Update from Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Tortured Twin Peaks Wild Equines Will Be Zeroed Out by BLM
photo by Craig Downer
Reeling from violent helicopter stampedes and a range fire allegedly allowed to burn by the BLM the remaining native wild horses and burros of Twin Peaks will be removed by the out of control Bureau of Land Management (BLM) using the pretense of an “emergency” which allows the feds to side step current legal actions and circumvent required public comment.
Twin Peaks is California’s largest wild horse and burro herd management area (HMA) weighing in with over 800,000 acres where the federally protected wild equines have been in the cross-hairs of the BLM for the past several years while private cattle and sheep are allowed to destroy the eco-system.
According to reliable sources Ken Collum, Field Manager for Eagle Lake BLM (530)-252-5374, verified that an “emergency” plan had been submitted because of the recent Rush Wildfire on the HMA and are only waiting for the official response. It is the intent of the BLM to stampede, capture and remove (never to be returned) 600 WH&B from the Twin Peaks HMA.
Recent exhaustive studies by wild horse and burro advocates indicate that there are no where near 600 wild horses on the HMA and this action, allegedly required by the very fire that BLM allowed to burn, would zero out the last remaining wild equines on the HMA.
Of additional concern is that during this past week’s meeting of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board it was publicly stated that the BLM has run out of space for warehousing wild horses and burros on private land, versus leaving them on their rightful public land, while the BLM has been exposed for selling horses to kill buyers for slaughter in Mexico and Canada. Advocates are rightfully concerned that not only will dozens of family bands lose their freedom and unity but also their very lives are at risk.
Within hours of the discovery of the BLM’s intended actions angered Americans called out to their political representatives in an effort to halt the destruction of this beleaguered wild horse herd and have planned protests to focus public attention on the BLM’s ongoing assault upon the very animals that they are charged to protect.
Stay tuned for further breaking news.
Related Articles
- BLM Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Member Endorses Horse Slaughter during Public Session (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Twin Peaks Rush Fire Report: Where Have All the Wild Horses Gone (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Advocates decry BLM’s wild horse roundups at meeting in SLC (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Update: Wild Horse & Burro Advocate Letters Reach President Obama via Congressman Jim Moran (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Monsanto lovin’ “Conservation” Cowboys push to kill wild horses (ppjg.me)
- Wild Horse & Burro Preservation Groups Announce Salt Lake City Press Conference to Call for Immediate Investigation of BLM “Slaughtergate” Allegations (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Call for probe into fate of captive wild horses (horsetalk.co.nz)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
How in blazes do we stop this insanity? BLM allowed that fire to burn. I know fire is actually healthy for the range but at what cost? Plus that fire put a lot of folks at risk for NO GOOD REASON.
This may be a bad idea to some and I share your feelings–but if BLM is going to absolutely positively destroy another HMA then they need to put on their big girl panties and allow Madeleine to have them WITHOUT gelding and spaying the mares.
At least at Madeleine’s they’d have room to run and be families still.
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Has anyone called for an audit on BLM Ken Salazar’s finances. Just wondering what his kick-back may be for all the WH&B’s sold to slaughter. Just connecting the dots…his ranch, his neighbor, his buddy, got to be something in it for him.
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Yep..you’re right..
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I would like to know more @ Ken Salazar’s finances also….in fact every person on THAT BLM board….after watching portions I felt that the people on that board were inhuman and very cold….there has to be a $$$$ reason…….definitiely not to “protect” our wild horses and burros. Where the heck; did these people come from? who appoints them? And that Vet…should have his license; REVOKED; he’s a Nazi type VET.
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Perhaps the Freedom of Information Act request would be appropriate.
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Now, that would be a step in the right direction, don’t you think?! Our tax dollars are paying their salaries, while they continue to destroy “our” American wild horses! This is absolutely ludicrous! Certainly, with the millions of acres available and “proper management”, our wild horses and burros could and should be able to continue to share in the freedom, from which they were promised. There are so few today anyway, compared to many years ago. We must leave them the hell alone!
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The Freedom of Information Act needs to be used to ask a LOT of questions that they are hiding from us. It is a slow and cumbersome way to get public information that is hidden and belongs to us to start with … but worth a try.
Here is one basic FOIA website (lots of information on the web on this subject) and I can post a template that might help if anyone is interested in giving it a try?
http://www.foiadvocates.com/
IMO – All WH&B captured on all HMA’s need to be “accounted” for. Pick an HMA capture and FOIA the data.
