Sign and share the Petition for a Moratorium on Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-scientific-studies
Tag Archives: population
Wild horse overpopulation myth debunked
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Nevada mustang © Carl Mrozek
WILD HORSE POPULATION GROWTH
Research Collaboration by
Kathleen Gregg Environmental Researcher
Lisa LeBlanc Environmental Researcher
Jesica Johnston Environmental Scientist April 25, 2014
INTRODUCTION
The recent National Academy of Science (NAS) report on the Wild Horse and Burro Program determined that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has no evidence of excess wild horses and burros; because the BLM has failed to use scientifically sound methods to estimate the populations (NAS, 2013). The NAS cited two chief criticisms of the Wild Horse and Burro Program: unsubstantiated estimates in herd management areas (HMA), and management decisions that are not based in science (NAS, 2013).
Effective wild horse and burro management is dependent on accurate population counts and defensible assumptions. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) routinely uses the assumption that wild horse and burro herds increase annually at an average rate of 20%. However, our review of available scientific literature combined with an analysis of BLM data for 5,859 wild horses found that approximately 50% of the foals survived to the age of 1 year, which indicates a 10% population growth rate based on yearling survival rates.
METHODS AND DATA
The data and analysis is based on the BLM’s wild horse and burro removal and processing documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. The data sets were evaluated separately, and then combined to total 5,859 wild horses, captured, aged, and branded by BLM. This data is the basis for the analysis in this report and the accompanying chart in table 1 below.
Burro data was also calculated for foal and yearling survival. That data indicated a 7% population growth rate for burros based on yearling survival, but that data is not included here as burros are not present in all of the HMAs.
The data was collected from 4 herds captured by BLM in Nevada and California in 2010 and 2011. The data below in table 1 shows the individual herds and accumulated age structure data which supports the overall conclusion. Wild horse foals and yearlings were tallied for population increases and in all four samples, recorded a combined foaling rate of less than 20%, but only half or 50% survived to the age of 1 year (see table 1 below).
Table 1 Age Structure Yearling Survival Rate
DISCUSSION
This research does not include or reflect the additional adult mortality rates due to the complexity of population dynamics, but does raise serious questions about the validity of the BLM’s assumed 20% annual herd population growth rate. Furthermore, the BLMs assumption fails to consider that wild horse populations are dynamic due to isolation and have varied rates of reproduction and survival due to changing climates, forage, competition, disturbance and environmental conditions. All these are factors that can lead to varied herd growth rates and each herd should be evaluated separately.
This research paper is supported by previous studies using age structure data completed by Michael L. Wolfe, Jr. in 1980 titled “Feral Horse Demography: A Preliminary Report”. Mr. Wolfe cited observations in 12 HMAs, over a period of 2 to 5 years, and covered a much broader range over six Western states. He questioned the annual rate increase of 20%, and found that first-year survival rates to range between 50% and 70% (Wolfe, 1980).
Other supporting research includes The National Academy of Science National Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro report of 1982, which states, “…several biases in the (BLM) census data, cited or calculated rates of increase based on a number of published values for reproduction and survival rates, as well as sex and age ratios, and concluded annual rates of increase of ten percent or less” (NAS, 1982).
The NAS 2013 report also used age structure data to estimate population growth. However, the report used foaling rates to draw conclusions about the population growth; rather than first year survival rates (NAS, pg.51-52 2013). This and other studies challenge the assumption that the 20% foaling rate provides an adequate measure of population growth.
The BLM bases their management decisions on environmental assessments that cite inflated population estimates. As shown in this study and previous research, the BLM’s assumption of a 20% annual wild horse population growth rate is not based in science; leading to unsubstantiated population estimates with no evidence of excess wild horses.
REFERENCES
National Academy of Science 2013, “Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program – A Way Forward”
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13511&page=R1
Johnston, J. (2011). California’s, Wild Horses and Burros: Twin Peaks HMA.
“Feral Horse Demography: A Preliminary Report”, Michael L. Wolfe, Jr.
National Academy of Science 1982, “Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros”
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q2IrAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Freedom Of Information Act (2012). FOIA BLM FY12-011 1278.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Freedom Of Information Act (2012). FOIA BLM- 2012-00934.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Freedom Of Information Act (2012). FOIA BLM 2012-01046.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Freedom Of Information Act (2012). FOIA BLM 2012-00250.
Download the paper here: PM Population Growth 4.25.14 FINAL
Palomino Valley Center the week of March 24, 2014
More photos of empty pens and pens with wild horses will be posted soon.
Filly down during feeding at BLM facility
Yesterday we were documenting the largest national processing and adoption facility, Palomino Valley Center, near Reno and noticed a filly was down. She was alive but down and seemed to be in distress. All the other fillies in the huge pen were eating and she was down. She tried to sit up and then went down again. We immediately called the BLM staff in the office to alert them of the situation. They said they would send someone right out to check up on her. We are still waiting for a report from BLM on her status. Check back for updates as we will keep you posted.
