Wild horses impacted in BoLM’s landscape project (Carson district)

PM Photo WY © Stephaie Thomson

Please comment to help the wild horses stay on public land and stop the BoLM from using herbicides

From a BoLM press release:

Carson City, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BoLM), Carson City District, Stillwater Field Office, has completed an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Cow Canyon, Clan Alpine, and Dixie Valley Allotments Landscape Project. The BoLM is also seeking public input under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the Project. This includes seeking information and identifying historic properties in our near the Project area. Public comments will be accepted through September 26, 2016.

The EA analyzes seven alternatives that include proposals for livestock grazing permit renewals, range improvements, wild horse management, community mineral material pit designation, invasive, nonnative and noxious weed treatments, interim visual resource management class establishment and adaptive management.  The alternatives include changes in season of use proposals, reductions in livestock numbers proposals, no grazing and the no action alternative (status quo).

The EA and associated documents are available on the Project webpage at: http://bit.ly/2blRZFp  during the 30-day comment period.  Please send written comments to Linda Appel, Project Lead at the address in the letterhead, via fax at (775) 885-6147 or via email to: blm_nv_ccdgrazingea@blm.gov. Comments should include “CCD Landscape Project EA” in the subject line. If you have any questions, please contact Linda Appel or Angelica Rose at 775-885-6000 or at the above address.  For input or questions regarding historic properties please contact Jason Wright at 775-885-6015 or the address in the letterhead above.

-BLM-

 

We need land to rescue, gentle and find homes for at-risk wild horses. Help us find the facility to make this happen.

(Photo © Carfull Cowboy . . . State-r)

(Photo © Carfull Cowboy . . . State-r)

SHARE because having the place to take in rescued wild horses for gentling and adoption means saving wild horses from slaughter! We need your help to find this donated or low cost place in the Bay Area!

If we had the facility we could have taken at least one truckload of 30+ wild horses from the horrible Sheldon Roundup that just happened.

HELP us find the facility and land to help the horses. We are filing for our 501c3 nonprofit status because we have attained our goals during these past 2 years and serve America’s wild horses with no agenda outside of helping them.

www.ProtectMustangs.org

Remember sharing is caring.

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Is the Safari Club behind the BIG Oil and Banking CEO of REI being appointed as Secretary of Interior?

Take Back the Power (© Protect Mustangs with Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

Take Back the Power (© Protect Mustangs with Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

Interior Department’s Secretary Salazar removes more than 50,000 native wild horses from public land and now Big Oil and Banking’s Sally Jewell, currently CEO for REI, will be appointed to finish the job.

Clearly we are witnessing Big Oil and the Banking Industry take over what was set aside for the people. They are zeroing out the indigenous wild horse, living in freedom, in order to industrialize and pillage public land for the extractive industry.

Is the Safari Club International behind this appointment? They allegedly support removing environmental protections for hunters yet the extractive industry benefits from clearing away environmental restrictions don’t they?

Did you know the Sierra Club is buddies with the Safari Club? They both came out against wild horses and pro-roundups under Secretary Salazar’s reign. Yes, they make strange bedfellows but if you do a little research it all becomes clear . . .

Are we going to sit by and allow this to happen?

Read The Washington Post’s article about Jewell’s appointment:

Obama to nominate CEO of outdoor equipment giant REI to become interior secretary

By Juliet Eilperin, Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 8:35 AM

President Obama on Wednesday will nominate Recreational Equipment (REI) chief executive Sally Jewell to head the Interior Department, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified because the public announcement has not yet been made.

The choice of Jewell, who began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil and worked as a commercial banker before heading a nearly $2 billion outdoors equipment company, represents an unconventional choice for a post usually reserved for career politicians from the West.

But while she boasts less public policy experience than other candidates who had been under consideration, Jewell, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, has earned national recognition for her management skills and support for outdoor recreation and habitat conservation.

In 2011 Jewell introduced Obama at the White House conference on “America’s Great Outdoor Initiative,” noting that the $289 billion outdoor-recreation industry supports 6.5 million jobs.

Jewell, who is being nominated to succeed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, would take over at a time when many conservationists are pressing Obama to take bolder action on land conservation. Salazar devoted much of his tenure to both promoting renewable energy on public land and managing the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

On Tuesday former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt gave a speech at the National Press Club calling on the president to set aside one acre permanently for conservation for every acre he leases for oil and gas development.

