Militiaman Launches Campaign Encouraging More Ranchers To Stop Paying Grazing Fees

Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum carries his rifle after standing guard all night at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, near Burns, Ore. With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, a... Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum carries his rifle after standing guard all night at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, near Burns, Ore. With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, authorities had not removed the group of roughly 20 people from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon's high desert country. But members of the group, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan, were growing increasingly tense, saying they feared a federal raid. (AP photo/Rick Bowmer) MORE LESS
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LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher and key figure in the standoff in Oregon, has a new campaign to encourage ranchers to stop paying grazing fees to the federal government.

According to the Oregonian, Finicum and others have launched a petition and plan to have a ceremony Friday to reveal growing support for their movement.

Finicum told the Oregonian that he had recruited two ranchers to join so far, but that “I hope they bring a couple more in tow.”

Finicum has also been traveling away from the Malheur Wildlife Refuge to gin up momentum for the standoff in Oregon. Finicum believes the federal government should not charge ranchers for using federal lands and instead insists that those lands be given to local ranchers.

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