Please share widely so people can see what’s happening to our wild horses in captivity.
They should never have been removed from the wild lands in the first place!
We are grateful to the donors who helped pay for the expenses to get us in the field by chipping in to pay for gas, etc.
Last June our investigation uncovered wild horses dying at Palomino Valley during the heat wave. Watch the Video about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdM2NrJcX8o
We are not funded by corporations and we have no conflict of interest. We are boots on the ground and we need your help to do the work. Every dollar counts. Please donate to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org for gas and field work expenses via www.PayPal.com. Thank you!
We will always fight for mustangs to be Wild & Free and we will protect those in captivity!
Remember Sharing is Caring.
Equine reproductive immunology Ph.D speaks out in 2010 against using PZP on wild horses
Native Wild Horses (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved)
November 27, 2010 Jared Bybee, Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Billings Field Office 5001 Southgate Drive Billings, Montana 59101-4669 VIA FAX: 406-896-5281 RE: Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Fertility Control Preliminary Environmental Assessment Tiered to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Environmental Assessment and Herd Management Area Plan May 2009 EA DOI-BLM-MT-0010-2011-0004-EA Dear Jared Bybee: Background I appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Fertility Control Preliminary Environmental Assessment Tiered to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Environmental Assessment and Herd Management Area Plan May 2009 EA DOI- BLM-MT-0010-2011-0004-EA. My background is in equine reproductive immunology and wildlife conservation. I applaud the Billings Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for a thoughtful approach to this issue. Cover letter 4700 (010.JB) dated November 1. 2010 and signed by James M. Sparks, Field Manager states that the BLM would consider comments and revision to the EA or unsigned FONSI as appropriate. I urge a “no action alternative” as outlined on page 7 and 8 of the EA. This request is based on two pieces of new scientific evidence about effects of current immuno-contraception use. Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) Contraception The proposed action as stated on page 7 of this EA would exempt “mares ages 5-10 unless they have produced foals, or are part of a large bloodline.” This is reminiscent of the approach taken with the Assateague Island wild horse population. It is a compromise approach to this issue, in comparison to placing all mares on PZP. However a recent study shows that mitochondrial DNA diversity is low in the Assateague Island horse herd (Eggert et al. 2010). Since mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother (mare), this is evidence that female inherited genetics on Assateague Island wild horses is under represented. It is imperative that this be assessed before rolling out a similar management plan for the Pryor Mountain wild horses. There is a recent Princeton University study on PZP effects. Consecutive PZP applications, analogous to the proposed action plan in this EA, showed that mares gave birth later in the season, and were cycling into the fall months (Nunez et al. 2010). In a state like Montana where freezing temperatures are found in the fall, this can have serious and long term effects on foal survivorship. I must include a statement on long term consecutive use of PZP. Any form of PZP contraception is not completely reversible in mares depending on the length of use of PZP. Contraception can only be reversed when the antibody titer decreases to 50-60% of the positive reference sera (Liu et al. 2005). Mares treated for 7 consecutive years do not return to viable fertility (Kirkpatrick and Turner 2002; Kirkpatrick et al. 2009). The issue of reversible contraception is very important to be able to maintain wild equines in the United States. Long term treatment with PZP has inherent negative potential for this herd. I am requesting a new look at the proposed fertility control action for the Pryor Mountain wild horses. Sincerely, Christine DeCarlo, Ph.D. Lori S. Eggert, David M. Powell, et al. (2010). "Pedigrees and the Study of the Wild Horse Population of Assateague Island National Seashore." Journal of Wildlife Management 74(5): 963-973. J. F. Kirkpatrick, A. Rowan, et al. (2009). "The practical side of immunocontraception: zona proteins and wildlife." J Reprod Immunol 83(1-2): 151-7. J. F. Kirkpatrick and A. Turner (2002). "Reversibility of action and safety during pregnancy of immunization against porcine zona pellucida in wild mares (Equus caballus)." Reprod Suppl 60: 197-202. I. K. Liu, J. W. Turner, Jr., et al. (2005). "Persistence of anti-zonae pellucidae antibodies following a single inoculation of porcine zonae pellucidae in the domestic equine." Reproduction 129(2): 181-90. Cassandra M. V. Nunez, James S. Adelman, et al. (2010). "Immunoctraception in Wild Horses (Equus caballus) Extends Reproductive Cycling Beyond the Normal Breeding Season." PLos ONE 5(10): 1-10. (Posted for educational purposes)
Appeal to stop the wild horse wipe out
Dear Friends of wild horses and burros,
Despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences stated there is “no evidence of overpopulation”, a group with alleged funding related conflict of interest is pushing the sterilizant known as PZP on an uninformed public using the ‘it’s either slaughter or PZP’ scare tactic.