This makes me sick … but by doing a FOIA on the Twin Peaks horses and burros captured in 2010 I discovered that 77 had been sold to “Colorado” … and we know what that means!
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It has nothing to do with protection. Those…….. s are destroying our rights, our freedom and all right under Salazar’s nose and with his blessing.
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My hands are shaking so bad right now I’d be surprised if you’ll be able to read this. This type of action makes me so God Damn mad I can’t see straight. What’s on or beneath that range they want? Minerals, Oil, Gas, Water?
It seems everyday it’s something else to see just how much they can get away with before somebody yells ‘FOUL’ or folks create enough turmoil with Congressional reps to finally get them to stop.
If I lived out west I think I’d camp out on the sidewalk in front of their offices and try to get another couple hundred to join me. Get in their FACE…
You know when many of us were kids and we had a math test we had to show our work to prove we weren’t just guessing the correct answer. Well I think the BLM needs to be held to the same standards. Provide accurate, verifiable census’, send independent photographers/videographers to document conditions…in other words show us the work. We don’t want guess’. We want proof.
These swine have pushed the buttons one too many times. We have to go after the POTUS and whoever replaces Ken Salazar.
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Exactly. When the wild ones are removed I always wonder what’s under their land and how much it will return to the treasuries – federal and state. IMO, “Multiple Use” is based on the amount of return or benefit to energy independence. Those with the most potential probably move to the head of the line. The wild ones have no significant monetary value, and any argument they do is overwhelmingly eliminated from consideration in EAs.
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We have never been able to verify migrations from one HMA to another and I have a feeling something is very fishy here. People know BLM has moved horses from one area to another in order to remove them in accordance with their own made up policies. And someone was at a RAC meeting when it was suggested to move horses to an adjacent area in order to have them removed under the policy. So this is a procedure that has been done in the past. Is this what they are going to do???? All along that Eastern corridor there are wild horses and some are in areas where they have gone to in recent decades and they are not (such a joke to say this!) ‘protected’!
So what horses will BLM be rounding up??? Are they trucking them in? Are they driving them in across the land with a helicopter? What is this all about? Are these horses that may have been slaughter bound that had been placed nearby? I am sick of this cat and mouse game with this out of line agency that has openly declared war on our wild ones! Twin peaks had the last viable burro herd in CA and no one protested their removal. And Steve is right… we should plant our selves somewhere someday and not move. I know, they will now expect it… but the thing is, they already beefed up their security over the past two years in anticipation of us doing something active in protest. But we have been so nice. Stopping this and all the aggressive removals has got to become a committed project from all advocates. We need to save our mares from mutilation and our captives from sure death.
What are we able and willing to do? Organizing and fundraising seem our best options along with contacting state and federal reps. Publicity and Protests are also necessary to get the crisis BLM has created out to the public. The horses and burros are not the crisis. BLM is.
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If you accept or are willing to consider the poasibility that UN Agenda 21 is driving this, you must consider that the one of the main goals is complete government control of all land. This is the end game because the main way to produce food or wealth is to control the land. You can’thave a business that makes anything without land.
The late Senator Robert C. Byrd realized that it was important to keep our wild horses on the land because that would assure that the people would take an interest on the land and keep returning to these remote areas to visit. That makes it much more difficult for the government to engage in activity that most Americans would object to.
In one of George Knapp’s early stories, he made the comment that a wild horse roundup is not the same thing as a visit to Roswell, New Mexico, where the aliens were supposedly kept locked up. That is, of course, unless it is.
I’ve even read that some pretty far out there stuff that alleges these lands are being reserved to create a nation for people who may relocate here because their own lands are insufficient. But it might be a way to create a lasting peace (???) in the Middle East. However, when our countriy is engaged in moving weapons from Libya to Syria and our ambassador, his staff, and two Navy Seals are murdered in a terrorist attack with a drone over head video taping the whole incident as it occurs and sending the video back to the situation room in the White House, and our Secretary of State and the President talk for weeks about this being the result of a movie that no one has ever seen, you have to wonder what chance we have as a demoncracy if something of this great significance and the more important cover-up around it, whether truth, justice, freedom, and right action matter at all. There were troops who could have rescued our ambassador, his staffer, and the two Seals who ignored orders and refused to stand down while our ambassador and his staffer were in danger. There is something very, very wrong with the media’s failure to tell any story that could reveal anything negatve about this administration’sactions.
