Congress considering terrible bills to speed up oil and gas destruction of public wildlands

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Water for wildlife in Nevada (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Cross-posted from National Resources Defense Council

By Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

May 15, 2012

A suite of bad bills is scheduled to be considered in the House Natural Resources Committee tomorrow, and NRDC opposes all of them. Here are the details from my colleague Bobby McEnaney on the four worst:

    • H.R. 4383 – This draconian bill is designed to eliminate the public’s right to have a say in the management of public lands–lands that belong to all Americans. The bill would abolish most avenues to protest oil and gas leasing decisions, mandates unrealistic timelines for challenging oil and gas leases, aims to limit the scope of federal courts, and imposes a $5,000 fee if anyone can still find a way to protest an agency’s oil and gas leasing decision. Further, this legislation would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to bypass proper environmental review, even though the oil and gas industry currently is sitting on thousands of unused leases.
    • H.R. 4382 – This sweeping legislation would mandate oil and gas leasing on public lands, even when it is not warranted. It would also eliminate the public’s right to participate in management processes associated with leasing decisions by severely curtailing the opportunity to protest inappropriate leasing decisions. Lastly, it would force the BLM to lease lands when oil and gas companies want, even when such a decision would destroy or damage sensitive lands and wildlife habitat, including wilderness quality lands. In essence, this bill would cede control of federal lands to oil and gas producers and remove safeguards that balance energy production with necessary conservation mandates.
    • H.R. 4381 – This bill would require the Department of Interior (DOI) to establish arbitrary targets for energy production on federal lands–even those under the jurisdiction of other agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service. The bill would require the agency to take all necessary actions to meet the targets, leading to extraction of coal, oil and gas, and other dirty fossil fuels at the expense of cleaner sources such as wind and solar.
    • H.R. 4402 – This legislation would nearly abolish the public’s right to participate in the management of mining claims on federal lands. H.R. 4402 would eliminate the few safeguards that are in place and turn the clock back to the 19th century by eliminating the public’s right to challenge inappropriate mineral leasing decisions.

Cruel roundups will continue to catch wild horses for EPA approved pesticide

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Sadly cruel roundups will continue. The BLM must catch the wild horses to give them the restricted-use pesticide–birth control–because darting would only work a small fraction of the time.

Do you want your hard earned tax dollars to pay for this animal abuse?

Get active. Lobby and comment on proposed roundups. Get your friends involved.

BREAKING NEWS: Outrage over EPA calling iconic wild horses “pests”

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PM Pesticides Sign Colin Grey : Foter.com : CC BY-SA

For immediate release

Protect Mustangs opposes pesticides for indigenous horses and calls for change

WASHINGTON (May 11, 2012)—Protect Mustangs, a San Francisco Bay Area-based wild horse preservation group, opposes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorizing indigenous wild horses as “pests”. This classification would allow the EPA to approve the restricted-use pesticide, ZonaStat-H, for use on wild horses for birth control. Protect Mustangs maintains there is no scientific proof that wild horses and burros are overpopulated on the more than 26 million acres of public land and states that science proves wild equids heal the land—reversing damage and desertification. Today Protect Mustangs has asked the EPA to retract their wrongful categorization and halt the use of the drug. Besides the environmental hazards of using ZonaStat-H, the group is concerned the potentially dangerous pesticide could permanently sterilize and lead to the wild horse and burro’s eventual demise in the West.

After decades of research, ZonaStat-H, the EPA registered name for PZP-22 (porcine zona pellucida), has not been approved for human use. China has been testing PZP for years but research shows damage to the ovaries so the drug remains in the test phase. Protect Mustangs is concerned the pesticide will permanently sterilize America’s indigenous wild horses after multiple use or overdosing, and that the use of PZP-22, GonaCon, SpayVac and other immunocontraceptives are risky.

“Americans across the country love wild horses,” explains Anne Novak executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We are outraged that the EPA would call our national icons ‘pests’ to push through an experimental contraceptive under a pesticide program!”

Under provisions of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the EPA can consider nonhuman animals to be pests if they harm human or environmental health.

“This is an example of the government ignoring good science that proves wild horses heal the environment and create biodiversity at virtually no cost to the taxpayer, when left out on the range,” says Novak. “Vermin don’t repair the environment and reduce global warming but wild horses can.”