Today’s drug pitch is found in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-roy/wild-horses-at-risk-of-sl_b_4934857.html It references population control experiments on the less than 48,000 acre Assateague Island in the East and lacks scientific comparison with the vast open range found in the West–where some herd management areas cover 800,000 acres or more.
Why did the coalition of several groups give up the fight for wild horses’ real freedom?
Freedom is the American mustangs’ right according to the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971. They should not be manipulated by man on the range nor in congressional back rooms. Native wild horses should never be domesticated through sterilizants with man choosing who breeds. That’s nature’s job in the wild. It fosters survival of the fittest.
The solution to the fertility control debate is to focus on what the wild herds need to thrive in freedom not what a campaign, driven by a sanctuary or the BLM, wants to achieve. We need good science to find solutions.
The BLM wants to eliminate the majority of wild herds to free up public land for toxic drilling so why is this coalition following BLM’s lead to push population control before science?
There is no accurate population count to justify roundups. BLM’s overpopulation claims are a farce.
What’s the solution for a falsified overpopulation problem? A reality check and good science.
Fearing extinction from excessive roundups since the 2009 public land grab for energy exports, America’s wild horse birthrate in the West is abnormally high. That should be a red flag that there is something seriously wrong with ecology on their native range.
The Chainman Shale deposit of oil and natural gas in northeastern Nevada and into Utah is about to boom. Exploration began around 2009 in tandem with vast roundups removing the majority of wild horses who have the legal right to be on public land. Some went to probable slaughter and others make up the 50,000 captives warehoused in long-term holding facilities at taxpayer expense.
America’s wild horses should live wild and free–not drugged up with “restricted use pesticides” passed by the EPA for pest control and unsafe for domestic horses.
We invite the public and elected officials to demand a 10 year moratorium on roundups for recovery and studies to develop good science for management. Wild horses are an essential part of the thriving natural ecological balance. They will help reverse desertification and reduce global warming by filling their niche on their native range.
Please sign and share the petition for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for recovery and scientific studies: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-scientific-studies
Contact us if you want to keep America’s herds wild and free. Our email is Contact@ProtectMustangs.org We need your help in various ways.
Remember the herds are the lifeblood of our native wild horses. Due to underpopulation their genetic viability is in crisis today. American wild horses must be protected from experimentation and from domestication so they can always run wild and free.
Many blessings,
Anne
Anne Novak
Executive Director for Protect Mustangs™
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Links of interest:
Chainman Shale: http://info.drillinginfo.com/chainman-shale-could-it-be-the-next-big-land-grab/
One of the many pesticide fact sheets: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf
Are wild horses going to be sterilized due to an advocacy campaign? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6356
Washington Post reports: U.S. looking for ideas to help manage overpopulation http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html
The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America: http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648%2Fj.ajls.20140201.12
Press Release: No proof of overpopulation, no need for native wild horse fertility control http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4453
Bogus Science and Profiteering Stampeding Their Way into Wild Horse Country http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4475
Protect Mustangs speaks out against the Cloud Foundation’s PARTNERSHIP with BLM using risky PZP that could terminate natural selection: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941
Wildlife Ecologist, Craig Downer, speaks out against using PZP in the Pryors: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178
Report unveils wild horse underpopulation on 800,000 acre Twin Peaks range: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6278
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs educates, protects and preserves native and wild horses. The nonprofit conservation group strives for a moratorium on roundups and science-based holistic land management to reduce global warming.
BAD NEWS! The President’s proposed budget calls for aggressive population control methods. Email your Senators and Rep to defund sterilizations and request a ten-year moratorium on roundups
from Wikimedia
Statement
“The President’s fiscal year 2015 budget request is outrageous. It favors Big Oil and Gas fracking on public land while funding the American wild horse wipe-out. Currently there is no evidence of overpopulation while the BLM’s runaway train for sterilization packaged as ‘birth control’ bashes down the tracks. We request a ten-year moratorium on roundups for scientific studies on population, migration and holistic land management. Science must come before aggressive measures to sterilize native wild horses. Birthrates are abnormally high from excessive roundups. Studies show the herds will self-regulate if the BLM stops managing them to extinction.” ~Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
Contact your senators and representatives today! http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ Send them the study showing wild horse herds will self-regulate http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6057
Please sign and share the Change.org Petition to De-Fund & Stop the Roundups.
Sign and share the petition for a 10-year moratorium on roundups for scientific studies: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-scientific-research
Read the fine print, ask questions and beware of pleges you are asking your representative to sign. Read: Are wild horses going to be sterilized due to an advocacy campaign? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6356
PZP is a restricted use pesticide approved by the EPA calling wild horses PESTS! The Humane Society of the United States is the registrant of the drug. Why did they name indigenous wild horses pests? Was it to fast-track the drug because the FDA would not approve it?