While this may seem irrelevant, it is not. Those horses need to be on the land to protect the freeedom of the United States. It is the fact that we do not sell these horses and that they are not a commodity that make them far more valuable that any other asset. Senator Byrd recognized this as did Representative Rahall. If we are to remain a free people, those canaries must be left in the coal mines. This is an illegal government take over of the land. We cannot let this continue. Congress has not changed the law. Our horses are in grave danger, and the usual suspects have changed as have the motivation to remove them.
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Exactly right.
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R.T.”Lose” their freedom.not “loose” their freedom. Sorrycan’t help itthat one’s a biggie.
From: Straight from the Horse’s Heart Reply-To: Straight from the Horse’s Heart Date: Saturday, November 3, 2012 5:14 AM To: Subject: [New post] Breaking News: BLM Plans Covert Elimination of NE California Wild Horse & Burro Herd
WordPress.com R.T. Fitch posted: “Update from Wild Horse Freedom Federation Tortured Twin Peaks Wild Equines Will Be Zeroed Out by BLM photo by Craig Downer Reeling from violent helicopter stampedes and a range fire allegedly all”
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Nancy, I think this issue is too big to concentrate on spelling. We know R.T. knows what it should have been.That’s not even a needle in a hay stack. Its a dust mite. Pray for the horses and donate.
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The question is, will they also be closing this HMA to cattle grazing. If not, that alone is obvious evidence that the horses ought to remain. The next question is, do we have hard, scientific, documentable evidence that the range can support the horses. Again, if they can support at least an equal number of livestock AUMs, that would do it, I would think, as well as a range forage survey, and a current analysis of the condition of the horses.
And the next question I would ask is, if it is true that the horses do not need to be removed, should we let it happen?
They are all very simple question folks, with simple answers. It’s just that the answers may not be easy.
Or, maybe they flat are.
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We need to put ourselves in a position where we have funds and can send degreed scientists out there and get information, independently. Science will hold up in a court room when it is presented properly and with evidence from the field.
Is it not about time we all came to the same realization that we must do more and make change with science to trump BLM voodoo policies?
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This is just another travesty inflicted on our wild horses and burros. When is this going to stop and what will it take to stop it. It seems it will take a massive revolt of our activists to bring this totally to the attention of all Americans. If we don’t do it, we will not have a wild horse alive in the United States. This is terrible and must stop. We need to dismantle this agency, fire everyone that works for the BLM and the Agriculture and START ANEW. Otherwise, it will be the same old stuff. I wish I knew why God is letting this happen. It’s only showing that there are more idiots in this world that does not care for God’s animals, horses, donkeys, dogs, and cats. There are too many of these animals killed each day and it must STOP NOW.
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What BLM is proposing to do is completely wipe out all horses and burros on Twin Peaks once and for all… forever. This has been planned since before the 2010 capture and now we see these next steps in action. Twin Peaks is the largest HMA in California and one of the few with burros as well as wild horses and whether you are familiar with this HMA or not isn’t the point. The point is that the BLM (and FS) are wiping out our WH&B everywhere.
Rob, I believe that it might be mandatory that they close the burned part of the HMA to livestock after a fire. Yes, we have hard scientific documented evidence that the fire burned in a patchwork pattern and considering the very few (about 3 or 4 hundred) WH&B left on the HMA and that almost 500,000 acres did not burn … the land can support the WH&B without any problem at all if the livestock are kept off for a year or so. Yes, the land and the condition of the WH&B has been (privately) documented. Part of the documentation can be read on this blog (SFTHH) posted on October 8th – read the entire report (many photos) by clicking on the [click here] button on that blog posting.
You then ask, “if it is true that the horses [and burros] do not need to be removed, should we let it happen?”
Answer: Absolutely not.
Call Ken Collum, Field Manager for Eagle Lake BLM (530)-252-5374
Call Nancy Haug, Northern California WH&B program (530) 224-2100
Call the Eagle Lake (Twin Peaks) Field office (530) 257-0456
The WH&B thank you.
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Thank you Grandma Gregg!! ThIs information needs to be included with emails and contacts…
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Last week, a storm went through there – snow and rain. Lots of rain. Enough to set the creeks and streams running. And it was a full moon.
