PORTLAND, Ore. — The leaders of an armed group who seized a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon were acquitted Thursday in the 41-day standoff that brought attention to a long-running dispute over control of federal lands in the West.

A jury found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty of possession of firearms in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland, where the trial took place.

Five co-defendants also were cleared of the charges.