out in violation of the law and swept under the carpet by all involved in this unlawful activity. The mustangs that were captured on Rudio Mountain by ranchers in association with BLM disappeared and their whereabouts are unknown. The Oregon brand inspector was never notified. One group of people concerned about these activities spoke up and things simmered down for a spell but those people paid dearly for spilling the beans on the unlawful activities of the BLM and their permittees.

Then one late summer morning a band of mustangs were resting on a high plateau in a remote place on Rudio Mountain overlooking the John Day River. Suddenly the sound of rifle shots exploded across the high mountain meadow. The proud black stallion ran frantically to get his herd onto their feet and they ran for their lives across the plateau some falling to the ground and thrashing with death throws as the bullets ripped into them taking them down one by one. The first mustang to topple was only a baby not more than 6 weeks old. When the bullet pierced his body it broke both front legs and he fell to the ground unable to get up and run away with his mother. The wounded mustangs lay on the ground in their own blood unable to get up and wreathing in pain as death came slowly to each one. Some mustangs made it across the top to the other side where they waited while standing between a high mountain cliff and the killers that were in pursuit and closing in on them. They faced certain death and when the shooters got closer rifle shots rang out again. The wounded and frightened mustangs were forced to jump off the high jagged cliffs and they met their death during the fall or at the bottom where they lay motionless in pools of their own blood. During the following days the smell of blood and rotting flesh attracted scavengers and birds of prey that fed upon the bodies of the murdered mustangs. It was during this time that hikers visiting this remote part of Rudio Mountain came across what has been dubbed (THE RUDIO MOUNTAIN MUSTANG MASSACRE.) This was reported to the BLM who in turn did nothing at all except cover it up. People were so distraught over the situation they asked representatives of Congress for help but BLM still did not investigate.

In the meantime the group of people that found the murdered mustangs were doing their own investigation. They had already sensed a BLM cover-up. They took photos and recorded the exact location with GPS equipment. The mustangs were at home on public rangeland where they had resided for decades. The band of mustangs were killed smack dab in the middle of a remote section of federal land managed by the BLM as a cattle grazing allotment and to add insult to injury the cattle grazing allotment where the mustangs were murdered was being utilized by none other than our notorious untrustworthy BLM employee. The mustangs were murdered so that some greedy cattle rancher could have another bite of grass for his livestock. Regardless if this was brought on by a corrupt BLM employee or by another rancher the fact is that innocent mustangs were murdered so that some warped scumbag could fatten his cattle and his wallet a little more while using our federal lands for his own personal gain. The murdered mustangs were simply in the way and they stood between a sick killer and capital gain.

During the past few years this untrustworthy BLM employee secured federal land grazing leases for himself that were managed by himself, his co-workers and BLM and he continued to benefit himself by unlawfully using our public lands. He did this at great cost to the public and other grazing permittees. This same BLM worker was observed many times buying beer at the local market and loading it into a government issued fire patrol truck that he drove around in with other people patrolling for wildfires. He was also observed tossing empty beer cans out the window of the patrol truck and littering the roads as he drove around. He did this while he was on duty and working for us, the taxpayers. He was also observed on public land using BLM trucks and trailers during his off time hauling off various items that were purchased by the BLM for use on federal lands. He most likely took these items for personal use on his own land. When questioned about it BLM had no clue as to the whereabouts of the items that were taken by their employee. This disloyal and unethical BLM employee has spread corruption all across our public lands with his misdeeds. BLM does not expect this employee to act in a professional and honest manner or they would have terminated his employment. If BLM has taught us one thing here it is that all rules are made to be broken.

This guy will be back again soon doing something else unethical because he passed BLM's inspection and has been authorized to work for you and me. In that spirit it seems those BLM supervisors are just as warped as their employee. We DO NOT want this guy or any of these unfit people managing anything for us. If this is
how these screwballs act we certainly do not want these people anywhere near federal lands that we visit or recreate on. They are a threat to this Country, to ourselves, to our families, to our pets and to the freedoms and wild things that we cherish in America.

We will NEVER look at a Bureau Of Land Management worker the same way again. If we have never looked twice at a BLM worker before we will likely look at least three times now and we'll keep watching over our shoulder some more. The misconduct generated by this untrustworthy BLM worker and the bad decisions made by his superiors all the way around have raised our suspicions even higher and we will pay closer attention from now on. It might be-hoof all of us to keep a close eye on these guys so we can be absolutely certain about their job status, their quality of work, their routine, their motives, their friends in high places and what they really stand for. That way we can better tell who they are really working for.

If you want to know more you can request the case file known as [OI-HQ-11-0271-R] from the Office Of The Inspector General or the Bureau Of Land Management. You can also speak to the people that spilled the beans or submit a Freedom Of Information Request to the BLM for issues surrounding Rudio Mountain in Grant County, Oregon. If you do not want this disloyal BLM employee working for you then you must contact your Senators and ask them to do something about it. If you are concerned with the Bureau Of Land Management's actions and decisions on any of these issues then you need to stand up and speak out. If you do nothing who knows what will happen to the next target that gets in their way and they will continue to use our money to promote hanky panky within their clan.





Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
concerned citizen
Sun, Oct 30, 2011 12:13AM
Pale Rider
Sun, Sep 4, 2011 10:08AM
of oregon
Sat, Sep 3, 2011 2:55PM
Cathy Bestland
Tue, Aug 30, 2011 4:35PM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$155.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network