Comment period extended but Nevada public hearing a sham

Yesterday we took your comments to the hearing, requesting BLM reschedule the Carson City helicopter hearing with adequate public notice and comments against helicopter roundups, etc. Photographer and honorary board member, Cat Kindsfather, hand delivered them and spoke on behalf of Protect Mustangs as well as the American public.

Kindsfather brought up the fact that people across the country wanted to participate in the public process but there was not enough notice given.

At the meeting, BLM announced they would extend the comment period. Comments can be received no later than June 12, 2012. Only comments sent to the address, email or fax number identified below will be accepted and “considered”.

Comments may be sent by mail or fax:

BLM Carson City District Office

5665 Morgan Mill Road

Carson City, NV 89701

Attn: WHB Motorized Hearing.

FAX: 775-885-6147.

 

Comments may also be sent by email:

ccfoweb@blm.gov, Attn: WHB Motorized.

 

Comments submitted to BLM must include your address, phone number, email, or other personal identifying information in your comment.

Please be aware your entire comment–including your personal identifying information–may be made publicly available at any time. While you may request we withhold your personal information from public view, we cannot guarantee we will be able to do so.

 

Please copy us on all the comments you send the BLM so we can keep a record of the comments received to watchdog this faulty process.

We will send the Carson City District Office all the comments on your behalf that you have sent us after 7 a.m. May 29, 2012 to ensure your comments are received.

We continue to ask for the Carson City hearing to be rescheduled to allow oral comments and for the public to be given 30 days notice for any other BLM public hearings.

Denying the public their right to be present and comment at a public hearing shows the BLM has no intention of engaging the American public nor do they want to be transparent.

The NBC affiliate, KRNV Reno News 4, attended the public hearing and reported on wild horse advocates say BLM jeopardized public process.

Thank you for sending in your comments. Now tell your friends about what is going on and invite them to send in comments against the use of helicopters and motorized vehicles as well.

Stop the Roundups!

 

Links of interest:

KRNV Reports on wild horse advocates say BLM jeopardized public process. http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Wild-horse-advocates-say-the-BLM-jeopardized/a8kN1TVKZ0WLiaEBaISvDA.cspx

Protect Mustangs news release: Government transparency and public process jeopardized: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1416

Protect Mustangs letter requesting BLM give the public 30 days notice for helicopter use hearing: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1409

BLM press release announcing they will extend comments: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/may/carson_city__blm_nevada.html

BLM press release on hearing: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/may/blm_to_hold_public.html

 

 

Livestock’s Heavy Hooves Impair One-Third of BLM Rangelands

33 Million Acres of BLM Grazing Allotments Fail Basic Rangeland Health Standards

WASHINGTON – May 14 – A new federal assessment of rangelands in the West finds a disturbingly large portion fails to meet range health standards principally due to commercial livestock operations, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).  In the last decade as more land has been assessed, estimates of damaged lands have doubled in the 13-state Western area where the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducts major livestock leasing.

The “Rangeland Inventory, Monitoring and Evaluation Report for Fiscal Year 2011” covers BLM allotments in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.  The report totals BLM acreage failing to meet rangeland health standards in measures such as water quality, watershed functionality and wildlife habitat:

  • Almost 40% of BLM allotments surveyed since 1998 have failed to meet the agency’s own required land health standards with impairment of more than 33 million acres, an area exceeding the State of Alabama in size, attributed to livestock grazing;
  • Overall, 30% of BLM’s allotment area surveyed to date suffers from significant livestock-induced damage, suggesting that once the remaining allotments have been surveyed, the total impaired area could well be larger than the entire State of Washington; and
  • While factors such as drought, fire, invasion by non-native plants, and sprawl are important, livestock grazing is identified by BLM experts as the primary cause (nearly 80%) of BLM lands not meeting health standards.

“Livestock’s huge toll inflicted on our public lands is a hidden subsidy which industry is never asked to repay,” stated PEER Advocacy Director Kirsten Stade, noting that the percentage of impairment in lands assessed remains fairly consistent over the past decade.  “The more we learn about actual conditions, the longer is the ecological casualty list.”

Last November, PEER filed a scientific integrity complaint that BLM had directed scientists to exclude livestock grazing as a factor in changing landscapes as part of a $40 million study, the biggest such effort ever undertaken by BLM.  The complaint was referred to a newly appointed Scientific Integrity Officer for BLM but there are no reports of progress in the agency’s self-investigation in the ensuing months.

