Comments against the Wyoming checkerboard roundup and removal

Via email:  blm_wy_checkerboard_hmas@blm.gov

    September 9, 2016

BLM Rock Springs Field Office

280 Highway 191 North

Rock Springs, WY 82901

Attn: Wild Horse and Burro Specialist

Subject: Checkerboard EA Comments

Project: Roundup-and-Removal — Announced

Document: Environmental Assessment ( EA )

NEPA ID: DOI-BLM-WY-D040-2016-0135-EA

This letter responds to your request for substantive comments and informed analysis that BoLM Rock Springs Field Office (RSFO) should consider regarding the subject EA.  I submit my comments as an interested party in behalf of the wild horses of the Adobe Town (AT), Great Divide Basin (GDB), and Salt Wells Creek (SWC) Herd Management Areas (HMAs) who are deemed to have roamed into the “checkerboard lands” — those where Federal and private property sections alternate in a checkerboard-like pattern — in numbers that exceed the arbitrary levels established by the Consent Decree.  Please note that in all instances where text has been emphasized, either through bold and/or italics, the emphasis was added by me.

For ease of reference, here are the links to the Dear Reader letter and to the Webpage where the EA is posted:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/59563/78510/89493/Dear_Reader_Letter_Public_Review_Checckerboard_EA_8-11-16.pdf

http://bit.ly/2bj4PzJ

Background

BoLM unwisely and unethically committed itself to reducing wild-horse numbers at harshly-low levels in the Checkerboard sections of three HMAs at issue.  Per the Consent Decree, once it was determined — or projected — that more than 100 wild horses were present (or might be) at some point in time in GDB, and/or that more than a combined total of 200 wild horses were (or might be) present at some point in time in AT and SWC, then RSFO would have them all removed.

Here are the number of horses that, BLM alleges that, per April 2016 surveys, were present in the checkerboard area of the following herd management areas (HMAs):

  25 Adobe Town

272 Great Divide Basin

187 Salt Wells Creek

——————————————

484 Total

RSFO proposes to remove not just the 484, but an additional 16, for an even 500.  RSFO acknowledges that it would not be removing “excess” wild horses.  RSFO further admits that the proposed removals would drop the population below the low-bound of the established arbitrary management level (AML).

Wild Horses Roam — Their Presence Is Fleeting, Their Numbers Are Fluid

Just because RSFO’s survey allegedly counted 484 wild horses in the Checkerboard does not mean that 484 are still there or were there the day after the census was conducted.  Wild horses are constantly on the move.  Just because they visit an area on certain days does not make them permanent residents.

Public Lands Commandeered by Private Interests

The Checkerboard area encompasses 2,427,220 acres, or 3,793 square miles.  Public lands total 1,695,517 acres — 2,649 square miles — and privately-held lands total 731,703 acres –1,143 square miles.  Thus, public lands constitute 70%, and private lands comprise 30%, of the Checkerboard.

Per the EA, the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) owns or “controls” the “majority” of the 30% of the privately-held Checkerboard area.  The EA does not reveal how significant that majority is, but it would have to be 51% or more, by definition, to be a majority.  If it were a “great” majority, then surely that point would have been made.  Thus, the conservative inference would be around 51%.  But to make the computations easier, and to give the benefit to the doubt, 60% will be used.

So, 60% x 30% = 18%.  What results is a minor percentage of private-profiteers calling the shots for how public lands are managed.  Unacceptable.

Wild-Horse Population-Density — Even If All 484 Were Only on Private Land

Let’s assume for the moment that 484 wild horses have established permanent residence in the 731,703 acres — 1,143 square miles — of privately-held checkerboard land.  The resultant population-density would be:

1 wild horse per 1,512 acres = 1 wild horse per 2.4 square miles.

Public Corruption — Appearance of

According to the Website of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, the Rock Springs Field Manager has stated publicly:

For all intents and purposes, we consider all of the checkerboard private.”

If this direct quotation is accurate, then the Field Manager appears to be encouraging the private takeover of public lands.  No wonder the Bundy brothers and company felt emboldened by such BoLM “dog whistles” to seize control of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.  Announcements like that suggest public corruption — abuse of public office to benefit private interests.

FRAUDULENT POPULATION ESTIMATES

Birth Rate versus Herd-Growth Rate

Before we examine BLM’s reported herd-growth rates of these HMAs, it is important to understand the difference between the birth rate and the herd-growth rate.  The birth-rate is not the same as — and should not be equated to — the population growth-rate.  BLM claims an average birth rate of about 20% a year in wild-horse herds.  But the herd growth rate is unlikely to be that high.  Here’s why: Horses and burros die.

An independent study (Gregg, LeBlanc, and Johnston, 2014) reviewed BLM roundup-records for a representative sample of four herd management areas and a robust sample-size of 5,859 wild horses.  While the researchers found an overall birth rate of just under 20 percent, they also found that half of foals perish in their first year of life.  Thus, the effective foal-to-yearling survival rate is just 10 percent.  It is wrong for RSFO to use 20% as the growth rates.  It may be administratively convenient to equate the birth rate to the growth rate, but it is not valid.   

Adult Wild-Horse-and-Burro Mortality Rates Must Be Factored

But it is not only foals that die.  Adult wild horses also perish.  They succumb to illness, injury, and predation.  The adult death rate must be taken into consideration.  Adult mortality is at least as high as the 5% a year for horses that die in short-term holding, where they are fed, watered, and provided care.

