Horse News

Wyoming Wild Horses Need Your Help, Now

By on • ( 12 Comments )

Action Alert from The Cloud Foundation

Take easy action here:

You too can submit your own comments regarding the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the White Mountain and Little Colorado Herd Management Areas (HMAs). There are gross inadequacies and faulty data utilized in the scope of this EA that need to be addressed and rectified before a roundup of these two herds should be allowed. If a roundup is conducted this summer, the two herds will be decimated to a total population of 274 horses on over 1 million acres! The Cloud Foundation’s comments for this EA are available online HERE. Read on for a sample format!

Comments need to be submitted by Friday, May 6th, no later than the close of business at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Comments can be submitted via mail at:
White Mountain/Little Colorado EA Comments
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901

or via email at: WhiteMountain_LittleColorado_HMA_WY@blm.gov – With “White Mountain/Little Colorado EA Comments” in the subject line

SAMPLE OUTLINE/FORMAT – Please use your own words!

Jay D’Ewart
BLM Rocks Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901
WhiteMountain_LittleColorado_HMA_WY@blm.gov

Subject: White Mountain/Little Colorado Environmental Assessment Comments

Dear Sir;

I do not support the removal of horses from the White Mountain/Little Colorado Herd Management Areas and encourage you to select the No Action alternative.

While an average of nearly 6,000 head of welfare cattle (or almost 30,000 head of sheep) use this area, you conclude that fewer than 300 horses can live here, even though they roam on over 1 million acres of these public lands. This is truly unfair to the mustangs still living free and to those of us who would one day like to see them in their natural environment in Wyoming.

I ask that you issue a new EA containing up-to-date, factual, realistic statistics with no discrepancies in acreage, census data, and reproduction rates.

When you write your own letter, be sure to include some of the following points:

  • Increase the AMLs in relation to the size of these HMAs.
  • Decrease livestock use on the HMA and allocating more forage to wild horses.
  • Request BLM correctly establish the number of acres within the HMAs
  • The EA provides 2 different numbers for acreage & the BLM issues a completely different number on their website
    • White Mountain: 383,798; 391,409; 393,073 acres
    • Little CO: 630,759; 628,529; 632,327 acres
    • Which is it?
  • Request BLM correctly identify the number of horses within these HMAs by presenting statistics that are not faulty and erroneous
    • Online Little CO in FY2009= 83 horses, and in the EA FY2010 the BLM claims there are 160 horses
    • This is a 100% increase, only possible if all the horses (including stallions and foals) reproduced and there were zero deaths.
  • Point out the impossibility of the population data in the EA –.
    • Little CO went from 160 to 256 in population from April to July (2010), a 60% increase in a two month period!
  • Consider predator management as a way for natural population management
  • This is a no-cost, natural alternative
  • It has worked effectively for nearly 30 years in the Montgomery Pass herd area
  • Even the Pryors saw no population increase for a number of years because of lion predation
    • Do NOT adjust the sex ratios, especially when using fertility control
    • Taxpayers will save at $350,000 in roundup contractor fees & millions more in warehousing the horses if the roundup is called off.
    • Allow for a truly genetically viable herd in Little CO (minimum 100-150 adults) in keeping with the over 600,000 acres in this HMA
    • Protest the cruelty of removing old horses
    • State your support of this American icon and symbol freedom.

    Sincerely,
    [Your name]

Related Articles

Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs

Tagged as: , , , ,

12 replies »

  3. Hi All:

    I saw these ads a couple weeks ago and called the Governor’s office
    regarding the Wild Horses. I told them it was hypocritical because
    the ads present one scenerio showing the beauty while in realty
    they are rounding them up in large numbers. I told them I would
    love to visit their state, but because of the current situation I would
    never make this a family vacation. The state has a lot to offer,
    but not at that price.

    Like

    Reply

  4. Unfortunately, we can all e-mail the BLM til we’re blue in the face and they’re going to do what the heck ever they want. Logic doesn’t play into their game plan. I will sent my e-mail, which will not be read, and in return get one of their nice replies thanking me for my input.. bla bla bla.
    If we’re going to help these horse, it needs to go to another level than e-mails, faxes and nice letters. These people don’t care!

    Like

    Reply

    • Dear Debbie i totally agree this has got to go to the next level soon………………..OR WE WILL HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO FIGHT FOR ??????We CANNOT JUST STAND AND WATCH AND SEND EMAILS FAXES MAKE PHONE CALLS TO THOSE WHO WILL NOT LISTEN!!!!