At the same time, BLM range evaluations, such as this latest one, use ambiguous categories that mask actual conditions, employing vague terms such as “making significant progress” and “appropriate action has been taken to ensure significant progress” that obscure damage estimates and inflate the perception of restoration progress.  For example, in 2001 nearly 60% of BLM lands (94 million acres, an area larger than Montana) consisted of grazing allotments that were supposed to be managed to “improve the current resource condition” – a number that has stayed unchanged for a decade.

“Commercial livestock operations are clearly a major force driving degradation of wild places, jeopardy to wildlife, major loss of water quality and growing desertification throughout the American West,” Stade added, while noting that BLM has historically been dominated by livestock interests.  “The BLM can no longer remain in denial on the declining health of our vast open range.”

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Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER’s environmental work is solely directed by the needs of its members. As a consequence, we have the distinct honor of serving resource professionals who daily cast profiles in courage in cubicles across the country.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Links:
Posted from the PEER press release

News Release

Calico Roundup (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

Protect Mustangs asks Obama to stop the dangerous Calico roundup

Advocates ask for the sustainable win-win

WASHINGTON (November 21, 2011)— Protect Mustangs launches their campaign and petition to stop the frivolous Calico roundup in northern Nevada near the town of Gerlach, known for Burning Man. The mustang advocacy group joins with advocates and  the disgruntled public asking President Obama to stop the expensive winter roundup before it becomes deadly. The 2010 Calico roundup was the deadliest roundup in history with 160 deaths attributed to it. Protect Mustangs asks that all other roundups be put on hold until a sustainable plan is agreed to by all sides of the issue.

“There is no accurate head count and estimates cannot justify an expensive roundup when thriving natural ecological balance (TNEB) exists on the range,” explains Anne Novak, Founder and Director of Protect Mustangs. “This country is in the middle of a financial crises. We can’t afford to waste more money on cruel roundups, removals and warehousing. The money being spent on this roundup could be used to help the American people get back on their feet.”

Last year the BLM spent more than 75 million dollars on the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Advocates want to know how that money was spent—line by line.

“They are wasting our tax money on roundups instead of using a small fraction of that money to improve the range,” states Lisa Friday, Board Member of Protect Mustangs.  “We want to see wild horses freed from long-term holding and returned to the West—to roam freely on their herd management areas (HMAs) as Congress intended.”

Today close to 39,000 American wild horses live in long-term holding facilities—away from their native habitat. Less than 13,850 live on public land in ten western states. In 1900, 2 million wild horses roamed freely in America.

Currently, in the Calico Complex HMA, more than half a million acres, can easily support the less than 1,000 wild horses and burros living there. Livestock currently outnumbers wild horses more than 50 to 1. Protect Mustangs wants to make sure that the mustangs are not scapegoated for damage to the range caused by livestock.

Wild horses are being removed from their range at breakneck speed to make room for ‘the New Energy Frontier’. Protect Mustangs wants a sustainable management plan for the wild horses of the West.

“It’s not ‘green’ to wipe out an indigenous species to create an industrialized zone for producing so-called renewables on public land, states Novak. “There must be a way to find a win-win for the wild horses, the other wildlife, the livestock and the energy projects in the West. We want engagement from all sides to solve this problem.”

Meanwhile Protect Mustangs asks President Obama to stop the Calico roundup and put all other roundups on hold until a real sustainable plan is agreed to by all sides of the issue.

The Salazar Plan was announced in Fall 2009 and the result was nationwide public outcry and protests. The administration disregarded the will of the people and forged ahead with a dysfunctional  policy destined to zero out the American wild horse.

‘Now we want change for the good,” states Lisa Friday “We want the administration to stop wasting money on a bad plan.”

Protect Mustangs is a California-based non-profit whose mission is to inform the public about the mustang crisis, protect America’s wild horses on the range and help those who lost their freedom.

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Media Contacts:

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

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

Photos, video and interviews available upon request.

Links of interest:

Protect Mustangs’ Petition to Stop Calico Roundup: http://chn.ge/rBoej7

CBS: Stampede to Oblivion: http://bit.ly/tAopv7

FAQs on Wild Horses: http://bit.ly/teEILa

New Energy Frontier: http://on.doi.gov/taVehZ

Ruby Pipeline: The Real Reason To Remove Wild Horses? http://bit.ly/vUf9SQ

Ruby Pipeline Map: http://bit.ly/sCRcJ5

Salazar Plan Shortcomings: http://bit.ly/togfzp

Press Releases Chronicling the issue: http://bit.ly/vnyVnR

Protect Mustangs on Twitter @ProtectMustangs

Protect Mustangs on You Tube: http://bit.ly/v8TZfd

Protect Mustangs on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/uDF5JP

Protect Mustangs on Web: www.ProtectMustangs.org