Given the 50% foal mortality-rate, and the 5%-or-higher average annual death rate of adult wild horses on the range, herd growth could not increase 20% a year, and a herd-population could not double in 4 years — refuting yet another BLM myth.  But BLM ignores mortality — foal and adult — in its population-estimates, a practice which exaggerates the numbers it posts.

The Herd-Growth Rate Must Necessarily Be Lower Than the Birth Rate

In light of the high foal-mortality rate and the expected adult wild-horse mortality rate, the herd-growth rate must always be lower than the birth rate.  When BLM reports alleged herd-growth rates many times higher than 20% (horses) — that would necessarily mean birth rates substantially higher still.  Such implausible rates are routinely found in BLM’s population data, including the year-to-year figures for the subject HMAs.  Stealthily inserting bogus birth-rates into the data, wrongly conflating birth-rates with population growth-rates, and failing to factor in mortality-rates — those are just some of the ways BLM creates the false impression of a population-explosion.

Stochastic Events Also Reduce Herd Growth

BLM also fails to consider another factor limiting herd growth — stochastic events — which are random catastrophes such as wildfires or contagious diseases or pesticide treatments that suddenly wipe out mass-numbers of herd-members.  Stochastic events can result in no-growth or even negative growth.

There was such an event recently in Kazakhstan, where 120,000 endangered Saiga antelope — half the world’s population — died off suddenly and inexplicably.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-saiga-antelope-die-off-20150531-story.html

Imagine if such a catastrophe were to befall the subject herds.  Note that the Saiga deaths involved antelope-mothers and their calves.  What if these HMAs’ mares and their foals perished all of a sudden, leaving mainly stallions and sterile elderly mares?  BLM must proactively manage the herds per IUCN guidelines, if only in case of stochastic events.

Maximum AML Set Below Minimum Viable Population

But “cooking the books” is not the only way BLM falsifies the population-picture.  Another ruse BLM employs is restricting maximum herd-size below minimum-viable population (MVP) size.  Then, whenever a herd is made to appear — via fictitious figures — to exceed the arbitrary management level, BLM screams “excess!” and declares an immediate need for mass-removals and sterilizations.  It should be noted that more than 70 percent of the herds are “managed” below MVP, including the subject HMAs.  What is the MVP?  According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature: 2500 per equid species, which could easily be accommodated by the acreage composing each of the subject HMAs.

Fraudulent Population Figures

BLM-RSFO’s data reports that the herds-in-question grew at biologically-impossible reproduction-rates.  Further, BLM-RSFO asserts that 484 of these imaginary horses were spotted in the checkerboard, thereby triggering their removal.

Name of HMA Population Population Percent

National OfcNational OfcIncrease

March 2015 March 2016

Adobe Town      602     1,030     71.0%

Great Divide Basin      199       670   236.7%

Salt Wells Creek      117       728   522.2%

BLM’s population-growth figures are fraudulent.  They are biologically impossible.  Even if the “data” represented only the birth rates, they would be as much as 100 times the normal birth rate.  Moreover, the bogus birth rates have been conflated with herd-growth rates.  The mortality rates were not factored.  Consider how such errors will compound and magnify over time.

In light of these fictitious figures, no action is the appropriate alternative.  BoLM-RSFO should be subjected to a forensic audit to determine who is behind the phony data.  Those staffers must be held accountable.

But Is There a Mandate to Practice Scientific Integrity?

Yes.  The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Code of Scientific and Scholarly Conduct applies to all staff members as well as to contractors, partners, permittees, and volunteers.  The Code states: “Scholarly information considered in Departmental decision making must be robust, of the highest quality, and the result of as rigorous scientific and scholarly processes as can be achieved.  Most importantly, it must be trustworthy.”

BLM-RSFO’s wild-horse population estimates are without merit.

Societal Impact of Inflated Population-Data

The population-estimates for the subject HMAs are flawed, exaggerated.  The political fallout of this error has been to keep the public — particularly state and local elected officials and permittees — in an uproar over a false “overpopulation” that BLM’s faulty figures portray.  BLM needs to correct these errors and, more importantly, acknowledge them to the public.  You must stop this phony-story-gone-viral of a wild-horse population-explosion.

Fraudulent Data Emboldens Scofflaw Ranchers, Costs Wild Horses Their Freedom

In many allotments throughout the West, permit-holders have refused to recognize BLM’s rules regarding season-of-use.  The notorious Cliven Bundy and permittees Kevin Borba and Dan Filippini blatantly defied BLM’s authority; yet they were pacified with non-enforcement and concessions.  BLM enables and rewards such bad behavior by caving in to it.  Meanwhile, poor LaVoy Finnicum lost his life because, per precedent BLM stand-downs, he concluded that BLM and FBI would not enforce the law.

There are likely permittees in Wyoming emulating Bundy, Borba, and Filippini.  Certainly RSGA has no respect for the Act that was meant to protect America’s mustangs.  Wild horses must not lose their freedom merely so that BLM can placate greedy and rebellious elements in the human population.  If you “come clean” and admit your errors, it will tend to deflate the “head-of-steam” that elected officials and ranchers are building due to the false appearance created by fictitious herd-growth figures.    

Voluntary Non-Use of AUMs Reflects Lowered Demand for Beef

BLM and its permit-holders protest that a lot of the livestock AUMs are in non-use, sometimes mandatorily, other times voluntarily.  They complain loudly, pointing to the seeming excess of wild horses — an illusion caused by BLM’s phony figures.

Bloomberg News published an article recently concerning the state of the beef market.  In the US, consumer-demand for beef is down to levels not seen in 40 years.  The US cattle-herd population is at a 60-year low and is expected to drop further.  The article explored why this situation exists.

