BURNS, Ore. -- Reporters were given a brief tour of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Wednesday afternoon as workers and repair crews continue to work on the headquarters building.
The renown bird sanctuary was taken over by armed intruders on Jan. 2 in an occupation that lasted 41 days.
Timeline: Armed occupation at Oregon refuge
Now, most who took over the site are either in jail or confined to home arrest.
Workers say the occupiers overwhelmed the sites relatively fragile septic system, backed up toilets and left human waste in a trench on the site along with several others areas, including roads and paths.
Efforts are still underway to fix the septic system. In the meantime, there is no running water at the headquarters site.
The massive refuge, however is open to the public.
Among those at the refuge today, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Ashe.
He praised the workers at the refuge for enduring the long days away from the work they love. He also admitted he is concerned a similar action could happen at other national refuge locations.
“I think we have be vigilant about that,” Ashe said.
But he admitted there is a balance between vigilance and access for the public.
“The national wildlife system belongs to all of the people and that maybe was one of the most troubling things during the occupation. To hear people say we want this refuge to be for the people. Well of course its for the people!” said Ashe. “It belongs to all the people of the United States!”
Ashe estimated the occupation has already cost his agency more than $6 million.
Some of that money was spent to move all 17 employees who worked at the refuge into different towns or cities while the occupation was underway. The service moved the worker and their family, and paid for expenses.
Some people went to Bend, others to Portland and some to Seattle, according to Ashe.
And if they needed to return to Burns, the service paid for a police officer to escort them.
Linda Beck is one of those workers.
“The militia was parked in my driveway,” she said.
She’s a fish biologist waging war with invasive carp who eat the marsh plants that migrating birds use to create nests during visits to the refuge.
She said the effort was set back as much as three years by her forced absence.
And when she returned, her belongings were scattered at the refuge headquarters.
“You do feel violated,” she said.
Faye Healy didn’t like the feeling either. She’s a wildlife biologist who worked at a different refuge during the takeover.
“It’s, it's eerie,” she said about returning to Malheur.
Like many, she wonders why this remote area became a target for Ammon Bundy and his friends.
“Those are the questions you have to ask when something like this happens to you. Why us? What did we do? We’re just a bird sanctuary!” she said.
Healy and Beck are both back at work now. Beck said coping with everything that's happened is still difficult.
“Yeah, the phases of grief. Let’s just say a little anger but um, I don’t know. We’re resilient. The landscape is resilient and we’re just gonna move forward,” she said.