Two Princeton studies prove wild herds repair the land as seen in Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies in search for food

The first study, “Facilitation Between Bovids and Equids on an African Savanna,” was published in Evolutionary Ecology Research in August 2011, and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Keller Family Trust and Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

The second study, “African Wild Ungulates Compete With or Facilitate Cattle Depending on Season,” was published in Science on Sept. 23, 2011, and supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the International Foundation for Science.

The Savory Institute, a proponent of holistic management, states wild herds heal overgrazed grassland and uses livestock to mimic wild herds to bring the land back to life.

Public land grazing allotment holders might call free roaming wild horses a nuisance but they have an obvious conflict of interest—they want all the grazing and water rights for their livestock that outnumbers wild horses 50 to 1. It appears they would like to eliminate the rights of the free roaming wild horses and burros.

Protect Mustangs hopes the EPA will not buy into their game.

There is no scientific proof wild horses are overpopulating on the range. Despite years of requests from members of the public and equine advocacy groups, the government refuses to make an accurate head count on public land. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been accused of inflating estimates to justify costly wild horse roundups and removals—paid for by the American taxpayer.

Indigenous wild horses do not reproduce like rabbits—many die before the age of two. Life on the range can be hard and most wild horses never reach the age of 19. As a wildlife species, this is normal. Left alone, they will self-regulate as an integral piece of the ecosystem.

Recent scientific discoveries prove wild horses are native wildlife. The horse evolved here and must be respected as indigenous before they risk extinction at the hands of the American government.

Wild horses have natural predators such as mountain lions, bears and coyotes to name a few. BLM goes to great trouble to downplay the existence of predators to foster their overpopulation estimate-based myths.

Another frequent argument for the use of pesticides as birth control for wild horses and burros is that they would reduce the need for roundups. However, birth control would not end roundups because it would be difficult to dart wild horses in remote regions and lost darts become biohazards. Trapping in accessible herd management areas and roundups would continue in order to administer the drug.

In the early 1900s there were two million wild horses roaming freely in America. Today there are only about 40,000 captured mustangs living in feedlot settings—funded by tax dollars. Due to the government’s zealous roundups and removals, less than 19,000 wild horses remain free in all the western states combined. The BLM is caving into corporate pressure from the livestock, energy, water and mining industries who don’t want to share public land with America’s indigenous wild horses.

Novak says that, “we want the EPA to apologize for classifying American wild horses as ‘pests’, acknowledge the classification error and cancel approval of ZonaStat-H and any other pesticides for mustangs.”

“By classifying our wild horses as ‘pests’ the EPA is fostering the dangerous belief that wild horses are a nuisance, something destructive that needs to be wiped out,” says Vivian Grant, President of Int’l Fund for Horses. “We call on the EPA to correct this categorization of the American mustang now.”

# # #

Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415-531-8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org

Vivian Grant, 502-526-5940, Vivian@HorseFund.org

Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org

Contact Protect Mustangs for interviews, photos or video

Protect Mustangs is a Bay Area-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.

Links of interest:

Protect Mustangs’ etter requesting EPA repair error classifying iconic American wild horses “pests”http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1191

EPA Pesticide Information for ZonaStat-H http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

AVMA Reports: Vaccine could reduce wild horse overpopulation http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/apr12/120415k.asp

Wildlife fertility vaccine approved by EPA http://www.sccpzp.org/blog/locally-produced-wildlife-contraceptive-vaccine-approved-by-epa/

Oxford Journal on PZP for Humans and more http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/12/3271.long

PZP research for humans http://randc.ovinfo.com/e200501/yuanmm.pdf

Horse Contraceptive Vaccine: Is Human Immunocontraception Next? http://vactruth.com/2012/02/24/horse-contraceptive-vaccine

Wild horse predators: http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080302002619AADTWzh

Audubon: Sacred Cows http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0603.html

Princeton reports: Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in search for food.http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured

Letter requesting EPA repair error classifying iconic American wild horses as ‘pests’

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Native Wild Horses (Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

Daniel T. Heggem

Acting Division Director

Environmental Protection Agency

heggem.daniel@epa.gov

 

 

Dear Mr. Heggem,

We respectfully request that the EPA apologize for classifying America’s legendary wild horses as ‘pests’, acknowledge the classification error and cancel approval of ZonaStat-H and any other pesticides for indigenous wild horses or American burros.