Bloomberg noted that beef is a premium product, with a significantly higher price-point.  US consumers are turning to lower-cost meats, such as pork and chicken.  Further, the strength of the dollar makes US beef exports less competitive in the global marketplace.  Thus, it does not make economic sense for a rancher to produce more beef, given current conditions.  So, reduced demand and lowered cattle-population are important reasons why AUM-usage is down.  It has nothing to do with wild horses.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-04/beef-isn-t-for-dinner-anymore-as-americans-devour-cheaper-pork

Authorized v. Actual Livestock Use

BLM also argues that actual livestock use is lower than authorized or permitted use.  But because actual use is whatever the permit-holders report on Form 4130-5, and because BLM essentially takes the permit-holders’ at their word and bills accordingly … eventually … after-the-fact … maybe … or maybe not — see Bundy, Cliven — the actual-use number is unverified and likely grossly under-reported.

Actual Grazing Use Report — Form 4130-5

As alluded to above, permittees are required to submit an annual report of how many livestock they put out on their respective allotments and for how long.  Form 4130-5 “Annual Grazing Use Report” is used for this purpose.  It’s a one-page document that BLM estimates to take 15 minutes to complete “… including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form.”

http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/noc/business/eforms.Par.2064.File.dat/4130-005.pdf

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-08-22/html/2014-20049.htm

Form 4130-5 is the basis on which BLM bills the permit-holders.  It is also the basis for the claim of reduced-use.  Thus, grazing-use is a self-reporting, self-certifying system that is rarely verified.  The ease with which permittees could game the system is obvious.  Consequently, the veracity of the reports is suspect.

USDA Reports Beef-Cattle Now Weigh More — AUM Calculations Need to Be Reformed

The same Bloomberg article noted that the average weight of a beef-cattle animal has increased to 1,385 pounds, up 32 pounds from just the previous year.  Please note that the AUM was originally set per a weight of 1,000 pounds.  But, in the meantime, what the industry refers to as “genetics” — technologically-advanced selective breeding — has increased average weight by 38½ percent, with better-than two percent of that increase coming in the past year alone.  BLM needs to charge more AUMs for cattle — as well as charge more per AUM — in accordance with true market-rates.

On the other hand, the AUM for a horse presumes a 1,000-pound saddle horse.  But mustangs tend to be smaller and lighter, weighing 700 to 800 pounds.  Moreover, in contrast to cattle, wild horses are “easy-keepers” that thrive on poor-quality forage.

BLM needs to revisit and reform how it assesses forage-usage for cattle versus wild horses.  Cattle need an AUM surcharge; wild horses need an AUM discount that reflects the less-than-one AUM per horse, giving BLM the flexibility to place more wild horses on the range.

HELICOPTERS — Inappropriate for Counting Wild Horses

Aerial Inventories Produce Gross Over-Counts

BLM likes to attribute impossibly-high estimates to “improved inventory methods.”  But as has been pointed out to BLM previously, the “mark-resight” and the “simultaneous double-count” methods, conducted by helicopter, overcount the population.  Indeed, as the report by the specialty-contractor who conducted the Red Desert Complex (also in Wyoming) census emphasized, there are assumptions and caveats that must be considered when evaluating the numbers, including the potential for having double-counted due to “horse activity (moving).”  The method itself exaggerates the numbers.  See pdf-pages 84-87 at the link below.

http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/rfo/red-desert.html

I note that the 2015 Checkerboard Census Report also mentioned that assumptions had been used but contended that an under-count was likely.  That assumption is not only incorrect but opposite to the facts.  When more horses are “seen” than could possibly exist, the method is faulty and likely fraudulent, given the “cooperation” of RGSA.  Finally, I note the absence of photographs.

Both the Roundup-Contractor and BoLM Are Looking to “Make Their Numbers”

A glance at the map of the HMAs in question reveals that they are contiguous, and public lands are interspersed with private lands.  How easy it would be for a profit-motivated helicopter-pilot to “poach” wild horses from strictly public lands by driving them into the target-area.  What would stop the helicopter-pilot from capturing wild horses that never set hoof outside outside their rightful HMA?

In its response to this topic, which was raised during scoping, BoLM said that it would monitor the helicopter’s flight-path to keep this from happening.  But BoLM’s purpose in conducting equid cleansing is to please the permittees.  BoLM has committed to removing 500 wild horses to comply with the Consent Decree, and the roundup-contractor expects to earn the amount that corresponds to 500 captured wild horses.  The helicopter-pilot is looking to “make his numbers” but so is BoLM.  Thus, BoLM has a conflict of interest in needing the contractor to remove any 500 horses that he can find.  The wild horses are fungible — one is as good as another — to make the pilot his money and to enable BoLM to fulfill its agreement with the arbitrary Consent Decree.  Consequently, wild horses would lose their freedom for the private profit of RSGA and the helicopter-contractor, and for the administrative convenience of BoLM.  Unacceptable.

Dealing with Roving Equids

Horses will roam.  It is their nature.  It is management’s duty to keep them from places they should not be.  Prevention is key.  However, removing horses that have wandered into the checkerboard area just creates a vacuum for other horses to fill.  Thus, removing them is an ineffective population-control strategy.  The elimination of mustangs from an open, accessible habitat results in repeated colonization by more mustangs.  The process begins almost immediately, as horses roam into the area and see that it is attractive and vacant.  Thus, removal is not a true solution — it just perpetuates the situation and leads to the elimination of more mustangs than necessary.  Moreover, the wanderers may be only temporary visitors or refugees, not permanent residents.  Worse yet, they may have been driven into the checkerboard by the helicopter.  RSFO acknowledges as much in the EA, but still pursues the removal-without-return alternative.