Press Release: No proof of overpopulation, no need for native wild horse fertility control http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4453
Protect Mustangs speaks out against the Cloud Foundation’s PARTNERSHIP with BLM using risky PZP that could terminate natural selection: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941
Wildlife Ecologist, Craig Downer, speaks out against using PZP in the Pryors: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178
Proof the herds will self regulate: Study shows wild horse herds with functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM managed herds http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6057
Use social media, email and call elected officials to help save America’s wild horses. Wild Horse Wednesday™ is a call to action day. #WildHorseWednesday www.ProtectMustangs.org
Go to the 2015 Budget and comment below on the problems you see.
Cross-posted from a BLM press release:
President Proposes $1.1 Billion for BLM in Fiscal Year 2015
Investment in Public Lands Yields $150 billion in Economic Output and 750,000 Jobs
WASHINGTON – President Obama today requested $1.1 billion for the Bureau of Land Management in Fiscal Year 2015, which will enable the BLM to continue to responsibly manage the development of conventional and renewable energy on public lands, conserve valuable wildlife habitat and cultural and historic resources, and implement innovative landscape scale management approaches.
“This balanced and responsible proposal will advance the BLM’s mission of multiple use and sustained yield of the public lands at a time of tight budgets,” said BLM Principal Deputy Director Neil Kornze. “The BLM continues to be a major economic engine for many communities across the West and this budget makes smart investments that provide for a secure energy future, expanded outdoor recreational opportunities and thoughtful resource management.”
Kornze noted that the BLM generates an estimated $150 billion annually in economic output for the Nation and supports more than 750,000 jobs through resource development and conservation and recreational activities on BLM-managed public lands.
The 2015 President’s request seeks $954.1 million for the Management of Lands and Resources appropriation and $104.0 million for the Oregon and California Grant Lands appropriation, the BLM’s two major operating accounts. The total BLM budget request, partially offset by new fee collections, is a decrease of $5.6 million below the 2014 enacted level.
Under the President’s budget for 2015, the BLM – with a workforce of about 10,000 employees – would focus on the following priorities:
Powering Our Future – The President’s 2015 budget proposes an increase of $20.3 million above the 2014 enacted level ($113.4 million) for the BLM’s Oil and Gas Management program. The request includes both direct appropriations and funding fees for services provided to oil and gas producers on Federal lands. The request includes an increase of $5.2 million to provide staffing, training, and other resources needed to strengthen operational guidance to BLM units. The request also includes $4.6 million to strengthen the BLM’s core oversight, leasing and permitting capabilities, allowing the BLM to keep up with industry demand and workload. Among other things, the increase will enable BLM to fill vacancies and expand staff in key locations, as well as continue implementing leasing reforms instituted in May 2010 by supporting enhanced environmental analysis and planning for future lease sales. The budget request also proposes to expand and strengthen BLM’s inspection and oversight capability through fees comparable to those assessed for offshore inspections. This funding will help BLM fully implement a risk-based inspection strategy to improve production accountability, safety, and environmental protection of oil and gas operations. The budget proposes an inspection fee schedule estimated to generate $48.0 million in offsetting collections, which allows for a proposed reduction of $38.0 million in appropriated funds, while providing an increase of $10.0 million to enhance BLM’s inspection capability.
The President’s Budget request maintains funding for renewable energy at essentially the 2014 enacted level, $29.2 million, providing the BLM with the resources it needs to continue to aggressively facilitate and support solar, wind and geothermal energy development as Interior works toward the President’s goal of approving 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy on public lands by 2020.
Since 2009, the BLM has approved 50 utility-scale renewable energy proposals and associated transmission on public lands, including 27 solar, 11 wind, and 12 geothermal projects. Together, the projects could support more than 20,000 construction and operations jobs and, if fully built, generate nearly 14,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 4.8 million homes.
Complementing the Secretary’s Powering Our Future initiative are efforts to facilitate efficient delivery of energy to the markets where it is needed to meet growing demands. The West’s aging electrical infrastructure is an impediment to efficient energy transmission and maximizing renewable energy development. The BLM has a critical role in expanding electric transmission infrastructure through the issuance of rights-of-way. To support the necessary upgrades needed to improve reliability and increase capacity, the budget includes a $5.0 million increase in the Cadastral, Lands and Realty Management program to enhance the BLM’s ability to identify and designate energy corridors in low conflict areas and to site high-voltage transmission lines, substations, and related infrastructure in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Bureau of Land Management Foundation – The budget proposes to establish a charitable, non-profit organization to benefit the public by protecting and restoring BLM’s natural, cultural, historical, and recreation resources for future generations. The National BLM Foundation will be similar to existing foundations, including the National Park Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.
Sage-Grouse Conservation – The President’s request continues to provide $15 million to implement broad-scale Sage-Grouse planning and conservation activities to lessen the threats to the sage grouse and its habitat to help prevent the future listing of the species for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The efforts include amending or revising 98 land-use plans to designate priority habitat; performing habitat restoration and improvement; and conducting habitat mapping, assessment and monitoring activities.