“It’s that simple: one to one,” Babbitt said. “So far, under President Obama, industry has been winning the race as it obtains more and more land for oil and gas. Over the past four years, the industry has leased more than 6 million acres, compared with only 2.6 million acres permanently protected. In the Obama era, land conservation is again falling behind.”

Facingcongressional opposition and budget constraints during Obama’s first term, Salazar emphasized the importance of enlisting private sector, state and local support to protect major landscapes through America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. Jewell emerged as a strong advocate of the policy, and is likely to continue such efforts.

While public lands protection has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, this issue has become increasingly polarized, and the 112th Congress was the first one since 1966 to fail to designate a single piece of wilderness. Environmentalists such as Babbitt have urged Obama to use the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the executive authority to set aside land as national monuments, to protect ecologically valuable areas in the West.

Jewell has pushed for land conservation both in Washington state, where she lives, as well as nationally. She is a founding board member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which focuses on a stretch of land spanning from Puget Sound across the Cascades, and helped lay out a plan for the National Park Service as a commissioner on the “National Parks Second Century Commission.”

Wyss Foundation president Molly McUsic, whose group focuses on land conservation, wrote in an e-mail that Jewell “understands the full economic potential of America’s resources.”

“She knows the oil and gas business from having worked at Mobil and in the banking industry, but also understands the growing economic potential of America’s $646 billion outdoor recreation industry,” McUsic added. “She knows that to grow the economy, development of energy resources must be on equal ground with the protection of places that drive tourism, travel, and recreation.”

While Jewell is more closely identified with the Democratic Party than the Republicans, she made a high-profile appearance with Sen. John McCain(R-Ariz.) back in 2008 when he was running for president. McCain spoke with Jewell and others at an environmental policy roundtable outside of Seattle, during which the senator argued that he had stronger environmental credentials than either Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who were both vying for the Democratic presidential nomination at the time.

Other contenders for the Cabinet position in recent weeks included former Washington governor Christine Gregoire (D), Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-to-nominate-ceo-of-outdoor-equipment-giant-rei-to-become-interior-secretary/2013/02/06/da9d2dcc-7007-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html

Safari Club Jan 26 2011

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009

 

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009
Great Seal of the United States.
Full title An act to designate certain land as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes.
Enacted by the 111th United States Congress
Effective March 30, 2009
Citations
Public Law Pub.L. 111–11
Stat. (pending)
Codification
Wild and Scenic Rivers ActNational Trails System Act,Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, and others; see below
Title(s) amended Title 5Title 36Title 40
Legislative history

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Pub.L. 111–11H.R. 146) is a law passed in the 111th United States Congress and signed into law byPresident Barack Obama on March 30, 2009.[1]

Contents

Legislative history

110th Congress

On June 26, 2008, Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico introduced the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008 (S. 3213). Although the bill had some support from both Democrats and Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate never voted on the measure due to threats by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) to filibuster the bill.[2]

111th Congress

S. 22

On January 7, 2009, Bingaman introduced the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (S. 22), a new bill which incorporated 159 bills that had been considered by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during the 110th Congress and, in some cases, earlier Congresses.[3] Despite vehement opposition from Coburn and some other Republicans, the Senate passed a cloture motion on January 11 by a vote of 66-12[4] and then passed the bill on January 15 by a vote of 73-21, with four members not voting.[5]

The bill was then sent to the House of Representatives, where it was expected to pass by a wide margin.[6] The bill was held at the desk instead of being sent to a committee.

On March 11, 2009, the House considered the bill under suspension of the rules, meaning that a two-thirds vote would be required for passage. Those voting in favor of the bill (predominantly Democrats) fell two votes short of a two-thirds majority, 282-144. 34 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while three Democrats voted against it: Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Jim Marshall of Georgia, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.[7] House Democrats could then have brought the bill back to the floor under regular procedure, which would have allowed Republicans to submit amendments to the bill.[8]

The bill, as voted on by the House, had been amended by Jason Altmire (D-Pennsylvania), to prohibit the closing of the lands described in the bill to hunting and fishing, presumably to persuade sportsmen and hunters to vote for the bill.[9]

