BLM Seeks Public Comment on Public Lands Nominated for Oil and Gas Leasing
ELY, Nev.–The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District is asking the public to review and provide comment on parcels of public land nominated for potential oil and gas exploration and development. The public comment period concludes Monday, Sept. 18, 2017. America’s free markets will help determine if energy development on public lands is feasible.
The BLM received requests to lease 208 nominated parcels of public land, totaling 388,960 acres. Leasing would occur in areas where oil and gas development is allowed under the 2008 Ely District Resource Management Plan. The decision to offer parcels for lease does not authorize any drilling or development. Impacts of leasing the parcels are analyzed in the preliminary environmental assessment (EA), in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010. Lease stipulations identified in the Ely Resource Management Plan (2008) are attached to some parcels to help protect certain resources. The preliminary EA is available for public review at http://bit.ly/2vH21Ix.
Interested individuals should address all written comments to the BLM Caliente Field Office, PO Box 237, Caliente, NV 89008, Attn: Dec. 2017 O&G Lease Sale or fax them to the Caliente Office at (775) 726-8111. Comments may also be submitted electronically with the subject, “ATTN: 2017 Oil & Gas Lease Sale” to blm_nv_ely_oil_and_gas2017@blm.gov.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
A Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale is scheduled on December 12, 2017. Additional information about the sale including the sale notice and parcel list will be posted to https://on.doi.gov/2nntQCJ as it becomes available.
For more information, contact the BLM Caliente Field Office at (775) 726-8100.
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Protect Mustangs is keeping the public informed
Protect Mustangs is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org
This column is the second in a series looking for answers to the question: what is going to be different this time around? What will prevent Elko County from facing the many problems faced by so many other states where hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is being used for oil and natural gas exploration and production? What combination of natural conditions, Noble Energy (Noble) and state/ federal oversight is going to make fracking a good experience for Elko County residents? These columns are not an endorsement of fracking and they focus on Noble although other oil companies may come into the county.
The liquid used in fracking a well is 98 to 99 percent water and sand. About a dozen chemicals are typically added to that, some of which are toxic, to ensure fracture stimulation. Each well uses a slightly different chemical mix but they all usually include acids, clay controls, friction reducers, scale inhibitors, iron controls, biocides and gellants.
Anyone can view the list of chemicals used in each fracking job at fracfocus.org. Under the new state regulations, Noble lists the chemicals within 60 days of each well completion. Go to fracfocus.org, click on Find a Well, select Nevada and Elko County. Wells are listed by an API number, but the correct well can be found using the provided well’s latitude and longitude along with a map.
After fracking, fluids flow back up the pipe. This “flowback” must then be disposed of, treated, recycled or re-used. During oil well production, water from the rock formation also comes up with the oil, called produced water. This and the oil itself must be dealt with safely. Chandler Newhall is Noble’s Rockies business unit asset manager. He said Noble will always contain produced water and flowback in steel tanks or pipes, they will not use lined pits.
For the first two wells, this flowback and produced water was shipped to a licensed facility in Eastern Utah for treatment. If Noble enters a production phase, they will develop a water management program to include treatment, recycling and reuse. In a grouping of future oil wells, produced water could be piped to a central location to be treated and piped back out to be used in fracking other wells. Noble will not use evaporation ponds for disposal. “When the company has to dispose of any water, we will obtain the appropriate regulatory permits and use only state-approved commercial disposal facilities or permitted underground injection,” explained Chandler. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection would issue a permit for any proposed re-injection well.
Re-injection of wastewater has been a problem in other areas, where this process has caused a series of small earthquakes. Many re-injection wells have not caused these problems. It appears this concern can be reduced through control of the amount of water injected per day and the pumping pressure. NDEP regulations do not address any potential seismic issues.
In some areas, radioactive minerals have returned in the produced water. This has not been seen in Nevada. If it does happen, a special permit must be obtained and the radioactive sludge disposed of properly. Very little, if any, natural gas is expected so flaring is unlikely. In North Dakota, such flares light the night skies. Actually, Noble hopes to find a little natural gas to use for powering well site generators.
