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ROAM Would Expand BLM Horse Board to Include Activists, Term Limits

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by Steven Long, editor of “Horseback Magazine”

The Restore our American Mustang Act, (ROAM), if it passes, will bring

Pryor Mountain wild horses captured by BLM, Sept. 2009

Pryor Mountain wild horses captured by BLM, Sept. 2009

radical change to the way the current Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board of the Bureau of Land Management does business.

In particular, the new legislation would give animal welfare advocates a seat at the table of a board that heretofore was dominated by ranchers, mineral, and hunting interests.

The proposed legislation changes the makeup of the board saying it “shall include three representatives of the livestock industry; three representatives of the environmental community; three representatives of the animal protection community; and three scientists with expertise in wildlife management, animal husbandry, or natural resource management.”

It also opens up appointment to the board stating ” Nomination of members of the board shall be conducted by public notice and comment…and shall be for a term of four years. No individual shall serve more than two consecutive terms.”

Some members have served on the current board for decades. Appointment to the board has largely ignored wild horse advocates.

The act has passed the House by a large margin. It is now in the senate and appears to enjoy strong support.

At a meeting of the current board held in Alexandria, VA, last week, members largely ignored advocates, some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to express their concerns. One board member walked out.

A “gather” of wild horses in Montana’s Pryor Mountain wilderness of a herd of Mustangs made famous on the PBS series “Nature,” by documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens has provoked a tsunami of outrage at the bureau and its current wild horse board prompting thousands of calls and letters to Congress and the White House.

Louisiana’s Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), has introduced legislation which would force the BLM to completely revise its wild horse and burro policy.

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  1. Wild Horses – Mustangs on the Hill

    Last Tuesday September 29th, wild horse supporters from all over the country converged on the Hill in Washington D.C. to support wild horses and the ROAM Act, now S.1579. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1579
    The ROAM Act has passed the House and is now in the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in the Senate. We concentrated our efforts in getting meetings with Senators on that Committee.
    The day started out with a Press Conference and Briefing at Longworth House. Ginger Kathrens introduced all the speakers.
    We started with a slideshow of the disastrous Sand Wash roundup last fall,

    then Ginger spoke about the Pryor Mountain Roundup two weeks ago.

    The next speaker was Hope Ryden, who is the author of America’s Last Wild Horses and was instrumental in the passage of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act.
    Next, Congressman Raul Grijalva spoke to us. He has been championing the wild horse cause and along with Congressman Rahall was successful in having it passed in the House. The last speaker of the morning was Howard Boggess, elder of the Crow Nation, who grew up alongside the horses of the Pryor Mountains and who speaks of his deep love for the horses and the land.

    Then Chris Heyde of Animal Welfare Institute gave us some pointers and armed us with packets of information.

    My first meeting was at Senator Mark Udall’s office since I am from Colorado. Ginger Kathrens and several other Coloradans attended, and we had a good meeting, and Hope Rydan joined us and talked about her work with Mark Udall’s uncle, Stuart Udall, at the time of the passage of the 1971 Act. My next meeting was at Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington’s office, and then the last meeting was when I went along with the California contingent to Senator Barbara Boxer’s office. All of the meetings I attended were with aides, not the Senators, but were very productive, and we had some spirited discussions. Many other people had meetings in other Committee members’ offices but the one we were all most excited to hear about was Ginger’s meeting with Senator Mary Landrieu of Lousiana, who has promised to make the wild horse issue her priority. She had just championed a tough new bill in the Senate that requires the BLM to come up with a new plan for managing wild horses and will not allow BLM funds to be used for the destruction of wild horses.
    This was my first time on the Hill and a huge learning experience. I was inspired by all of my fellow wild horse supporters who all bring different strengths and knowledge to the table. The fight to get the ROAM Act passed in the Senate has just begun, but it is off to a great start!
    The non- profit Cloud Foundation is dedicated to preventing the extinction of Cloud’s herd through education, media events and programming, and public involvement. The Foundation is also determined to protect other wild horse herds on public lands, especially isolated herds with unique characteristics and historical significance.

    Watch PBS PREVIEWS | Nature “Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions

    http://www.pbs.org/nature/c… Sunday, Oct. 25, 8PM. The continuing saga of Cloud, the wild, white stallion of the Arrowhead Mountains of Montana. Now a confident band stallion in his prime, Cloud and his family.

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  2. A MUST READ – the WHOLE article, about Salazar, just copied parts (hope I was allowed to do this) from Denver Westword News, April 01, 2009 by Alan Prendergast:

    “…the Colorado senator’s own speedy confirmation as Secretary of the Interior. He’d expected a cordial reception, but nothing quite like this.…There were “literally thousands of people” lined up to greet him, he recalls, bunching up along the grand staircase at the entrance and forming a gauntlet along the muraled corridors. They clapped and cheered and reached out to shake his hand. It was like a scene from one of the Rocky movies or the frenetic climax of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — the put-upon workers welcoming a new champion, a liberator…The emotion of the moment wasn’t lost on Salazar. These people, he told himself, are ready for a change…he’d vowed during his confirmation hearing to “clean up the mess” and restore integrity to the department…
    “We are no longer doing business as usual,” he declared. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”…
    … What better means to present the new Secretary as a man of gumption and grit, ready to chase the varmints out of town?…
    …The Secretary of the Interior has long been one of the least scrutinized cabinet positions, even though it amounts to being king of an empire of riches…
    …But as Salazar seeks to strike his own version of balance, former DOI officials and veteran employees say that his greatest task will be to reform the toxic culture inside the sprawling bureaucracy. The department has long been subject to internecine feuding and inertia, they say, and the Bush administration only compounded the problem with its mania for secrecy and covert efforts to ignore or manipulate science in its push for energy development…
    …”Eight years of secrecy has really changed things. Even without it, every step takes so much time — and we’re dealing with species that are going down rapidly.”
    … budgets shrank and scientific papers were re-evaluated and re-interpreted to say exactly the opposite of what they really meant. The focus had shifted from science-based enforcement of the Endangered Species Act to all-out efforts to take species off the endangered list that were interfering with timber, grazing, energy and development interests. …A 2005 survey of FWS scientists revealed that more than half the respondents knew of instances in which their findings …
    …Baca … He has some advice for Salazar: “After eight years, the state directors at BLM are probably ready to go. They should be carefully looked at. That’s part of the culture that really has to change.”…”

    Sorry for length, but couldn’t decide out of an 8 page article how to convey how important this is to read.

    I’m copying this onto my next writings to Obama, Biden, Michelle Obama, and Salazar and asking them “Where’s the Sherrif?”

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