H.R. 146

On March 3, 2009, the House of Representatives passed a bill under suspension of the rules, the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Battlefield Protection Act (H.R. 146), 394-13. On March 12, one day after the House failed to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, Reid announced that he would file cloture on H.R. 146. While in the Senate, the bill was amended to include a majority of the text in S. 22.[10] The Senate voted 73-21 for cloture and 77-20 to pass the bill. The House agreed to the Senate amendments, 285-140, on March 25.[11]

President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on March 30, 2009, declaring one provision unconstitutional in his signing statement.[12]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Components

Title I

Title I of the bill designates two million acres (8,000 km²) of wilderness in nine states (CaliforniaColoradoIdahoMichiganNew MexicoOregonUtahVirginia, and West Virginia) for protection through addition to theNational Wilderness Preservation System. Among these lands are:

Title II

Title II establishes a National Landscape Conservation System, to include Bureau of Land Management-administered National MonumentsNational Conservation AreasWilderness Study Areas, components of the National Trails System, components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Title II also designates three new National Conservation Areas (Fort Stanton – Snowy River Cave National Conservation AreaSnake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, and Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area) and one new National Monument (the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in the Robledo Mountains of New Mexico). It also transfers lands in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Washington to federal control.

Title III

Title III authorizes the United States Secretary of Agriculture to, through the Chief of the United States Forest Service, conduct studies in the interest of preserving open space in southern Colorado and deliver “an annual report on the wildland firefighter safety practices…including training programs and activities for wildland fire suppression, prescribed burning, and wildland fire use, during the preceding calendar year.” Title III also prohibits further oil and gas leasing, geothermal leasing, and mining patents in a stretch of the Bridger-Teton National Forest; this provision was based on a bill being crafted by Senator Craig L. Thomas of Wyoming before his death.

Title IV

Title IV authorizes the Chief of the Forest Service to solicit (from regional foresters) nominations of forest landscapes of at least 50,000 acres (200 km2), primarily consisting of national forest lands, which are in need of “active ecosystem restoration,” for the carrying out of ecological restoration treatments. The Chief, acting on behalf of the Secretary of Agriculture, then may select up to ten of these proposals, aided by a fifteen-member advisory board, to be funded in any given fiscal year. For each proposal selected, 50% of the expenditures of the execution and monitoring of ecological restoration treatments would be paid for by a Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Fund in the United States Treasury. However, each proposal’s expenditures are limited to $4 million per year.

Title V

Title V designates thousands of miles of new additions to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. It also adds six trails to the National Trails System: the Arizona National Scenic Trail, the New England National Scenic Trail, the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

Title VI

Title VI creates a number of new United States Department of the Interior programs. One of these programs, the Wolf Livestock Loss Demonstration Project, gives states and Indian tribes federal grants to help livestock producers to reduce livestock loss due to predation by wolves in non-lethal ways, as well as for the purpose of compensating livestock producers for their loss of livestock due to predation by wolves.

Another part of Title VI, the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, was originally a Senate bill introduced in 2007 by Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii). This provision establishes stronger penalties than previously required for nonpermitted removal of scientifically significant fossils from federal lands. The provision was endorsed and strongly supported by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an international association of professional and amateur vertebrate paleontologists. In contrast, the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, an association of commercial fossil dealers, opposed the measure.

Title VII

Title VII makes three additions to the National Park System and expands current National Park designations. It also authorizes an American Battlefield Protection Program, a Preserve America program, a Save America’s Treasures Program, and a Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, all to be carried out by the National Park Service. New National Park System components would include:

Title VIII

Title VIII designates ten new National Heritage Areas at the cost of $103.5 million:

Title IX

Title IX authorizes three new studies to examine new reclamation projects under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation. It also creates 15 new water and endangered fish projects in four states. Furthermore, Title IX puts some federal water reclamation facilities under local control and funds conservation efforts.

Title X

Title X codifies the settlements of three water disputes in California, Nevada, and New Mexico, in an effort to resolve decades of litigation.

Title XI

Title XI reauthorizes the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992 at a cost of $64 million per year through the year 2018. It furthermore authorizes groundwater surveys in New Mexico, also by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Title XII

Title XII creates five new oceanic observation, research, and exploration programs at a cost of $2.6 billion, including programs for undersea research, undersea and coastal mapping, acidification research, and ocean conservation. One provision, the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act, would “establish a national integrated System of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing systems, comprised of Federal and non-Federal components coordinated at the national level by the National Ocean Research Leadership Council” in order to “support national defense, marine commerce, navigation safety, weather, climate, and marine forecasting, energy siting and production, economic development, ecosystem-based marine, coastal, and Great Lakes resource management, public safety, and public outreach training and education.”