America’s wild horses and burros are an asset to the environment and humankind. Science proves they create biodiversity and heal the land—reversing damage and desertification.

The American public is uplifted knowing wild horses are roaming freely in the West. People come from around the world to catch a glimpse of wild horses because they are beloved icons of the American spirit and freedom.

Public land grazing allotment holders might call free roaming wild horses a nuisance but they have an obvious conflict of interest because they want all the grazing and water rights for their livestock, etc. They would like to eliminate the rights of the free roaming wild horses and burros. We hope the EPA will not buy into their game.

There is no scientific proof wild horses are overpopulating—only inflated estimates by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who must invent high numbers so Congress will give them millions of taxpayer dollars to fund their broken Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Indigenous wild horses do not reproduce like rabbits—many die before the age of two. Life on the range can be hard and most wild horses do not reach the age of 17. As a wildlife species, this is normal. Left alone they will self-regulate as an integral piece of the ecosystem.

Wild horses have natural predators such as mountain lions, bears and coyotes to name a few. BLM goes to great lengths to downplay the existence of predators to foster their overpopulation estimate-based myths.

We expect the EPA to be based on science not myth.

Are you aware of the two Princeton studies proving equids heal the land for cattle to thrive?

The first study, “Facilitation Between Bovids and Equids on an African Savanna,” was published in Evolutionary Ecology Research in August 2011, and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Keller Family Trust and Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

The second study, “African Wild Ungulates Compete With or Facilitate Cattle Depending on Season,” was published in Science on Sept. 23, 2011, and supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the International Foundation for Science.

Besides the environmental hazards of using ZonaStat-H, we are concerned the iconic herds will risk ovary damage and permanent sterilization from multiple use or overdosing with PZP.

We ask that all ZonaStat-H use be put on hold immediately until your “pest” classification error has been corrected and for the EPA pesticide/drug approval be retracted.

Please reply to us via email or fax immediately with your response. Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

Anne Novak

Executive Director for Protect Mustangs

 

encl:

EPA Pesticide Fact Sheet for ZonaStat-Hhttp://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

Princeton reports: Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in search for food http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured

NB: Faxed to numerous senators and representatives

CC: Lisa P. Jackson

 

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

Protect Mustangs

P.O. Box 5661

Berkeley, California 94705

 

Twitter @ProtectMustangs

Facebook Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs on YouTube

Protect Mustangs in the News

 

www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

Protect Mustangs is a Bay Area-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.


Federal Court Forces Interior Department to Consider Scientific Evidence Regarding Wild Horse Management

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cross-posted from The Cloud Foundation

Judge Rejects Gov’t Attempt to Ignore Expert Declarations on Negative Impacts of Plan to Castrate Wild Nevada Stallions 

Washington, DC – May 10, 2012 – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has rejected an attempt by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withhold and ignore critical scientific evidence in its decision-making process for the implementation of a precedent-setting plan to castrate wild stallions. At issue were expert declarations submitted to the BLM from leading experts in wild horse behavior and biology outlining the devastating impacts of castration on the health and natural behaviors of wild free-roaming stallions and wild horse herds.

The ruling is part of litigation filed in December 2011 by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC),Western Watersheds Project and The Cloud Foundation challenging the BLM’s  illegal plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in eastern Nevada’s Pancake Complex, as well as to eliminate wild horses from the Jake’s Wash Herd Management Area, which lies within the Complex. The ruling on this case will have widespread implication for thousands of the remaining wild horses living free and wild on public lands.

The Honorable U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell stated in her 23-page opinion that the agency “may not simply remainstudiously ignorant of material scientific evidence well known to the agency and brought directly to its attention in timely-filed comments.” She decisively rejected the BLM’s attempt to exclude the expert declarations from the agency’s decision-making process and affirmed that the Court would consider the “material scientific evidence” contained in the declarations as in future rulings in the case.

“The BLM went to great lengths to avoid considering scientific information provided by leading wild horse experts,” said Suzanne Roy, director of AWHPC. “The agency is not interested in science, it’s only interest is clearing our public lands of wild horses to make room for livestock grazing and other commercial interests.”