Recommendations:  In legitimate instances of straying, RSFO should first encourage the wild horses to return to their proper place, then address those factors that caused the animals to leave home.  Would palatable plantings draw the wild horses to the areas RSFO wants them to use?  What about siting mineral licks deep inside the HMAs, away from the Checkerboard?  Have guzzlers been installed to provide water sources deep within the boundaries?  Aversive conditioning could also be employed to shoo the wild horses into the solid-block public lands.  Certainly, positive reinforcement coupled with aversive conditioning would be an effective and cost-effective solution.  RSFO should specify preventive and reactive measures in this regard as part of its management approach.  Return outsiders to the solid-block public-lands areas of the HMAs, reward that return (hay, mineral-licks, guzzlers), and encourage their “retreat” from the Checkerboard (aversive techniques).

HELICOPTERS — Dangerous to Humans

Scheduled Airliners — Safe; Helicopters — Crash-Prone

As cited in my scoping comments but reiterated here out of concern for staff-wellbeing, the American public considers travel-by-air to be safe, even routine.  Crashes are rare, and fatalities, few.  Thus, it is easy to assume that all flight is safe, which is not the case.

Helicopters are notorious for crashing.  Please compare and contrast Wyoming’s aviation crash-records of scheduled air carriers versus helicopters during the 10-year period from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015 — per the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB):

Scheduled Air Carriers (“Part 121”)

    1  — Accidents (minor events excluded)

    0  — Accidents that resulted in fatalities

Helicopters

  13  — Accidents (minor events excluded)

    1  — Accident that resulted in a fatality

    1  — Number of persons that died in that accident

In Wyoming, for the period in question, there has been 1 accident involving a scheduled air carrier.  Nobody died.  Helicopters, in contrast, have had 13 accidents — 13 times more — including 1 that involved a fatality.  At the link below, you can replicate the searches to verify these data.

http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/index.aspx

Helicopter Census Method Puts BLM Personnel at Risk

BLM’s environmental assessments often allude to the use of “multiple experienced observers” (presumedly BLM staffers) to count and photograph wild horses — or what they think are wild horses — while being flown in grid patterns over the range.

Given the crash-proneness of helicopters, BoLM could face a tragedy — with the loss of key personnel, friends, and colleagues in an accident.  Counting wild horses does not justify this risky method.

HELICOPTERS — Dangerous to Horses

Inhumane Roundup Method

BoLM’s use of helicopters to round up the wild horses is inhumane.  The horses are terrified by the thunderous, high-intensity noise as they are pursued by the low-flying helicopter.  They are blasted with sand, dirt, and gravel from the rotor wash.  Panicked by the chaos, they stampede, injure themselves, and become separated from their babies and bandmates.  Mares miscarry.  Foals become orphans.  Many horses die from stress, even more have to be euthanized.  Helicopter-style roundups are abusive, especially to foals, older horses, and pregnant mares.  This is unacceptable.

Recommendations:  Helicopter-style roundups must be abolished.  Roundups in extreme temperatures — either the summer heat or the winter cold — must end.  Stampeding horses for countless miles — causing them to lather with sweat and then bringing them to an abrupt halt — must be prohibited.  Forcing the horses to run long distances over rough terrain, thereby wrecking the delicate hooves of the newborns and resulting in lameness and even death — must never happen again.

BoLM should institute the kind approach to gathering wild horses.  Roundups should be done slowly, quietly, and gently using the bait-and-water trapping approach.  This method also tends to preserve family unity, which is essential to wild-horse social structure.

Abusive Behavior by Helicopter Pilots during Gathers

As has been documented on video, helicopter-pilots conducting roundups become frustrated by horses’ lack of cooperation.  Impatient to get the animals moving faster, the pilots ram the horses with the aircrafts’ landing skids, in some cases even flipping the creatures into a somersault.  There is video documentation of such abuses, and a court found that they had indeed occurred.  Worse yet, much of the abuse goes undetected because the roundup-pilot generally flies solo.

There has also been documentation of contractor-wranglers whipping horses in the face, kicking them in the head, dragging them by the neck with ropes, using electric prods on them.

No Horse Left Behind

Helicopter-contractors are incentivized to leave no horse ungathered.  In addition to the flat fee-for-service, they earn a per-horse-fee.  Thus, they have reason to go after every last horse in order to “make their numbers.”  Indeed, during the November 2012 Wassuk (NV) HMA roundup, we saw how determined the contractors were to get their per-horse payment.  We also observed how the attending USDA veterinarian and the BoLM officials present did nothing to stop the abuse.  What’s more, this cruelty took place in plain view of observers holding video cameras.  Imagine what went on out of sight and off camera.

HELICOPTERS — Dangerous to the Environment

Possibility of a Post-Crash Fire’s Leading to a Wildfire

The crash of a roundup-helicopter could result in a fuel-spill.  Especially in these times of drought, when there is an abundance of dry brush, a wildfire could be sparked.  Thus, even the environment is at risk from the use of helicopters to round up wild horses.  It bears repeating that, because herd management areas are typically in remote locations, it would be difficult to put out a post-crash fire and keep it from getting out of control.

CONCLUSIONS

1.  RSFO should repudiate the arbitrary and corrupt Consent Decree.

2.  RSFO’s Field Manager should stop making seditious announcements, leading rogue ranchers to believe that public lands are private and emboldening them to break the law, putting public safety at risk.