Title XIII

Title XIII deals with miscellaneous bills, including one that funds the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii and another that increases the number of Assistant Energy Secretaries in the United States Department of Energy to eight. Title XIII also amends the Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act of 2000 and the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act.

[edit]Title XIV

Title XIV, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, provides $105 million over five years for coordinated paralysis research by the National Institutes of Health.

[edit]Title XV

Title XV grants the Smithsonian Institution $69 million for laboratory and greenhouse construction at three Smithsonian facilities.

Acts amended

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 amended the following acts of Congress, in order of first appearance:

References

  1. ^ “Obama signs public lands reform bill”. CNN. 30 March 2009. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
  2. ^ “Wyoming Range bill looks dead for year”. Casper Star-Tribune. 15 November 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  3. ^ C-SPAN
  4. ^ Vote 1, via Senate.gov
  5. ^ Vote 3, via Senate.gov
  6. ^ “Senate passes protection bills; Wyo Range, Snake River measures now go to House”. Casper Star-Tribune. 15 January 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  7. ^ Roll Call 117, via House.gov
  8. ^ O’Connor, Patrick (2009-03-11). “House GOP derails public lands bill”The Politico. Politico.com. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  9. ^ Phillips, Kate (2009-03-11). “Public Lands Bill Defeated in House”The Caucus blog (NYTimes.com). Retrieved 11 March 2009.
  10. ^ http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc.cfm?doc_name=lb-111-1-37
  11. ^ Major Actions on H.R. 146, 111th Congress
  12. ^ Savage, Charlie (March 30, 2009). “Obama Issues Signing Statement With Public Lands Bill”The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  13. ^ “Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness Areas”. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved July 10, 2011.

External links

Nevada is a “fence out” state

Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada

 

Cross-posted from eHow
By Patricia Linn, eHow Contributor

 

Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada thumbnail
In Nevada, you can’t ask your neighbor to fence in his cows, you have to fence them out.

Nevada is one of many western states that are primarily comprised of “open range” land. The open range designation means that cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock are free to roam and feed over any property that is not fenced. Nevada, and other open range states, legislate “fence-out” laws that essentially say: if you don’t want other people’s livestock coming on your property, then it is your responsibility to fence your land adequately to prevent ingress. Your fencing also prevents egress for your livestock

Read more: Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7148677_rural-fencing-rules-nevada.html#ixzz26mvCdAOj

Science proves wild horses are indigenous so protect their rights to land and water

Stop the removal of indigenous wild horses from the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge.

Rounding up indigenous wild horses is wrong – especially when they can be sold to the meat buyers at auctions,” said Anne Novak of California-based Protect Mustangs. “These horses are vulnerable to ending up going to slaughter … The Sheldon plan to wipe out wild horses is nuts and goes against the public’s wishes.”

Read the full article here and please comment: http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-wildlife-refuge-to-remove-all-wild-horses-168331946.html?ref=946

Sign the petition to ensure wild horses will maintain their rights to water.

Removing wild horses from the definition of wildlife is a political maneuver to deny the wild horses access to  water. An argument of the opposition is that wild horses are not wild but feral. However, recent scientific evidence proves that wild horses are indigenous to North America.

As Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs points out, “most zoologists are familiar with the work of PhD.s J.F. Kirkpatrick and P.M. Fazio and the revised January 2010 paper Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife. The Science and Conservation Center, ZooMontana, Billings.

Their scientific paper states, “Thus, based on a great deal of paleontological data, the origin of E. caballus is thought to be about two million years ago, and it originated in North America.”

Also the paper cites, “The fact that horses were domesticated before they were reintroduced matters little from a biological viewpoint. They are the same species that originated here, and whether or not they were domesticated is quite irrelevant.”

So, indeed, wild horses are wild. The current Nevada definition of wildlife states  “‘Wildlife’ means any wild mammal, wild bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, mollusk or crustacean found naturally in a wild state, whether indigenous to Nevada or not and whether raised in captivity or not.” No other species is singled out for exclusion, why should wild horses be?