Spills of produced water and oil are always concerns. Chandler says Noble has strict guidelines for the companies they hire. Emergency response plans will be in place for spills, along with spill prevention programs. If spilled, produced water could seep into the ground, and further actions will be taken to remove the contaminated water and even the contaminated soil. NDEP would become involved in any spills.
This is so early in the exploration process, it is hard to know the future of oil production in Elko County. Only the first well is producing oil in a long-term production test to understand the potential production. Noble’s success scenario would be to produce 50,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production. Chandler says this will be different from the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota where they produce 900,000 barrels of oil per day. Nevada is currently producing 900 barrels per day.
The initial wells will be vertical wells, to study the subsurface geology and test various zones for oil production. Noble may use horizontal wells in the future, which will use more water and create much more wastewater.
“Horizontal wells minimize the surface impact while recovering more of the resource potential. This would enable us to replace many vertical wells with one horizontal well,” said Chandler.
Coalition Urges BLM to Cancel Lease Sales to Protect Water, Health and Environment
RENO, Nev.— Protesters wearing blue and carrying water jugs will rally outside the U.S. Bureau of Land Management office in Reno on Tuesday morning to protest the auction of fracking leases on public lands. The auction of over 150,000 acres in Lincoln and Nye counties in BLM’s Ely District will begin at 9 a.m. at the BLM Nevada State Headquarters building located at 1340 Financial Boulevard in Reno. Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking, which is organizing the protest, is calling on the BLM to cancel the sale in order to protect water, people, wildlife and quality of life from the dangers of fracking.
The protest will be Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 7:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.
“Fracking is a big risk to Nevada’s water, and without adequate clean water, we have nothing,” said Dan Patterson, with the Center for Biological Diversity, a member of the coalition. “The fracking industry wants to get its hands on Nevada, but while they reap profits, our wildlife and water supplies will pay the price. Across the state, from Reno to Austin and Reese River Valley, to Ely, eastern Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevadans want to protect our water, quality of life, lands and wildlife from the fracking push.”
Fracking uses huge volumes of water, mixed with sand and dangerous chemicals, to blast open rock formations and release oil and gas. The controversial technique is being proposed on hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands managed by the BLM across Nevada.
A typical hydraulic fracturing process uses between 1.2 million and 3.5 million gallons of water per well, with large projects using up to 5 million gallons. This water often resurfaces as “flowback,” which is often highly polluted by fracking chemicals as well as radioactive materials from fractured shale.
Fracking has brought environmental and economic problems to rural communities across the country. Accidents and leaks have polluted rivers, streams and drinking water. Regions peppered with drilling rigs have high levels of smog, global warming gases, as well as other airborne pollutants, including potential carcinogens. Rural communities face an onslaught of heavy truck traffic — often laden with dangerous chemicals used in drilling — and declining property values. Wildlife habitat is also fragmented and degraded.
“Fracking is part of a larger problem, a problem where money trumps common sense and we jeopardize our precious water for a few dollars,” said Dawn Harris of Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking. “Nevada state and local officials should ban fracking to protect our water, as people in places like Denton, Texas and San Benito County, California have done.”
“Nevada’s precious groundwater should not be sacrificed for short term profits of corporations. In our arid desert, groundwater should always trump oil,” said Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
Communities directly affected by oil and gas fracking, as a result of these sales, were not alerted by BLM in advance of preparing lease sale.
“Nevada Tribes have a vested interest in protecting our ancestral homelands from being harmed by the oil & gas industry,” said Jennifer Eisele, of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes, Duck Valley Indian Reservation. “We have a spiritual relationship with Mother Earth and it is our duty to protect our natural resources for the future existence of ourselves and descendants. Exploitation of fossil fuels may harm our water quality and damage our agriculture, which is our primary means of economic support.”
“Water is precious in the desert. I’m afraid of fracking chemicals being injected into our groundwater,” said Jennifer Messina of Ely, a retired teacher. “People are working to promote eastern Nevada as a great place to live and visit. All our efforts are lost if fracking poisons our ground.”
“BLM has a mandate to protect the safety of the environment and human health, but both BLM and the oil and gas industry have poor records,” said Dr. Bonnie Eberhardt Bobb of Austin, Nevada, in southern Lander County. “Dangerous fracking fluids could seep in to our groundwater. Disposal of fracking waste by injection in to the ground has also been correlated with increased earthquake activity.”