The grass has popped up. Sagebrush has already resprouted from the burnt cores. That fire did not devastate the HMA in many places.
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Stop these round-ups for Gods Sake when will this abuse ever end!!! The public has had enough of the BLM already!!! Clean house at the BLM and put people in there that care about animals that would really help!!! Stop using helicopters you bullies!!!!
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BLM Working at Burning Frenchglen-July 10, 2012
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What is the purpose of them burning all this ground…? They set a back fire? These guys are too much!
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So Louie – was this Twin Peaks? Or another of the BLM “carefully orchestrated” broohahas?
Sure does appear the BLM wasnt too concerned about these cattlemen or their corrals OR – for gosh sakes – the house that they burned!!! And the poor darn cows with the burns – I dont get it – are they trying to alienate EVERYONE? Because if it were me – I’d be d____ticked off at this.
And now the roundup at Twin Peaks – so now the few horses still anywhere around – they will be gone – but to where?
Read the report from Grandma Gregg & Craig Downer a while ago – this is just so wrong. Its as if they can do ANYTHING they want & no response from anyone who could stop them (altho I dont know exactly who that is)
Hopefully RT, Simone & Ginger have something cooking (listened to Marti Oakly).
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Yes I watched that video and noted the comment made by the BLM employee about taking action against the rancher who had a pumper truck trying to save his fences.. I thought just who the hell do they think they are burning this guy out and threatening him. The whole group of BLM employees need to be castrated..and fired..
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Then the next step….TRAVEL ROUTE RESTRICTIONS (Keep the Public out)? AERIAL SEEDING (NON-NATIVE GRASSES?) and Pesticides? What will this do to Wildlife on our Public Lands?
Twin Peaks, Glen Canyon, Natural Areas, and Imazapyr
Posted on June 11, 2011by webmaster
We’ve been seeing the new pesticide notices up on Twin Peaks, the ones we wrote about earlier here. So today, when we saw three more (and there may have been others) we assumed they were more of the same.
They weren’t. The weren’t attacking ehrhata grass, they were targeting a whole bouquet of plants: cotoneaster; eucalyptus; pittosporum; French Broom. And the posts on the steep hillside above the homes of Midtown Terrace carried signs for Imazapyr, the newly-approved pesticide for use in “natural” areas, presumably by the Natural Areas Program. Newly approved by SF’s Department of Environment, that is. The Federal Government approved it a long time ago, along with a number of other toxic chemicals. It’s a Tier II pesticide, and it’s a replacement for Garlon (which we’ve also written about here), which is Tier I. So that’s an improvement, right?
Marginally. Imazapyr has its own problems. One of the factors the Department of Environment considered in approving it is its use in the spartina extirpation project — where also it has been called into question. (This article on the website, Death of a Million Trees, discusses the spartina project.) Here’s what we wrote about Imazapyr in January 2010 when we first found it being used in Stern Grove:
——————————————————————————–
NATIVE PLANTS AND NEUROTOXINS
Imazapyr is sold under the brand name of “Habitat” when it’s for Native Plant Restoration. Its other trade names are slightly less benign: Chopper. Stalker. Arsenal. Assault.
It persists in the soil for up to 17 months. It’s water-soluble, and moves through soil to get into groundwater. “Traces of imazapyr were detected in the groundwater even 8 years after application,” according to a study by scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. (Pest Management Science, June 2004.)
It’s a broad-spectrum killer, so it kills most things it hits (except some weeds that have become resistant). It’s also a difficult herbicide to target with any degree of precision.
In fact, some plants actually push it out, so it gets into the tangled roots below the soil and kills other plants. From the Nature Conservancy’s Weed Control Methods handbook: “… imazapyr may be actively exuded from the roots of legumes (such as mesquite), likely as a defense mechanism by those plants… the ability of imazapyr to move via intertwined root grafts may therefore adversely affect the surrounding desirable vegetation with little to no control of the target species.”
This is the chemical opponents compared to Agent Orange, when the border patrol planned to spray it on tall cane growing along the Rio Grande river. Communities on both sides feared contamination of the water. The plan was suspended.
In people, it can cause irreversible damage to the eyes, and irritate the skin and mucosa. As early as 1996, the Journal of Pesticide Reform noted that a major breakdown product is quinolic acid, which is “irritating to eyes, the respiratory system and skin. It is also a neurotoxin, causing nerve lesions and symptoms similar to Huntington’s disease.”