“This is yet another example of the agency’s epidemic refusal to incorporate science in its management of wild horse and burros herds,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation. “We commend Judge Howell for seeing through the BLM’s thinly veiled excuses and standing up for science and the right of the public to have input into government management decisions.”

The scientific evidence submitted by Plaintiffs that the BLM attempted to ignore included a declaration from Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, the Director of Science and Conservation Biology at Zoo Montana and a foremost authority on wildlife reproductive biology. He stated:

“The very essence of the wild horse, that is, what makes it a wild horse, is the social organization and social behaviors. Geldings (castrated male horses) no longer exhibit the natural behaviors of non-castrated stallions. We know this to be true from hundreds of years experience with gelded domestic horses. Furthermore, gelded stallions will not keep their bands together, which is an integral part of a viable herd. These social dynamics were molded by millions of years of evolution, and will be destroyed if the BLM returns castrated horses to the HMAs. . . . Castrating horses will effectively remove the biological and physiological controls that prompt these stallions to behave like wild horses. This will negatively impact the place of the horse in the social order of the band and the herd.

The other declarations, submitted by Dr. Allen Rutberg of the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine; Dr. Anne Perkins of Carroll College in Montana;  and Dr. Bruce Nock, a faculty member at Washington University School of Medicine provided further scientific information about the impacts of castration on wild stallions and wild horse herds.

Other plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit challenging aspects of the Pancake roundup include wildlife ecologist Craig Downer and photographer Arla Ruggles, who enjoy wild horse viewing in the HMAs and whose professional and aesthetic interests will be harmed if the BLM moves forward with its plan. The plaintiffs are being represented by the Washington D.C. public interest law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal. A previous lawsuit filed in July 2011 by the firm prompted the BLM to withdraw a similar plan to release hundreds of castrated wild stallions in two HMAs in Wyoming.

The complaint alleges that the BLM’s plan for the Pancake Complex violates the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act. The complaint can be read here.

# # #

About the Plaintiffs

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) is a coalition of more than 45 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.

Western Watersheds Project is a non-profit conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives and litigation. The group works to influence and improve public lands management in 8 western states with a primary focus on the negative impacts of livestock grazing on 250,000,000 acres of western public lands.

The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.

Media Contacts:

Lauryn Wachs

617-894-6939

lauryn@thecloudfoundation.org

Deniz Bolbol

650-248-4489

deniz@wildhorsepreservation.org

Mustang Monday™: Ask to protect mustangs’ rights to live in freedom

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Wild Horses @ Peace (Photo ©Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Call or write your senators and representatives to let them know how you feel about the mustang crisis. Ask them to re-protect America’s native wild horses from being rounded up or trapped by ranchers and wiped out.

Take back your government! You voted them in. They need to be politely reminded that they represent you–the American public.

Thank you for taking action to help America’s wild horses.

Spin-Doc paid for with tax dollars spurs wild horse advocacy

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Studs at Short Term Holding (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

Their Story of America’s Wild Horses and Burros

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has spent an extreme amount of U.S. tax dollars to make a Spin-Doc to justify wild horse and burro removals while protecting THEIR jobs and the vast monetary interests of the oil, gas, water and mining corporations on public land. This slanted infomercial, they call an “internal premier”, will be aired today on the BLM internal Dish network.

BLM employees are being brainwashed so they can respond to media investigations, Congressional inquiry and outraged members of the public with the BLM spin–feeling it’s “the truth” because they saw the documentary.

Instead of providing government transparency, as requested by wild horse advocates and members of the public, the BLM has produced their Spin-Doc to avoid transparency all together.

Will they mention the 2008 secret talks to kill thousands upon thousands of wild horses in holding or sell them to slaughter in their “documentary”?

We hope BLM employees will see through the veil of subterfuge in the broken program that does not protect America’s wild horses but has a history of being involved in trafficking mustangs to slaughter since 1973.

With BLM ramping up their efforts to sway internal, Congressional and public opinion, it’s time to take the offensive in this mission to save the mustangs and ask for what we want.

Let’s promote the wild horse documentaries already out there (Cloud the Stallion, Wild Horses and Renegades, Saving America’s Horses and others) through our social media channels, friends as well as with other local and global opportunities.