This summer, Lander County Commissioners objected and filed administrative protests over BLM’s sale of oil and gas fracking leases in Big Smokey Valley. Earlier this fall, the Lander County Water Board unanimously passed a resolution opposing any drilling or fracking in the Middle Reese River Valley, near Austin, due to threats to town water sources.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 800,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Frack-Free Nevada and Nevadans Against Fracking seeks to protect Nevada’s precious water, maintain the health and quality of life of Nevada communities, guard our air quality, improve agriculture and ranching, and preserve wildlife.
Wild horses are quickly being wiped out in Wyoming. Governor Mead encourages roundups and removals at federal taxpayer expense. Mead seems to be owned by the oil and gas industry so it’s no surprise he’s getting rid of their environmental obstacles.
By: Matt Mead
Date: Aug. 23, 2013
Location: Cheyenne, WY
Governor Matt Mead expressed that he is proud of Wyoming’s record of effective regulation of the oil and gas industry in his comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule for hydraulic fracturing. Governor Mead wrote to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to say that the BLM should reject the duplicative regulation and defer to states like Wyoming.
“As a leading energy producer, Wyoming continues to set the standard for development and environmental stewardship,” Governor Mead wrote. He pointed to Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation hydraulic fracturing rules, updated well bore integrity standards, air standards for natural gas production and wells that are hydraulically fractured, and Wyoming’s recently released energy strategy. “Guided by this energy strategy, Wyoming is establishing baseline groundwater sampling, analysis and monitoring regulations.”
Given state leadership is already in place in Wyoming, Governor Mead expressed concern that the new BLM rule would add to existing delays and undercapitalization of federal permitting. Another area of concern is the BLM’s effort to grant variances to allow compliance with state or tribal requirements when those meet or exceed the federal rule or standard. What is troubling is that the ability to acquire variance is given to operators, not states or tribes. “Despite BLM’s contention that states will be afforded opportunity to work with the BLM to craft a variance, the mechanism in the rule only allows operators to pursue a variance,” Governor Mead wrote.
We invite you to post more information in the comments section below because the public has a right to know the real reasons why America’s wild horses are being terrorized, pushed off public land, to end up at risk of going to slaughter for human consumption abroad. Sadly the news in Wyoming doesn’t know what fair reporting means and is not covering the crisis as they should.
It’s shameful the energy industry, government employees and our elected officials refuse to find the win-win for wildlife and industry to coexist. Instead they are wiping out America’s wild horses to cash in on their land. Recently in the Wyoming Checkerboard roundup, the BLM zeroed out most of the wild horses despite public outcry. The BLM also tried to blame horse advocates for taking more than 400 additional wild horses when the truth is they were allegedly pushed by Governor Mead to take as many as they could find.
Wyoming’s Governor Matt Mead joined the fight against wild horses in the Checkerboard allegedly because he is pushing for maximum industrialization of public land and especially liquified natural gas (LNG) to replace diesel and for export to Asia’s growing market for fuel, electricity, etc.). The most important document for you to read to understand why Wyoming is getting rid of their wild horses is Wyoming LNG Roadmap (April 2014) Below is some news from last May:
Cheyenne, WY (May 12, 2014) – Governor Mead unveiled a report today showing Wyoming is well positioned to be a leader in developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry for high horsepower uses.
Since Governor Matt Mead took office in January of 2011, he’s made it a point to maximize the use of Wyoming’s natural resources. “One of the things I really wanted to accomplish was an energy strategy. An energy strategy is energy, economy and environment,” Mead said.
Mead went out and partnered with Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), to provide an “LNG road map” about the feasibility, potential, costs and benefits of using liquefied natural gas.
“Liquefied natural gas gives our customers who are currently use diesel to power their engines the ability to reduce costs of ownership. Abundantly domestically produced natural gas offers lower fuel costs and reduced emissions,” said Richard Wheeler, President & CEO of Wyoming Machinery Co.
Wyoming is the third leading producer of natural gas and the use of LNG as a supplement to diesel fuel in Wyoming’s high horsepower sectors such as mining, drilling and over-the-road trucking.