      Like

      Reply

  5. You can also send with RETURN RECEIPT and that gives proof of delivery. We, then have a track record of the fact that we have responded to the EAs. In the case of a Congressional Investigation, this would be important:

    Certified Mail Return Receipt
    Each USPS Certified Mail letter provides proof of mailing and delivery of a letter. The sender receives a receipt at the time of mailing from the Postal Service. Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested is a product of the US Postal Service that provides information about when a letter is mailed and delivered. A Certified Mail Return Receipt letter is a First Class letter that provides evidence or proof of mailing as well as evidence or proof the Certified Mail letter was delivered. Each letter contains a unique Certified Mail article number that is 21 digits long and the number is express as a bar code on the outside of the letter beginning with a ’70 or ’71′ article number. These article numbers match back to an electronic file used to print the Electronic Return Receipt PDF file. This provides the sender a fast and easy way to store ‘Certified Mail’ Electronic Reports that provide proof of mailing and USPS letter delivery confirmation. Using a Certified Mail Envelope with Electronic Return Receipt™ provides the ‘in-route’ letter tracking and the final letter delivery scan for each letter.

    Today Proof of Service is written in many state laws that favor USPS Certified Mail or USPS Certified Mail Return Receipt service this provides the sender the date of mailing or receipt, because it is noted on the Return Receipt

    Like

    Reply

    • Louie can you put this at Laura’s for thepersionhorse at Deb Coffee’s Open Letter post?? thanks

      Like

      Reply

  6. My comment on the EA:

    Your proposed gather needs to be put on hold and your RMP revisited, as the RMP is in violation of Federal law.

    According to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 as amended (The Act), you should be managing herd areas principally but not exclusively for the welfare of the wild horses and burros. As long as it is not exclusive use it conforms with the multiple-use mandate.

    You will find this in §1332. Definitions As used in this Act- (c) “range” means the amount of land necessary to sustain an existing herd or herds of wild free-roaming horses and burros, which does not exceed their known territorial limits, and which is devoted principally but not necessarily exclusively to their welfare in keeping with the multiple-use management concept for the public lands.

    When the CFRs were written the words “herd area” were used to replace the term range from The Act. Then the word range was used to refer to the sanctuaries authorized in §1333 of The Act; Powers and duties of Secretary, where it says he may designate and maintain specific ranges on public lands as sanctuaries for their protection and preservation. The BLM then assumed that these sanctuaries are the only ranges managed principally for the wild horses and burros, but this is an error.

    You can’t use the definitions provided in the CFR and apply them to The Act. The Act has it’s own definitions. Further more if you would insist that the word range in The Act, only refers to the sanctuaries, you would only be allowed to gather horses from the sanctuaries. According to The Act when it is determined “that an overpopulation exists on a given area of the public lands and that action is necessary to remove excess animals, he shall immediately remove excess animals from the range so as to achieve appropriate management levels.”

    The other argument against principal use for the wild horses and burros, is that the Taylor Grazing Act predates The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. It does, but the Taylor Grazing Act does not require livestock grazing to be the principal use of public lands. Neither does it require that leases and permits be continually renewed.

    There is no reason not to adjust AMLs to allow principal use by wild horses and burros, and reduce livestock grazing to an amount that would protect the ranges. No laws would be violated by this action.

    Hope they read it.

    Like

    Reply

  7. At the risk of sounding like a broken record I go to WY every year. Last year, I went to the Pryors for the first time. To stand at Penn’s Cabin and look out over the Big Horn Canyon was a sight I’ll never forget.

    I don’t approve in the least little bitty iota of what DOI/BLM is up too. I don’t approve of appointing a cattleman to one of the biggest offices in Washington. And Bobby boo boo–I just feel slimed every time I see his pic.

    There are lots of places to go in WY. You can pick up a Year long pass to the National Parks in your home state. You show that pass when you go to Yellowstone. Then you don’t pay to get in. If you go to a local grocery store you pay the locals for your food. Not some food chain. Bring an ice chest. You don’t have to stay in the park. You can stay outside the park and help the local economy.

    And the hiking is unbelievable. The wildlife is breathtaking.

    Sure its the homestate of SS. But I don’t go into her area. So she isn’t getting my revenue. And my family can’t vote for her or against her–cause she is ACROSS THE STATE out of the jurisdiction.

    Your loss.

    Like

    Reply

    • Margaret, I love Wyoming and lived, worked and played on both sides of the Tetons when I was a kid. Camping and wildlife were my lifestyle… still are actually. The horses there must not be taken. This must end. The Processing of our wild horses is killing them off… they are going so fast.

      If you can read and write about this issue year round you can also sacrifice a little more and help all these legal funds out for the various suits. Also, you can go to the closest HMA with wild horses and visit it and camp for free and find those horses and watch them. Do it. You will be so glad you did and never regret it. Change your life for them, just a little.

      Like

      Reply

  9. I am,just a human being.
    Stop this,frist it was our tribes you tried to kill out.Now its our Mustangs,and Burros.I,am sadden by all of it.I would reather ride a horse to work then drive something that is killing our history.Shame on you all!!!
    Our father,is watching you be greedy!

    Like

    Reply

Care to make a comment?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.