3.  RSFO should select either Alternative A — No Action, or Alternative C — Removal-and-Return.

———————————————-

Sincerely,

Marybeth Devlin

6880 SW 27th ST

Miami, FL 33155-2916

marybethdevlin@bellsouth.net

305  665-1727

———————————————-

References:

§ 1334. Private maintenance; numerical approximation; strays on private lands; removal; destruction by agents THE WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS ACT OF 1971 (PUBLIC LAW 92-195) Retrieved from

18 U.S. Code § 2383 – Rebellion or insurrection.  Cornell University Law School.  Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383

18 U.S. Code § 2384 – Seditious conspiracy.  Cornell University Law School.  Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.  (2016, August-September)  BLM Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout Continues – Action Needed Today!  Retrieved from http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=23543

Public corruption.  Definition.  Cornell University Law School.  Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/public_corruption

Romboy, Dennis.  (2015, December 18)  “Judge sentences San Juan Commissioner Phil Lyman to 10 days in jail, 3 years of probation.”  Deseret News.  Deseret Digital Media.  Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865643995/Judge-sentences-San-Juan-Commissioner-Phil-Lyman-to-10-days-jail-3-years-of-probation.html?pg=all

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




PZP advocates put wild horses at risk of sterilization after roundup

Stop the Roundups!

Protect Mustangs calls for a freeze on roundups for scientific reevaluation

Tonopah, NV (October 31, 2014)–The Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office is rounding up about 120 wild horses from within the Reveille Allotment and Herd Management Area (HMA) located approximately 50 miles east of Tonopah, NV to remove alleged excess wild horses on 600,000 acres of public land.

“The BLM is wiping out America’s wild horses and taxpayers are paying for the abuse,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We need to stop the roundups and protect our native wild horses.”

The roundup will stampede native wild horse families by helicopter over a fragile ecosystem and possible sage grouse habitat in the Great Basin Desert. Often wild horses are injured and die in roundups. The treacherous roundup is paid for with tax dollars, and began October 30, 2014. Most herds need to be rounded up before given PZP.

After the roundup, approximately 70 wild horses will be permanently removed, 60 wild horses will be sent to holding facilities in Ridgecrest, California and about 10 horses will be offered for adoption after the roundup in Tonopah, NV on November 8. The remaining 50 wild horses will be released back into the HMA for a post roundup population of 98 wild horses, putting the survivors at risk. The minimum number for genetic variability is 150 wild horses.

Often the BLM returns wild horses with conformation defects to the range, instead of placing them in adoptive homes or long-term holding where they will not breed. Apparently the agency doesn’t realize that by returning wild horses with defects they will ruin the breeding pool. The BLM claims mares selected to maintain herd characteristics will be released back to the HMA. The public must watchdog the agency to ensure wild horses with defects are pulled from the breeding pool and rehomed. Euthanizing them is not an option supported by the American public.

The informed public is outraged over an EPA approved restricted use pesticide called PZP, made from pigs ovaries, to be used on native wild horses. PZP advocates campaign rigorously to treat mares with the Porcine Zona Pellucidae (PZP-22) in order to temporarily sterilize mares. PZP advocates hail the use of PZP in spite of the fact that wild horses are underpopulated on millions of acres of public land.

Experimental research on ovary damage in mares given the immunocontraceptive PZP is used to hone the drug for eventual human use. This could be where the “follow the money” piece fits in. Wild horse advocates are furious America’s herds are being used as lab rats. Science has proven the drug sterilizes wild horses after multiple use. PZP advocates are pushing for BLM to manage wild horses “in the wild” using these risky drugs.

The devastation of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment appears to be subject to a 1987 District Court Order and two orders issued by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in 2001 and 2002, requiring BLM conduct an annual inventory of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment and initiate a roundup to remove alleged excess native horses from the Allotment when the inventory shows that population numbers exceed the out of date Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 138 horses.

Current AML does not represent healthy herd populations and lacks scientific merit. AML must be updated to ensure healthy herds remain on public land. The herd census must never fall below 150 wild horses to maintain genetic variability.

The current estimated population, based on previous inventory flights is 168 wild horses, according to BLM. This is the low end of the genetic viability scale. The orders need to be challenged based on scientific reevaluation of wild horses benefiting the ecosystem as a native species, livestock causing range damage and the minimum number of wild horses needed for genetic variability.

“We must ensure native wild horses can survive upcoming environmental changes,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The minimum population for a genetically variable herd is 150. Why are PZP advocates and the BLM allowing wild horse herds to fall below safe numbers?”

According to a press release from National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released June 5, 2013, “The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) current practice of removing free-ranging horses from public lands promotes a high population growth rate, and maintaining them in long-term holding facilities is both economically unsustainable and incongruent with public expectations,” says a new report by the National Research Council.

The NAS report states there is “no evidence” of overpopulation. Only tobacco science and spin backs up BLM’s population claim to justify roundups and fertility control/sterilizations. PZP advocates lobbied NAS to have fertility control recommended even though the herds are underpopulated.

Roundup activities within the Reveille HMA were analyzed in the 2010 Reveille HMA Wild Horse Gather Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA) and the 2014 Reveille Wild Horse Gather Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA). The EA, DNA, and Decision Record can be accessed on the Reveille Wild Horse Gather website: http://on.doi.gov/10qLBlh.

Members of the public are encouraged to witness the helicopter stampede and document America’s icons losing their freedom to spread awareness that cruel roundups must stop. Observation protocols and visitor information are available at http://on.doi.gov/1xAMeTp. The BLM will post updates, photos and other information about the roundup on the Reveille website and on the hotline at 775-861-6700 throughout the course of the roundup.