“It’s a 300 to 400 million dollar investment as best we can tell to really get this going here in the state, but that will create about 5,000 really good, high paying, high tech jobs,” said Erik Neandross, CEO of GNA
According to GNA, the investment could return 160 to 170 million dollars in fuel cost savings for Wyoming based businesses.
“It’s an opportunity for coal companies to lower their fuel costs and also use a product that we have in abundance in Wyoming,” Mead said.
This isn’t the first time a public affairs firm is pushing energy driven missions through at the expense of wildlife and especially native wild horses. Just follow the money . . .
According to a June 2010 press release, “Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism.”
see: http://noyonews.net/?p=6231
Kearns and West Inc., the same “Collaboration and Strategic Communications” company that ran public meetings for the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) “Initiative” [and who illegally barred public recording and comment at their public meetings] has also been accused of running manipulative “public workshops” for the BLM – in the controversial roundup of wild horses in northern Nevada, and other Western States.
According to a June 2010 press release, “Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism.”
Although Kearns and West, Inc. claims to represent the public and the environment, and impartially facilitate public meetings, in reality they represent energy interests. They function to facilitate government approval for private projects, and shift policy in favor of private “stakeholder” interests. They specialize in marginalizing and excluding public involvement – with contrived and manipulative “stakeholder collaboration” processes.
Interestingly, in the Brave New World of modern day environmental policy, private interests, not tax dollars, are financing public policy processes and decisions. These processes were once taxpayer supported, and deemed to be fair and impartial. But now, with governments going broke, governmental processes and the agencies entrusted to design, control and regulate corporate industrial interests, have been bought and paid for by the same corporate interests they are supposed to regulate.
Corporate crooks such as Kearns and West have stepped in the void, to conduct what are ostensibly public meetings, but in reality are paid for by private corporations and individuals. The MLPA “Initiative” was a classic example of corruption easing it’s way into a bankrupt democracy.
Kearns and West contracts out what are essential out public policy endeavors. But they serve the private corportations and individuals who pay for their services – to create favorable governmental outcomes for proposed “projects.”
Kearns and West’s clients are a laundry-list of energy and natural gas interests. They are cashing in on what once would have been unacceptable, criminal conflict of interest in determining public policy.
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In the case mentioned below, Kearns and West was allegedly involved in helping to exterminate wild horses from Northern Nevada, so that the Ruby Pipeline could go through. The Ruby Pipeline is a 42 inch diameter natural gas pipeline, that as of last year, runs from 680 miles from Wyoming to Oregon, and passes right through the heart of the wild horse country in Northern Nevada.
According to many in the west, the wild horses were an obstacle to the pipeline project that the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) did not want to deal with. So in comes Kearns and West – to hold “public workshops.” But why is a company with direct ties to natural gas and energy interests – running public meetings and workshops, supposedly on behalf of the public – on an issue between wild horses, public land, and a natural gas pipeline project?
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There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing helicopters terrorizing the beautiful wild mustangs, a living icon of the American West. The 2010 press release below is part of a tragedy that is continuing to this very day.
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From a June, 2010 press release by the Cloud Foundation:
Spin Doctors Hired for the Destruction of America’s Wild Horse and Burro Herds
Denver, CO (June 14, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation has learned that the San Francisco based public relations and public affairs firm, Kearns and West, with ties to big energy and offices across the country, has been hired to push the Salazar Plan for Wild Horses and Burros through Congress in Fall 2010—despite public outrage. Kearns and West has expertise in crisis management as well as accomplishing policy and regulatory goals. Their clients range from Mineral Management Services (MMS) and PG&E to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Department of Interior (DOI) has enlisted the firm using the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) as the go between. Senior mediator of Kearns and West, J. Michael Harty will facilitate an unprecedented public workshop in Denver, Colorado at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, on June 14th followed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Public Advisory Board Meeting on June 15th. Both days will be live-streamed and viewing available on http://www.thecloudfoundation.org. The public and members of Congress are encouraged to watch. The public will protest on June 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with a press conference at noon.
BLM’s recently announced and highly polished but unsubstantial, “Strategy Plan” as well as their association with PR firm Kearns and West, appears designed to manipulate the public and marginalize the opposition to the Salazar Plan for wild horses and burros. The plan calls for the purchase of Eastern and Midwestern “preserves” populated by sterilized wild horses, captured from their Western ranges.