America’s Great Outdoors – The BLM plays a key role in advancing the President’s conservation initiative to reconnect Americans to the outdoors. More than 61 million visits are made to BLM public lands every year. Accordingly, the 2015 budget request includes an increase of $1.9 million to strengthen management of national monuments and national conservation areas, key units of BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System that contain some of the West’s most spectacular landscapes. Other increases in support of America’s Great Outdoors include $900,000 in Recreation Resources Management for planning, visitor safety, and interpretive services and $742,000 in Cultural Resources Management for inventory and site protection activities.
The 2015 budget also includes increases for programs funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a vital component of the America’s Great Outdoors initiative. The 2015 budget proposal includes a total of $89.4 million for BLM land acquisition, including $25.0 million in requested discretionary appropriations and $64.4 million in permanent funding.
Wild Horse and Burro Management – The President’s budget proposes a $2.8 million increase in the Wild Horse and Burro Management program to allow BLM to more aggressively implement recommendations in the June 2013 National Academy of Sciences report on improving the WH&B program, including expanding ongoing research on population control methods, a key component of controlling program costs.
Engaging the Next Generation – The 2015 budget request seeks a total of $4.8 million for BLM youth programs and partnerships, a $1.3 million increase over the 2014 enacted level. This funding will enable the BLM to engage youth in work and training opportunities that promote conservation stewardship and pathways to careers.
Enterprise Geospatial System – The BLM is requesting $3.8 million to expand the implementation of the BLM’s enterprise geospatial system in 2015. This will include improved data management across administrative units that will provide enhanced information for landscape-scale planning initiatives, include the Greater Sage-Grouse Plan Implementation and Monitoring, Renewable energy Development, Rapid Eco-regional Assessments, Climate Change Adaptation and Regional Mitigation.
Abandoned Mine Lands – A $2.8 million program increase in the Abandoned Mine Lands program will support implementation of the remediation plan goals for 2015 at the Red Devil Mine site in Alaska.
Challenge Cost Share – A proposed program increase of $1.2 million in the Challenge Cost Share program will be leveraged with support from local partner organizations to address priorities for on-the-ground habitat conservation, recreation, and cultural resources protection work.
Livestock Grazing – As in previous years, the Administration’s budget proposal seeks to initiate a grazing administration fee pilot project that would enhance BLM’s capacity for processing grazing permits. A fee of $1 per animal unit month is estimated to generate $6.5 million in fee collections in 2015, more than offsetting a $4.8 million decrease in appropriated funds in the Rangeland Management program. The increase of $1.7 million in funding resources will allow BLM to make more progress in addressing the grazing permit backlog.
Alaska Conveyance – The 2015 budget proposal seeks $19 million for the Alaska Conveyance Program allowing the Agency to continue to pursue the implementation of more efficient cadastral survey methods with a goal of completing all Alaska survey and land transfers in the next 10 years.
Oregon and California Grant Lands – The budget proposes reductions totaling $11 million in the Oregon and California Grant Lands account, including a $4.2 million decrease in Western Oregon Resource Management Planning, which is consistent with the expectation that the BLM will complete six resource management plans during fiscal year 2015.
Implementing Federal Oil and Gas Reforms – The 2015 budget includes a package of legislative reforms to bolster and backstop administrative actions being taken to reform management of Interior’s onshore and offshore oil and gas programs, with a key focus on improving the return to taxpayers from the sale of these Federal resources and on improving transparency and oversight. Proposed statutory and administrative changes fall into three general categories: (1) encouraging diligent development of oil and gas leases, (2) improving revenue collection processes, and (3) advancing royalty reform. Collectively, these reforms will generate roughly $2.5 billion in revenue to the Treasury over ten years, of which approximately $1.7 billion will result from statutory changes. Many States also will benefit from higher Federal revenue sharing payments as a result of these reforms.
Modernizing Management of Hardrock Mining and Abandoned Mine Clean-up – The budget includes mandatory proposals to address the legacy of the Nation’s antiquated laws on hardrock mining. Reforms will ensure the cleanup of environmental and safety hazards from past mining practices by creating a Hardrock Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program with dedicated funding for AML cleanup, and provide taxpayers a fair return from the mining of gold, silver and other hardrock resources on Federal lands.
Additional details on the President’s FY 2015 budget request are available online at http://www.doi.gov/budget.
Link to this alert is here: : http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6467
Are wild horses at risk of being sterilized due to an advocacy campaign?
© Anne Novak, all rights reserved.
The public needs to stop panicking and read everything they are asking their senators and representatives to do on their behalf
Is something in that form letter you received that you don’t agree with? Do you want wild horses sterilized using EPA approved restricted use pesticides? These pesticides are not safe for domestic horses so why are they being pushed for use on wild horses? Are you giving up the fight for their freedom to live in natural family bands?
Why is an advocacy group encouraging their supporters to write members of Congress–via click and send form letter–asking them to sign on to the pledge to sterilize wild horses (already in non-viable herds) when BLM overpopulation claim is false?