The BLM is wiping out wild horses for the extractive industry and New Energy Frontier in the West. The agency manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM focuses on their mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2013, the BLM generated $4.7 billion in receipts from public lands.

BLM’s roundups disturb the thriving natural ecological balance by disturbing habitat dynamics. This crime against nature causes abnormally high birthrate and puts native wild horses at risk of inbreeding.

“We are calling for an immediate freeze on roundups and removals for scientific reevaluation,” states Novak. “Right now native wild horses are at risk of being ruined by bad policy.”

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of native and wild horses. The group is against using PZP in the wild. Today most wild herds are threatened with low numbers and a lack of genetic variability. Using PZP in a sanctuary setting where acreage is limited is a different situation. Wild horses must not be managed in the wild as if they were a zoo exhibit.

# # #

Links of interest™:

Info on PZP sterilizing mares: The Effects of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception on Health and Behavior of Feral Horses (Equus caballus), Princeton http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01vt150j42p

Princeton study on the pros and cons of adoption and immunocontraception: http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/IEC.Rubenstein.pdf Not sure about EWA’s position on PZP now they might have embraced it like some others have.

Jamie Jackson’s piece on PZP: http://protectmustangs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PM-Jamie-Jackson-Using_Science_to_Improve_the_BLM_Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Program.pdf

Management of Wild Horses with Porcinezona Pellucida Pellucide: History, Consequences and Future Strategies, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez, Princeton: http://bit.ly/1rJywKl

Restricted use pesticide info: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-de info: Jan-12.pdf

Injection-Site Reactions in Wild Horses (Equus caballus) Receiving an Immunocontraceptive Vaccine, By James E. Roelle and Jason I. Ransom, http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5038/

Pilot project to treat wild horses in Fish Springs communityhttp://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/april/blm_approves_pilot.html

and http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/pzp-pilot-project-treat-wild-horses-fish-springs-community

BLM Nevada Advisory Council Endorses Fertility Control Plan (Oct. 20, 2014) http://www.returntofreedom.org/blm-nevada-advisory-council-endorses-fertility-control-plan-october20-2014/

BLM partners with The Cloud Foundation in the Pryorshttp://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/main_story.Par.31432.File.dat/TopStoryHorse.pdf

Why end natural selection in the Pryors? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941

Are wild horses at risk of being sterilized due to an advocacy campaign? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6356

Ecologist Craig Downer speaks out against using PZP in the Pryorshttp://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178

Horse contraceptive study raises concerns  Horsetalk, NZ: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2010/10/220.shtml#ixzz3Hti8ioCv

Appeal to stop the wild horse wipe outhttp://protectmustangs.org/?p=6527

The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America by Craig Downer PhD candidate: http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12

Wild Horse Conspiracy by Craig Downer:  www.amazon.com/dp/1461068983

Conformation defectshttp://www.thehorse.com/articles/10115/conformation-in-horses

Genetic viabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_viability

Genetic variabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_variability

J. Kirkpatrick team get $100K for wild horse fertility control drug PZPhttp://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/jay-kirkpatrick-team-get-100k-for-wild-horse-fertility-control-drug-pzp/

Making PZP at The Science and Conservation Centerhttp://www.sccpzp.org

Native wild horseshttp://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Petition for shelter and shade for captive wild horses and burroshttp://www.change.org/p/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

Petition for 10 year moratorium on wild horse roundups for recovery and studieshttps://www.change.org/p/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Petition to defund and stop the wild horse roundupshttp://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Join the Walking Billboard Campaign to STOP THE ROUNDUPS in Nevadahttps://www.booster.com/protect-mustangs-nevada

Sample of viral news clippings: https://newsle.com/AnneNovak

Anne Novak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak

Protect Mustangs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProtectMustangs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

www.ProtectMustangs.org

Wild & Free not Slaughtered

Protect Mustangs.org

Protect Mustangs.org

Contact your elected officials. Go meet with them to respectfully request they stop horse slaughter, stop transport to horse slaughter and ensure America’s wild horses never go to slaughter again!

We need your help to sponsor wild horses, help with pasture rental, help purchase hay, help buy panels for 2 round pens and shelters, help with the cost to repair fencing, help cover veterinary and transport costs so we can save more wild horses and care for the ones in our outreach program. We are 100% volunteer and donate our time gentling and caring for the wild horses. All money donated goes directly to help the wild horses. Every dollar counts. Please help!

Donate via www.PayPal.com to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org Our mailing address is Protect Mustangs. PO Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705. We are filing for our 501c3 so your donations will be applicable to 2013. Thank you!

Follow us on Facebook for news and updates! https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

 

Did you know America’s wild horses are indigenous?

Indigenous horses

Science and technology have proven America’s wild horses are native to this land. Their scientific name is E. caballus. Paleontological data shows that E. caballus originated in North America between one and two million years ago. DNA analysis shows the origin to be 1.7 million years ago.

Although we’ve been taught that America’s wild horses were brought over by the Spanish after a period of Ice Age extinction, today this belief is being challenged by new scientific discoveries, migration research, Native American history and contemporary investigations into the Spanish Inquisition’s censorship about the Americas. For example, the Equus scotti fossil, recently found near Las Vegas, has caused scientists to revise their thinking on the extinction and evolution of horses in America.

Even so, the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior, refuses to acknowledge wild horses as native wildlife because they would be forced to change their management practices which are now biased toward the extractive and livestock industries.

The federal agency claims that there are too many wild horses leading to overgrazing when the truth is that commercial livestock has been documented to cause range damage.

The National Academy of Sciences reported in June 2013 that there is no evidence of overpopulation to back up the BLM’s claims for removals.