“This is ALL about manipulating public opinion. And ramming ONE thing – Salazar’s Plan – through” states author R.T. Fitch.
The Kearns and West Salazar Plan Executive Summary states, ‘The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (‘Institute’) is assisting BLM in assessing stakeholder interests and developing an effective stakeholder engagement plan for the Strategy.’ Disturbingly, BLM often does not include the public as a stakeholder in their planning documents regarding the management of wild horses and burros.
“Who is the biggest stakeholder in the discussion of the public’s land and its wild horses if not the public?” asks Terri Farley, author of the Phantom Stallion series, adding “A public agency must represent the public and utilize taxpayer dollars responsibly—not spend excessively on another private contractor.”
According to their website, Kearns and West offers their clients (in this case the BLM) ‘A compelling credible, resonant case. True, high-impact support for your position.’ Advocates support a new direction that abandons the endless, expensive cycle of roundup, removal, and warehousing. BLM must adopt a far less expensive path that is kinder to the land and the wild horses legally living there, one that contains truly transparent solutions, not a slick, taxpayer-funded PR campaign.
“By hiring a high powered PR and Public Affairs firm, it seems that BLM is aiming to extinguish the opposition rather than solve the controversy over their management of our wild herds,” explains Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation. “The public by the thousands has shared their opposition to the Salazar Plan. I hope we can sit down at this public forum and seriously talk about a moratorium on roundups while we work to reinstate protections that are consistent with the intent of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act.”
According to The Holmes Report, “Kearns & West recognizes the important value of collaborating both with our clients and their stakeholders. For more than 20 years, the firm has employed its unique brand of stakeholder-centric strategic communications and collaboration processes to design innovative, but pragmatic programs, achieving superior results for clients in the federal, state and local government, private and nonprofit sectors. Kearns & West works with tough issues and big ideas.”
Besides specializing in ‘accomplishing policy and regulatory goals’ Kearns and West also represents PG&E—a primary customer in the Ruby Pipeline natural gas project threatening public lands and five public herds with environmental devastation from Wyoming to Oregon. Kearns and West also represents Duke Energy, the Association of Western Governors and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, among others.
While Secretary Salazar vowed to restore the Interior Department’s ‘respect for scientific integrity’ he has failed to consider science, reason, or even the law when it comes to managing our wild herds.Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism. Wild horse advocates feel the Kearns and West prepared Salazar report for Congress will be biased in favor of big energy ties with DOI at the expense of federally protected wild horses who somehow are in the way of ‘The New Energy Frontier’.
“We hope Monday’s workshop will be a productive one rather than a demonstration of BLM’s inability to change,” concludes Kathrens.
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Who is really dictating wild horse roundups and removals and why are they zeroing them out? Protect Mustangs invites you to research the subject and post what you find in the comments below. This is also a welcome forum for you to politely voice your outrage at wild horse removals.
Protect Mustangs is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization where the wild horses come first! We are not paying big bucks on marketing campaigns. The majority of our donations go towards feeding and caring for rescued wild horses.
Gladstein, Neandross & Associates: http://www.gladstein.org
Leading environmental consulting firm for emission reduction, energy and transportation policy, and market development for alternative fuel vehicles.
United States Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives Multi-Stakeholder Group Advisory Committee Meeting Draft Summary of Proceedings (2014): http://on.doi.gov/1w5aaOj Kearns & West
Data removed: http://www.recovery.gov/arra/News/featured/Pages/Some-Recipient-Data-Being-Removed.aspx “The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board will sunset on September 30, 2015 and has decided for its last year not to renew the licensing agreement that allows for the display of certain recipient-related data. As of October 1, 2014, maps, charts, and graphs on the site will no longer reflect this information. This change will also include the removal of the recipient profiles as well as the cumulative national download file.
Kearns & West
Kearns & West is a woman-owned collaboration and strategic communications firm founded in 1984. Our high-stakes projects include work at local, state, regional, and national levels and cover a variety of sectors including energy, water, marine resources, land use and natural resources, government, business and academia, and technology and Internet.