We found their pitch citing a quote from the National Academy of Sciences report in their form letter being circulated around the Internet. It reads:
“. . . Considering all the current options, [porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccines and GonaCon™ vaccine for females and chemical vasectomy for males] either alone or in combination, offer the most acceptable alternative to removing animals for managing population numbers . . .”
Even worse is the pledge they are requesting members of Congress sign and return the advocacy group’s office.
Senators and representatives will take that to mean you want “[porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccines and GonaCon™ vaccine for females and chemical vasectomy for males] either alone or in combination”. Is that what you want?
Or do you want a 10-year moratorium (suspension) on roundups for scientific research to investigate what’s the best way to manage the underpopulated herds of wild horses left in the West?
Why is this group pushing an elected official “pledge” to use “available fertility control” without scientific studies on population, migration, and holistic land management? What is going on here? Who is funding this scare-tactic-based campaign to sterilize America’s wild horses?
Why isn’t the group mentioning to Congress that the National Academy of Sciences report also said there is “no evidence” of overpopulation–why omit this?
Why hasn’t the group done any independent aerial or in-the-field research on population? Is it because it would not support the BLM’s faulty overpopulation claim?
See for yourself how many wild horses are left in the 800,000 acre Twin Peaks area during a recent aerial survey: http://vimeo.com/81195843 Read the scientific report exposing an underpopulation crisis on public land: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6278
The group appears to know wild horses are not overpopulated. Recently they were quoted in an Associated Press article debunking the BLM’s overpopulation claim in comparison with livestock on public land.
Why then are they attempting to lead the public into blindly supporting a plan lacking good science–a plan calling for permanent and temporary sterility actions against indigenous wild horses?
Is the group eluding to a false risk of all wild horses going to slaughter if they aren’t sterilized?
Why create all the panic so people will quickly click, sign and share the pledge with their senators and congressmen asking them to “take the pledge” for sterilization, etc.? Is the public reading what they are signing on to?
Why is the group pushing for “fertility control”–using sterilizants passed by the EPA as “restricted use pest control”. Wild horses are a native species. How can restricted use pesticides be used on native species? Read more here: http://www.thedesertinde.com/Articles-2012/EPA-Calls-Wild-Horses-Pests–0511.html
Many other valid concerns about PZP were brought up in this 2010 article as well: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2010/10/220.shtml#axzz2tlL9dGaX More articles will be posted soon.
Are American wild horses becoming lab rats for immunocontraceptives for other species including humans? Read the reference section at the bottom this research paper: http://randc.ovinfo.com/e200501/yuanmm.pdf
How can man (BLM and others) decide which wild horses to sterilize on the range and who to breed? That would be the end of survival of the fittest and the beginning of domestication of the wild horse and burro.
Is the group’s paradigm flawed because it focuses on the individual wild horse and neglects to view the herd as most important–as the lifeblood?
Sanctuaries might need to sterilize wild horses because they have limited space but policy for native wild horses living in the wild should not be modeled after a sanctuary model–unless it is based on reserve design.
America’s native wild horses and burros are wild animals who benefit the ecosystem and fill their niche, reduce wildfire fuel, and help reverse desertification. They are not back alley cats that should be spayed and neutered because of an overpopulation problem. No offense to cats : )
The alleged overpopulation problem for wild horses and burros is a farce.
Now the question is–What do we do to save the wild horses from those who are pushing for risky temporary and permanent sterilization using EPA approved “restricted use pesticides” on non-viable herds?
1.) Sign and share widely the petition for a moratorium on roundups for scientific research. Good science will find real solutions to protect wild horses and burros on the range.
2.) Send an email to your senators and your representatives if you don’t want America’s wild horses to be sterilized. Let them know you didn’t read the fine print of the form letter you signed if that is the truth.
3.) Meet with your senator’s aides and your representative to request they intervene in the wipe-out of America’s wild horses and burros by granting a 10-year moratorium on roundups for scientific research on population, migration, reserve design, holistic land management, etc.
Remember don’t let anyone scare you into believing wild horses are going to be slaughtered if they aren’t sterilized. Fight the good fight for our symbols of freedom and our national living treasures–America’s wild horses and burros.
Links of interest:
Contact your senators and representatives: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Petition for a Moratorium on Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-scientific-research
The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America, American Journal of Life Sciences by Craig C. Downer http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12
American wild horses are indigenous: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=3842 and http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
January 26, 2014 Washington Post (Viral) U.S. looking for ideas to help manage wild-horse overpopulation http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html
Ecologist Craig Downer speaks out against using PZP in the Pryors: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178
Why end natural selection in the Pryors? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941
The International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB) study of wild herds shows that functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM managed herds: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6057
Public outraged over the EPA approving pesticides for NATIVE wild horses http://protectmustangs.org/?p=3866
GASLAND 2, a film by Josh Fox, the plight of wild horses is featured, http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
Wild Horses and Renegades, a film by James Anaquad Kleinert, http://theamericanwildhorse.com/
EPA calls wild horses pests, Desert Independent http://www.thedesertinde.com/Articles-2012/EPA-Calls-Wild-Horses-Pests–0511.html
Protect Mustangs’ letter 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
Wild horse predators: http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080302002619AADTWzh
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
The star studded documentary by James Anaquad Kleinert requests a moratorium on roundups . . .
