Farmers buy land, make camp by shut Oregon irrigation canal

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Two farmers with ties to anti-government activist Ammon Bundy have purchased land by a shut-off irrigation canal in Oregon that would normally deliver water to a massive federal irrigation project along the California-Oregon border.

The move comes after federal regulators shut off all water deliveries from the project’s main “A Canal” due to extreme drought.

Jefferson Public Radio reports the site by the canal’s headgates holds an information tent and a protest is planned for Thursday.

The last time water was shut to farmers, in 2001, demonstrators forced open the canal’s headgates three times before federal marshals arrived.

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