In the 76th legislature, Nevada Assembly Bill 329 attempted to remove wild horses from the definition of wildlife. Even though Nevada voters overwhelmingly sided with the wild horses and the bill did not pass, it appears as though the argument will be pushed again during the 77th legislative session.

Las Vegas news station KTNV Channel 13 reported that the bill “…would have prevented the state engineer from approving water rights for wild horses in Nevada” and “would deny the animals access to water prevent water rights being issued if someone were to establish a wild horse sanctuary to promote eco-tourism”

If you agree that wild horses should remain in Nevada’s definition of wildlife, and that they should never be denied access to water, please sign the petition.

Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin), Director of the Youth Campaign for Protect Mustangs, co-authored this petition.

Read Dr. Kirkpatrick’s paper here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Understanding grazing rights

Cross-posted from Wikipedia

Grazing rights

Grazing rights is a legal term referring to the right of a user to allow their livestock to feed (graze) in a given area.

Though grazing rights have never been codified in United States law, the concept of such rights descends from the English concept of the commons, a piece of land over which people — often neighboring landowners — could exercise one of a number of traditional rights, including livestock grazing.[1] Prior to the 19th century, the traditional practice of grazing open rangeland in the United States was rarely disputed due to the sheer amount of unsettled open land. However, as the population of the western United States increased in the mid-to-late 19th century, range wars often erupted over ranchers’ perceived rights to graze their cattle as western rangelands deteriorated with overuse.[2]

In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act formally set out the federal government’s powers and policy on grazing federal lands by establishing the Division of Grazing and procedures for issuing permits to graze federal lands for a fixed period of time. The Division of Grazing was renamed the U.S. Grazing Service in 1939, and then merged in 1946 with the General Land Office to become the Bureau of Land Management, which along with the United States Forest Service oversees public lands grazing in 16 western states today.[3] However, grazing was never established as a legal right in the U.S.,[4] and the Taylor Grazing Act authorized only the permitted use of lands designated as available for livestock grazing while specifying that grazing permits “convey no right, title, or interest” to such lands.[5] Although the regulations stipulated by the Taylor Grazing Act apply only to grazing on Bureau of Land Management lands, the Chief of the Forest Service is authorized to permit or suspend grazing on Forest Service administered property, and many Forest Service grazing regulations resemble those of the Taylor Grazing Act.[6]

References:

  1. ^ Merrill, K.R. 2002. Public Lands and Political Meaning: Ranchers, the Government, and the Property Between Them. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 183.
  2. ^ Fleischner, T. L. 2009. Livestock grazing and wildlife conservation in the American West: historical, policy and conservation biology perspectives. Wild Rangelands: Conserving Wildlife While Maintaining Livestock in Semi-Arid Ecosystems (eds J. T. du Toit, R. Kock and J. C. Deutsch). Chidester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, p. 235-265. pdoi: 10.1002/9781444317091.
  3. ^http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/grazing.html
  4. ^ Donahue D. 2005. Western grazing: the capture of grass, ground, and government. Environmental Law 35:721-806.
  5. ^ United States Code of Federal Regulations 4130.2 (c) Retrieved from http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=65dfe1cec94944c989e83b4eb39cd3ba;rgn=div5;view=text;node=43%3A2.1.1.4.92;idno=43;cc=ecfr#PartTop
  6. ^ United States Code of Federal Regulations 36 § 222.1-54.

 

Link to original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazing_rights

It’s only getting worse

Here is a video message about the American wild horse crisis in February 2010. The numbers are bigger now with 53K wild horses in holding and perhaps 15K left on the range.

Thank you Arlene Gawne and team for bringing this YouTube message to the public.

In 2009, 2010 and 2011 we all tried to help The President understand the need to save the mustangs. Sadly he appears to want The New Energy Frontier above and beyond anything else.

If you don’t like what’s going on then contact your representatives and senators because they are your voice in government. Congress funds the rotten Wild Horse and Burro Program under the Bureau of Land Management.

Request a Congressional investigation, forensic accounting and a moratorium on roundups as well as fertility control until the truth comes out that there are hardly any wild horses left out on America’s public land.

This year the EPA passed a fertility control pesticide for use on America’s wild horses and burros. Our indigenous horse has been formally labelled a “pest” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. We want the erroneous classification reversed. Pests and invasive species are weeded out and disposed of . . .  Why did the EPA sell out?

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

Stop the roundups and the extermination!

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.

# # #

 

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