We can create buzz about the documentaries in post-production like Jan Liverence’s, Ellie Phipps Price’s, Wendy Malick’s and others.

Members of the public along with wild horse and burro advocates can help new documentaries (short and long) get out there quickly by lending their support.

Let’s power up. All groups and all wild horse advocates are all needed and deserving of support.

Let’s find new ways to raise money for worthy projects and embrace the abundance in the Universe so we are united–knowing we will all have the money we need to accomplish our pledge to save American wild horses.

Today we need to shout the truth louder than before–in new creative ways–circling the planet.

Stop the roundups! Stop the removals! Stop selling wild horses to slaughter! Return wild horses from holding to the HMAs to heal the land–creating fertile rangeland–so all (livestock too) may prosper.

Stop wasting tax dollars to fund the BLM’s broken Wild Horse and Burro Program–zeroing out America’s iconic wild horses. Save the mustangs now!

(© Protect Mustangs, all rights reserved.)

 

Sources:

Spin-Doc http://www.blm.gov/ntc/st/en/broadcasts/blm_s_new_documentary.html

Curious wild horses in Reno

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Yesterday we went to Reno to document wild horses not too far from town. On the eastern outskirts we found some bands.

After parking and getting out to take some photos we realized the wild horses “found us”.

I had just opened the trunk to get a camera out and was concerned the sound and shining metal trunk might spook them when it opened. I thought they might get frightened and run away but what happened was just the opposite.

The mustangs walked over to the trunk and started to peer inside and sniff around. The chestnut stallion on the far left realized there were granola bars inside my backpack.

I think they thought we were going to feed them treats. We didn’t so that. It’s not allowed for a good reason–to keep them wild.

This band was used to fans as you can see . . .

The “outskirts mustangs” are great ambassadors because they are so easily accessible.

In the wild, mustangs forage for all their food but if people feed them like petting zoo animals it ultimately puts them at risk.

I know it’s tempting to feed them a treat but it might make them sick or just turn them into a group of pushy horses if they smell any food.

Enjoy taking their photos and let them find their food as nature intended. It’s the best way we can show them we love them.

 

(Pictured Anne and Irma Novak with the mustangs. Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved.)

 

Remove pro-slaughter BLM advisory board members

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Despite public outcry against the pro-slaughter band of “advisors” for the BLM, the most outrageous appointment was Callie Hendrickson.

Please sign the petition requesting Secretary Salazar dump his pro-slaughter appointee.

The Secretary of the Interior has, for the second time in a row, selected an openly pro-horse slaughter person to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. Callie Hendrickson, an anti-wild horse activist, pro-horse slaughter proponent, has been selected to represent the interests of the ‘General Public’ on the board.

It is well known that Hendrickson supports horse slaughter, and the sale without limitation of all unadopted wild horses to the highest bidder (including kill buyers). She supports the removal of all the wild horses in the West Douglas Creek herd on Colorado’s Western Slope. She has testified in support of anti-wild horse legislation and will speak at the second pro-slaughter conference (Summit of the Horse) in Oklahoma City this Spring.

And Ms. Hendrickson is out of step with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose horse slaughter. According to a recent national poll conducted by Lake Research Partners for the ASPCA, 80% of Americans from all walks of life and all areas of the country do not support the slaughter of American horses.

Take action today: Urge Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to rescind his appointment of Callie Hendrickson to the BLM’s National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board.

Background:

The nine-member BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recommends management strategies to the BLM. Hendrickson would join Jim Stephenson (appointed June 2011) who openly advocates for horse slaughter. Other Board members include the former head of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and a wildlife representative who is a member of organizations advocating a hunting season on wild horses. Documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that BLM has discussed killing wild horses in holding since at least 2008. They have stacked the Board with anti-wild horse extremists who could advocate for the slaughter of wild horses that have been removed from public lands and are being stockpiled in government holding facilities.

The petition is Sponsored by: American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, Animal Law Coalition, The Cloud Foundation, Equine Welfare Alliance, Front Range Equine Rescue, Grassroots Horse, International Fund for Horses, Protect Mustangs, Respect4Horses, Wild Horse Freedom Federation