“It’s time to pick the torch back up and continue the fight. Never give up. We the people must take back the power for the voiceless wild ones we love!” ~Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
Appeal to President Obama to abolish cruelty towards wild horses and burros
Presidents’ Day 2014
Dear Mr. President,
We request a 10 year moratorium on wild horse & burro roundups for scientific research before they are wiped out. Here is our growing petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-scientific-research
There is no overpopulation problem despite what the spin Dr.s say. What we find on the range is an underpopulation problem.
Recently the Washington Post covered the crisis: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html and mentioned the Princeton study showing 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
Americans and people around the world want the cruel roundups to stop. The petition to defund and stop roundups is growing too: http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups
We request the U.S. government stop removing wild horses and burros to allow fracking on the land. Fracking pollutes the environment and causes global warming. Here is the petition to protect them from fracking: https://www.change.org/petitions/sen-dianne-feinstein-don-t-frack-wild-horse-land
We respectfully ask that the U.S. government classify America’s wild horses, E. caballus, as a native species and protect them correctly. The petition is here: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-our-native-wild Horses originated in America and were either returned to their native land or never left. More information can be found here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
After native wild horses and burros are torn from their land they are held captive in pens without shelter. This is horrible and violates basic humane standards. The petition for emergency shelter and shade is growing and the public is outraged: http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros
This is what some roundups look like:
Please order the BLM to abolish mustang atrocities!
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Anne Novak
Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
Read about the wild horse crisis in the news: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=218
Moratorium on roundups needed for scientific research before sterilization
“Currently there is no evidence of overpopulation but the runaway train for fertility control and sterilization bashes down the tracks,” explains Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs. “We request a ten-year moratorium on roundups for scientific studies on population, migration and holistic land management. Science must come first.”
Please sign and share the petition for a moratorium on roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-scientific-research
Cross-posted from the Sacramento Bee for educational purposes.
Panel: Sterilize wild horses to cut population
By Sean Cockerham
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published: Thursday, Jun. 6, 2013
WASHINGTON – The federal government should do large-scale drug injections of wild horses to make them infertile, according to a highly anticipated recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences.
The report released Wednesday said the Interior Department’s strategy for wild horses is making a bad situation worse. The government has rounded up nearly 50,000 wild horses and put them in corrals and pastures.
More of America’s wild horses are now in holding facilities than estimated to be roaming the wild, in what the National Academy of Sciences called a failure to limit the animals’ fast-growing numbers.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management requested the report amid frustration and skyrocketing costs of the wild horse and burro program. The annual cost to taxpayers of the program has nearly doubled in four years to $75 million, with more than half going to costs of holding facilities.
The BLM says roundups and holding facilities are needed because swelling horse populations are too much for the wild range to sustain. Wild horse advocates say the issue is really about favoring the interests of ranchers whose cattle and sheep graze upon the public lands.
The National Academy of Sciences said a big problem is that the Bureau of Land Management doesn’t really know how many wild horses and burros there are in America, or their true impact on the rangelands. The report concluded that BLM is likely underestimating the number of wild horses in America and that their populations are growing by as much as 20 percent a year.
The independent panel of scientists that wrote the report said the agency needs a more defensible scientific backup for its decisions on wild horses, including consideration of the impact of livestock on the range.
“The science can be markedly improved,” said Guy Palmer, a Washington State University professor who led the panel.
The government’s roundups of wild horses are just making the population problem worse, according to the report. Shutting tens of thousands of horses in holding facilities means less competition for food and water on the range and more population growth, it concluded.
Leaving the horses alone to roam the range would lead to a competition among them for food and water that would meet the goal of cutting their numbers, according to the report. But “having many horses in poor condition, and having horses die of starvation on the range are not acceptable to a sizable proportion of the public,” the authors concluded.
The best alternative is a widespread use of fertility control measures, the independent scientific panel decided. They recommended chemical vasectomies for stallions and the injection of the contraceptive vaccines GonaCon and porcine zona pellucida for mares.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/06/5475171/study-sterilize-horses-to-drop.html#comment-923308337#storylink=cpy
In contrast, Karen Sussman of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros has been studying herds in her care for 13 years. The results show healthy social structures of wild horses control population.
ISPMB herds show that functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM managed herds
As we complete our thirteenth year in studying the White Sands and Gila herds, two isolated herds, which live in similar habitat but represent two different horse cultures, have demonstrated much lower reproductive rates than BLM managed herds. Maintaining the “herd integrity” with a hands off management strategy (“minimal feasible management”) and no removals in 13 years has shown us that functional herds demonstrating strong social bonds and leadership of elder animals is key to the behavioral management of population growth.