Kearns & West understands the special requirements of working with stakeholders to achieve an organization’s goals. We have a proven record of success thanks to our stakeholder-centric approach of providing robust collaboration and strategic communications services. Our commitment to positive, mutually beneficial results has helped us maintain long-term relationships with the people and organizations we assist.
BLM Seeks Public Comment on Public Lands Nominated for Oil and Gas Exploration and Development
ELKO, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Elko District Environmental Assessment (EA) for parcels of public land nominated for lease in the 2015 Competitive Oil & Gas Lease Sale is available for review. These parcels have the potential for future oil and gas exploration and development. The 30-day public review period concludes October 29, 2014.
The 24 parcels totaling 25,802.47 acres have been analyzed for potential impacts in the EA in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010.
Lease stipulations identified in the Elko (1987) and Wells (1985) Resource Management Plans are attached to applicable parcels to help protect resources. The EA is available for public review at: http://on.doi.gov/1rxlD8j
Inside the EA you will find information about how American wild horses will be impacted on page 64. It reads:
3.2.17 Wild Horses
Existing Conditions
There are 8 wild horse herd management areas (HMA) managed by the Elko District Office. They are the Owyhee, Rock Creek, Little Humboldt, Diamond Hills North, Maverick-Medicine, Antelope Valley, Goshute, and Spruce-Pequop HMAs. These eight HMAs total approximately 1.8 million acres and have an appropriate management level (AML) of 1,338 wild horses. Wild horses inhabit these HMAs year round. Deferred parcels 13 and 14 are within the Maverick /Medicine HMA and parcels 15 through 26 are located in the Antelope Valley HMA. The other parcels are not located within HMAs.
Effects of the Proposed Alternative
There are no direct impacts to wild horses associated with leasing, however wild horses can be found within some of the HMAs and future exploration could affect wild horses within those HMAs. Increased human and motorized activity could disrupt and displace wild horses. The wild horses inhabiting the area of the exploration could leave the area and move away from the noise and activity. During any long term or permanent activity it is probable that wild horses over time would become accustomed to the activity and resume normal activities at a reasonable distance. Construction of new fences as part of development production facilities could disrupt movement of free roaming wild horses and animals could be injured by colliding with any new fences.
Mitigations
Construction of fencing within a HMA would be evaluated during review of any development proposal to determine if flagging or other measures would be necessary to increase visibility to wild horses. Best management practices along with specific restrictions would be implemented to minimize negative impacts to wild horses.
The Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale will be conducted on March10, 2015.
If you have issues or concerns or need more information, contact Tom Schmidt, Project Lead at the BLM Elko District, at (775) 753-0200 or email at elfoweb@blm.gov
Watch the telling film Wild Horses and Renegades expose the truth behind wild horse roundups and removals. You can go to https://vimeo.com/ondemand/wildhorses to watch the documentary. Here’s a rough preview:
Josh Fox’s Oscar nominated GASLAND I explains how tracking ruins the environment and our water especially. Available on Netflix.
GASLAND 2 explains how the oil and gas lobbies control democracy, putting us all at risk and poisoning our water in order to become a world leader in exporting liquid natural gas. There is a nice segment linking wild horse roundups with fracking in Wyoming. Here’s a trailer for Fox’s GASLAND 2. You can also watch the film on Netflix.
Launching the 3 Stamps Campaign on Wild Horse Wednesday™
URGENT: Wild foals need your help today! Some have already died in the heinous BLM Checkerboard roundup. The other foals are suffering from the trauma of being chased by choppers and ripped off their home on the range. Their family bands have been broken and they cry out for their papas and the rest of their family.
YOU can help them by writing three handwritten letters before midnight strikes: one to your representative and one to each of your senators. Politely request all roundups stop because the foals are being traumatized. They are babies and too young to endure the torment and cruelty.
All it costs is 3 stamps. Mail your handwritten letters to your elected officials tomorrow morning. You will find their contact information here: http://bit.ly/1ihTCwj
Speak out for the foals and demand the taxpayer funded abuse STOP now!