Management decisions must be based on good science. Without population studies there is no good science.

Currently wild horses are reproducing at a higher rate because they fear extinction from excessive roundups harvesting the herds since 2009. That was the same year the New Energy Frontier projects were fast-tracked for public land–the land where native wild horses live.

Population studies are essential now before it’s too late. Today, 90% of wild horse herds are not genetically viable. They are in danger of being wiped out.

America needs an intervention to save native wild horses including a moratorium on roundups, removals and population interference. We must begin scientific population studies before we loose America’s indigenous horses forever.

Contact your elected officials today. Ask them for an immediate moratorium on roundups, removals and fertility interferences for urgent population studies. Science must guide the management of America’s indigenous wild horses or they will be managed to extinction.

© Anne Novak, all rights reserved. Sharing for educational purposes crediting © Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs with a link back is welcome.

 

Why are they rounding up America’s indigenous wild horses?

It’s all about Fracking for natural gas (LNG) to EXPORT to Asia.

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

Why Asia? Because their economy is booming and they need tons of electricity for their lifestyle. Why not roof top solar? It’s clean and green . . .

Control the energy source of a country and you control that country.

America’s indigenous wild horses are living on top of huge natural gas deposits and pipeline routes so they round them up and dispose of them while fooling the public about it until it’s too late to realize you voted for a crook to represent YOU in government.

Did you know the BLM wants to wipe out native wild horses and burros in California and Nevada?

PM Gov Land Map.jpg.jpe

Did you know about the important April 25th meeting in Cedarville, Ca.? Can you attend to champion indigenous wild horses and historic burros? They will talk about wiping out the majority of wild horses left on northeastern California’s Twin Peaks range due to the 2012 Rush Fire.

“The changes could result in amendments affecting public lands managed by the BLM’s Alturas, Eagle Lake and Surprise field offices”, said Jeff Fontana, a spokesman for the federal agency, according to the Sacramento Bee.Who can go to this important meeting?

The BLM will push through the anti-wild horse plan unless advocates, lawyers and members of the public go to voice their support for native wild horses to live wild and free on public land, unharassed and in genetically viable herds.

Why is the BLM doing this? They are fast tracking energy projects on wild horse and burro herd management areas (public sanctuaries) as well as doing back room deals on water rights and more.

” . . . The Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Steering Committee will also discuss wild horse and burro management in northeastern California. A committee exploring options for reopening Cedarville’s lumber mill also will present a report, Fontana said.

The steering committee is one of three nationally established by Congress to advise federal officials on stewardship issues. It works on a full consensus basis to promote innovative range management approaches.

The public meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the BLM office at 602 Cressler St. in Cedarville.”

Read more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/17/5347990/blm-meeting-will-discuss-grouse.html

BLM natural resource specialist asks for internal cleanup

By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Memorandum:
To: BLM All

From: Stan Olmstead – Natural Resource Specialist

Date: September 28, 2012

Re: Last Formal Comment on the Commitment to the Mission.

Never looking through “rose colored glasses” it is obvious that we have monumental
environmental concerns both in the nation and on the planet and are in need of serious
solutions. The U.S. government has all the abilities to perform state-of-the-arts
environmental management and yet we continue to fail. The land management agencies
have hard-working people and they put in sincere time to perform their work. However if
the Vernal Field Office is representative, there is concern in the implementation of the
BLM mission. The Vernal Office has placed priority on the exploitation of public land
for commodities. This effort is because of a focus on development of energy; due to a
fossil fuel fixation, politics, Energy Policy Act (2005), Vernal Field Office RMP (2008),
and office managers that do not understand their purpose. A quarter of the employees of
the Vernal Office have a personal interest, academic knowledge, and intent to serve the
American public in the performance of the mission. The mission and natural resource
knowledge is their prime reason for working with the Bureau. The intent of the natural
resource professional is to wisely manage habitat and fauna of public land for our
citizens.

U.S. history has shown repeated failure in the care of the natural world. We place
exploitation of natural resources and profits from these resources ahead of wisdom. In the
past we mined, logged, grazed and exploited the natural world. Pressure on our political
officials to reverse this attitude and stop deterioration of natural systems was necessary
and resulted in excellent environmental laws. The U.S. has lost numerous species and yet
we do not act for their ethical protection and subsequently in defense of our own healthy
environment. At the Vernal Office little concern has been shown to care for sensitive
species (mountain plover, sage grouse, hookless cactus). We promote energy
development without stop and continue to measure natural resources by dollar value.

The mission of the BLM is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public
lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. As civil servants we
are obligated to all Americans to perform the BLM mission. Yet our elected, appointed
and agency administrators ask us to focus on commodities and economics as opposed to
environmental health. Commodities and economic gains are easier to measure. We work
with our elected officials but we work for our citizens. Outside influences that lead us
away from our required service to the American citizen and the BLM mission, should be
repelled by the servant. Our service to the American people is to fulfill the mission
through science, law, regulations and “team work”. Our fellow civil servants that
administer the Bureau should insist that we work together in a common goal to fulfill the
intent of the mission. Yet the Vernal Office does not work together as a professional
team, instead the office works as fragmented groups, individually following bureaucratic
requirements catering to the exploiter and political antagonist.  There is little thought for
the future by those in charge for real land health.