ISPMB’s president, Karen Sussman, who has monitored and studied ISPMB’s four wild herds all these years explains, “We would ascertain from our data that due to BLM’s constant roundups causing the continual disruption of the very intricate social structures of the harem bands has allowed younger stallions to take over losing the mentorship of the older wiser stallions.
In simplistic terms Sussman makes the analogy that over time Harvard professors (elder wiser stallions) have been replaced by errant teenagers (younger bachelor stallions). We know that generally teenagers do not make good parents because they are children themselves.
Sussman’s observations of her two stable herds show that there is tremendous respect commanded amongst the harems. Bachelor stallions learn that respect from their natal harems. Bachelors usually don’t take their own harems until they are ten years of age. Sussman has observed that stallions mature emotionally at much slower rates than mares and at age ten they appear ready to assume the awesome responsibility of becoming a harem stallion.
Also observed in these herds is the length of time that fillies remain with their natal bands. The fillies leave when they are bred by an outside stallion at the age of four or five years. Often as first time mothers, they do quite well with their foals but foal mortality is higher than with seasoned mothers.
Sussman has also observed in her Gila herd where the harems work together for the good of the entire herd. “Seeing this cooperative effort is quite exciting,” states Sussman.
ISPMB’s third herd, the Catnips, coming from the Sheldon Wildlife Range where efforts are underway to eliminate all horses on the refuge, demonstrate exactly the reverse of the organization’s two stable herds.
The first year of their arrival (2004) their fertility rates were 30% the following first and second years. They have loose band formations and some mares are without any harem stallions. Stallions are observed breeding fillies as young as one year of age. Foal mortality is very high in this herd. Generally there is a lack of leadership and wisdom noted in the stallions as most of them were not older than ten years of age when they arrived. In 2007, a decision to use PZP on this herd, a contraceptive, was employed by ISPMB. This herd remains a very interesting herd to study over time according to Sussman. “The question is, can a dysfunctional herd become functional,” says Sussman who speculates that the Catnips emulate many of the public lands herds.
In 1992 when Sussman and her colleague, Mary Ann Simonds, served on the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, they believed that BLM’s management should change and recommended that selective removals should begin by turning back all the older and wiser animals to retain the herd wisdom. Sussman realizes that the missing ingredient was to stop the destruction of the harem bands caused by helicopter roundups where stallions are separated from their mares. “Instead, bait and water trapping, band by band, needed to be instituted immediately,” says Sussman. Had this been done for the past twenty years, we would have functionally healthy horses who have stable reproductive rates and we wouldn’t have had 52,000 wild horses in holding pastures today. BLM’s selective removal policy was to return all horses over the age of five. When the stallions and mares were released back to their herd management areas by the BLM, younger stallions under the age of ten fought for the mares and took mares from the older wiser stallions. This occurs when there is chaos happening in a herd such as roundups cause.
Sussman also believes that when roundups happen often the younger stallions aged 6-9 are ones that evade capture. This again contributes to younger stallions taking the place of older wiser stallions that remain with their mares and do not evade capture. She is advocating that the BLM carry out two studies: determining the age of fillies who are pregnant and determining age structures of stallions after removals.
Currently Sussman is developing criteria to determine whether bands are behaviorally healthy or not. This could be instituted easily in observation of public lands horses.
Taken from BLM’s website: “Because of federal protection and a lack of natural predators, wild horse and burro herds can double in size about every four years.”
White Sands Herd Growth: 1999-2013 – 165 animals.
BLM’s assertion herds double every four years means there should be 980 horses or more than five times the growth of ISPMB’s White Sands herd.
Gila Herd Growth:1999-2013- 100 animals.
BLM’s assertion herds double every four years means there should be 434 horses or nearly four times the growth of ISPMB’s Gila herd.
Sussman says that BLM’s assertion as to why horse herds double every four years is incorrect. The two reasons given are federal protection of wild horse herds and lack of natural predators. ISPMB herds are also protected and also have no natural predators, but they do not reproduce exponentially. She adds that exponential wild horse population growth on BLM lands must have another cause, and the most likely cause is lack of management and understanding of wild horses as wildlife species. Instead BLM manages horses like livestock. “According to the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, all management of wild horse populations was to be at the ‘minimal feasible level’,” Sussman says. “When the BLM’s heavy-handed disruption and destruction of wild horse social structures is the chief contributing factor in creating population growth five times greater than normal, than the BLM interference can hardly be at a ‘minimal feasible level.’”
Sussman concludes that ISPMB herds are given the greatest opportunity for survival, compared to the BLM’s herds which are not monitored throughout the year. “One would assume,” Sussman says, “herds that are well taken care of and monitored closely would have a greater survival rate. Yet, even under the optimum conditions of ISPMB herds, they still did not increase nearly 500% like BLM herds.”