BREAKING NEWS: Call for Wyoming boycott and protests against roundups to frack the land for oil and gas
Native wild horses are facing destruction in the face of climate change with no evidence of overpopulation to justify BLM roundups
Rock Springs, WY. (September 21, 2014)–-The public is outraged more indigenous wild horses are being rounded up and permanently removed from public land for the water and fracking land grab. Protect Mustangs is calling for protests to stand up for American wild horses and for a tourism boycott targeted at Wyoming who promotes “Roam Free” in their marketing yet ignores wild horses in their state. More than 800 Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells wild horses are being rounded up from the public-private land known as the “Checkerboard” in southwest Wyoming. The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) took the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to court to push the roundup through. Wild horses are terrified by choppers, their families ripped apart, forced into inhumane captivity, be at-risk for going to slaughter and forever lose their freedom to roam and contribute to the ecosystem. Several wild horses have already died brutal deaths in the roundup–some victims were only a few months old.
“Fracking for oil and gas is polluting the environment and wiping out America’s wild horses,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The BLM must leave at least 150 wild horses in each herd to maintain genetic variability so they can adapt to the effects of climate change. It’s time for clean energy that can coexist with wildlife.”
BLM describes one large fracking project, Continental Divide-Creston, in saying, “The project is located on 1.1 million acres in the checkerboard pattern of mixed land ownership comprised of 59 percent federal, 37 percent private and 4 percent state-owned land. The eastern boundary of the project is approximately 25 miles west of Rawlins, Wyo. with the western boundary approximately 50 miles east of the city of Rock Springs.”
Field reports allege the BLM has inflated the population guesstimates to justify removals requested by the RSGA.
“Native wild horses are a vanishing natural resource,” states Novak. “People need to stand up for what’s right. Innocent foals are dying in this roundup and that’s wrong.”
Protect Mustangs is calling for an immediate moratorium on roundups and removals for scientific population studies and holistic management. Advocates want to see genetically viable herds on public land but the BLM prefers to cater to the extractive industry who wants number so low wild horses will die off.
“Tourists come to Wyoming to observe wild horse families in their native habitat, so why are they going to decimate these herds?” asks Novak. “The tag line at the Wyoming tourism office is ‘Roam Free‘ but they are taking away native wild horses’ freedom forever. The public is angry and wants to boycott Wyoming tourism.”
The Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas (HMAs) total approximately 2,427,220 acres with approximately 1,2427,220 acres in the Checkerboard. The roundup held up in court recently due to the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) Consent Decree ordered by the U.S. District Court on April 3, 2013, to remove all wild horses from private lands within the checkerboard portion of the complex in 2013. The RSGA appears to be heavily involved with energy development.
Members of the public are encouraged to watch GASLAND 2, contact their elected officials, peacefully protest the roundup and join America’s growing anti-fracking movement to stop the devastation of native wild horse habitat.
Protect Mustangs is a grassroots conservation nonprofit devoted to protecting native wild horses. Their mission is to educate the public about the indigenous wild horse, protect and research American wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.
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Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
TODAY’S THE DAY for the biggest Anti-Fracking rally in California’s history! THOUSANDS of Anti-Fracking Activists & Concerned Californians are making the trek to Sacramento to tell Governor Brown and his administration one thing: #DontFrackCA! We’ll be hearing from voices from all over the state who are witnessing fracking in their own communities and organizing against it. A broad coalition of groups have come together to demand an end to fracking in California. We hope to see you there & Bring your friends!! Don’t forget to TWEET (#DontFrackCA, #fracking) while you’re making history!!
What: Don’t Frack California Rally and March
Where: The Capitol Lawn, L between 10th and 12th streets, Sacramento, CA
When: Saturday, March 15th, 2014, 1pm
Sign Up: dontfrackcalifornia.org
For Buses & Rideshares: Check out the State-wide rideboard at dontfrackcalifornia.org/rideboard
More info: dontfrackcalifornia.org
Click Here to Share the Info on Facebook & Tweet about Us! #DontFrackCA, #fracking
America’s wild horses are being pushed off public land to reduce environmental roadblocks to fracking as seen in GASLAND Part 2. Join us to say “No!” to fracking!
We’re experiencing the worst drought in the history of CA. Communities are struggling to know where their water is coming from. And, what is the solution to the administration of Governor Brown? A call to the conservation of its citizens, not the big oil and gas. Join us TODAY in Sacramento to demand an end to #fracking in our state!