Health and diversity of public lands are natural entities. They do not include oil wells,
livestock, crested wheatgrass nor guzzlers. These are developments and tools to exploit
and have nothing to do with health and diversity. Productivity is not synonymous with
commodities. Protection of healthy soils, vegetation, clean air & water and a natural
fauna are the true products, which we should diligently promote before commodity
extraction. Science teaches us to not act until we know that harm will not occur to the
natural system. Whereas development asks for proof of damage to the natural system
before you restrict. The natural environment and subsequently the human environment
will be injured seriously if balance is not restored. U.S. federal land management
agencies have it in their power to be the best land stewards anywhere in the world. We
fail not in ability but in our attitude, a lack of understanding, lack of futuristic thinking
and our implementation. Our actions are based on outside forces inconsistent with the
intended mission and wisdom.

The BLM employee that did not study for a career in natural science frequently works for
the Bureau for different reasons than the natural resource professional and it appears from
experience that those who work for these different reasons are unable to visualize the
intended mission. Knowing environmental health, diversity and the true customer must
be known by the team before we can fulfill our service. Without a personal interest for
the health of the land it is difficult to implement a professional understanding. If as some
have said incorrectly that “their job was to promote oil & gas” they fail in the mission
and service to the people.

Aldo Leopold had four requisites for land-health:
1. Cease throwing away its parts
2. Handle it gently
3. Recognize that its importance transcends economics
4. Don’t let too many people tinker with it.

However Vernal:
1. Lost the mountain plover; the only known population in Utah while at the same
time the species is in decline throughout its range. Little effort to prevent this loss
was implemented and is a serious mission departure.
2. Plugging and abandonment of well sites have not been a priority. Numerous oil &
gas wells have not produced for more than 15 years and yet these sites remain un-
reclaimed. Notable of these is Seep Ridge #1; Lease #U-6616 & Seep Ridge #3;
Lease #U-10178-A. Why is it that after more than 20 years of non-production
these two wells remain idle and un-reclaimed? Federal regulation for well
abandonment (Title 43 CFR 3162.3-4) requires abandonment.
3. Land reclamation after use still appears difficult to solve. What’s the problem?
The user wishes to profit from the land and the land is owned by the citizens.
Insist that the user fulfills the reclamation requirement before permitting
additional use. Our only task is to identify need and confirm success.
4. Animal Unit Months; we have grazing allotments, allotments have specified
AUM’s and grazing occurs. Yet we disturb large percentages of our allotments
located in oil & gas fields and AUMs remain the same. If you lose 30% of the
forage in a specific allotment it is logical to reduce the AUMs by 30%.

In the Vernal Field Office we have shown no concern for the cumulative impact of the
developed area and provide in NEPA documents little quantitative analysis. We fragment
habitat extensively in energy areas resulting in ecosystem damage not unlike that which
occurred from over grazing and other historic land exploitation. It took decades for
government to stop over grazing and move toward land health. Today scars remain from
time before the Taylor Grazing Act. We have lost the only population of mountain plover
in the state of Utah, contrary to science, ethics, and policy (BLM Manual 6480 – Special
Status Species Management). We have watched as direct and indirect impacts have
literally killed individuals of a federally listed plant species with only a token effort to
prevent future actions and not an apology for our failure. Analysis of water depletion
associated with endangered fish of the Colorado River system is accomplished through a
series of documented explanations that have no attempt to monitor the quantity of
depletion and is inconsistent with critical habitat for the species. The air within the
Uintah Basin continues to be fouled in our effort to maximize energy and economic gain.
Climate change receives but token language in our NEPA documents. Socio-economics
are measured on dollar values gained without analysis showing measurement of
“degradation/benefit” to the community. Air quality causes respiratory ailments, traffic
within the community is industrial and large sums of money leave the community to
outside corporations. A myriad of other community related issues are in need of detailed
analysis.

We need to alter our bureaucratic method of operation. Focus on our mission and team
implementation as professional civil servants. Work together as a unified team of
professionals to implement the science, law, and regulations for service to the American
people. Discontinue our practice of placing our budget on projects that in truth are
developments in disguise and termed mitigation. We should utilize the budget on
monitoring and over-site. The use of the public land is the burden of the user to minimize
injury and restore to its natural state.

Without serious fulfillment of the mission we continue to harm public land as it has been
harmed so frequently in our historic past. Be honest about what is happening. It is easier
to break something than to fix it, so let us stop breaking the land.

“Our Quest, is to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only
in the mind”- John Mayers; Geologist.

Letter to the President

Mustang flag with stars by Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin) for © Protect Mustangs

Dear Mr. President,

Wild horses are indigenous to North America. They will heal the land while creating biodiversity to balance out the surge of grazing, energy, mining and water projects on public land.

We understand your priority to foster the New Energy Frontier and therefore we ask you to find the win-win so America’s wild horses and burros–our living treasures–will not become extinct from the industrialization of western public lands.

It’s essential to leave viable herds (families) on public land so the wind horses and burros can reverse desertification because of their nature to forage and roam.

Predators will control the population as part of nature’s cycle and only the fittest will survive. This cuts out the cost of buying costly pharmaceuticals to control reproduction.

We know all the 51,000 wild horses in holding are at risk of going to slaughter and ask that they be returned to public land where they will cost the government almost nothing to live out their lives. Most male horses in holding have already been sterilized so they will not be able to reproduce.

We oppose creating additional herds of sterile wild horses as they don’t exhibit wild horse behaviors and could threaten the indigenous horse with extinction.

We stand with thousands of Americans to respectfully ask you to stop the cruel wild horse and burro roundups, so that an accurate accounting of horses on the range can take place and alternative sustainable management techniques could be applied to save the indigenous horse.

We thank you in advance for becoming a hero for America’s indigenous horses.

In gratitude,

Anne Novak

 

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

Protect Mustangs

P.O. Box 5661

Berkeley, California 94705