Oh, and Imazapyr is ILLEGAL in the European Community
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HERBICIDES/PESTICIDES SPRAYED ON TWIN PEAKS HMA
Twin Peaks: Fall Weather, Roundup and Garlon
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This is really sad. Enough with this already. The wild horses and burros should be protected by us, allowed to live free. Not burned out of their lands or sent to slaughter. Why is it that some are hell bent to make wild horses and burros extinct? This is really an outrage.
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Fellow advocates,
I have been receiving a plethora of emails from special interest groups these past few days trying to provide me with guidance about how I should vote. Rather than delete without reading, I decided to peruse a few of them, but I discovered a plethora of bills regarding use of public lands, promoting wild lands, wilderness areas, and certain endangered species. As a wild horse/anti-horse slaughter advocate newly awakened to the possible implications that UN Agenda 21 is at work on our public lands, I was utterly amazed at all the proposals for public lands use that we are not looking at. I am not familiar enough with the West to know where some of these places are, but there is pending legislation that could even further restrict public lands and water usage.
There is so much more than what we normally talk about in our blogs that could affect our wild horses and their environment–for instance—do we know the location of all the solar energy corridors that Secretary Salazar has used his Aministrative Orders authority to issue. I read comments on one site that said that Salazar was not particularly interested in locating these sites in areas that would minimally damage ecosystems or wildlife habitat. If the Ruby pipeline or the Calico wind turbines are any indication, our horses will lose more territory. In fact, I did see that there is one project in the works for Calico. But honestly, I am going through this stuff so fast trying to see if there is any many mention of wild horses or HMA’s etc. that I haven’t had time to absorb it all.
If someone has time to see where exactly Slytherin’ Salazar has decided to erect these solar energy corridors—what a complete joke given that we do not have the technology currently availably to make this either efficient or economical without huge tax payer subsidies. Also, the President has declared two wilderness or wild lands areas—-they are on the White House web site where his executive orders are listed. Remember the long list we found of the national monuments he wanted to declare. What I understand now that I did not understand when we first had access to the list, but once a site is declared a monument, wilderness, or wild lands site, the activities of humans on the land are greatly limited.
In short, it appears that environmental groups are hard at work to make sure that they get some control over how public lands are used. There is much frustration among some of these groups with Ken Salazar’s lack of respect for the environment (got to love this from Mr. Heated-by-the-sun blowing-pungent-air-azar.
I am all for a protest—I don’t want it to be on an HMA during a roundup—do not want to endanger wild horses or to suggest that we would even consider acting in any way that would harm humans at a roundup site or during a round up.
While I know that we have the self-control to protest peacefully, we know that many BLM employees do not the good judgment to realize their intimidation tactics could actually kill someone. I can not for the life of me understand how in the world those federal employees who threw Carl Mrozek and the senior citizen he was video-taping in cuffs and put them in the back seat of car has failed to become a federal scandal. Perhaps mixed singles were sent about whether we should keep this quiet or amp it up—but if ever there were something everyone in this country would be enraged about, that would have been it. I think we can still use it—just add it to the ever-growing list of atrocities committed by an uneducated and unprofessional workforce against the public and against the wild horses and burros they are supposed to be protecting.
I don’t remember what project is set for the Yuma, Arizona, area, but either an energy project or some type of wilderness or wildlife declaration appears on the books.
Just wanted to raise our level of awareness.
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Agenda 21 from Wiki. Whether it’s a good or bad thing depends on who you ask. Those getting and voluntarily(?) giving up their resources have very different positions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21#Agenda_21_in_the_United_States
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Thanks, Louie. Is this used to prepare the soils before seeding? Do we know what they intend to plant then? A native mix?
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Mar, that’s what we need to find out. We had better be asking lots of questions:
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/eaglelake/birdwatch.html
List of Wildlife on lands managed by the the Eagle Lake Field Office
Call Ken Collum, Field Manager for Eagle Lake BLM (530)-252-5374
Call Nancy Haug, Northern California WH&B program (530) 224-2100
Call the Eagle Lake (Twin Peaks) Field office (530) 257-0456
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Be on the look-out for more of these “restoration and reseeding” project after this year’s wildfires…so many of them on WH&B Herd Management Areas.
For WHO and for WHAT is BLM “restoring the range?
http://ppjg.me/2012/04/07/blmdesatoya-mountains-habitat/
Article by Debbie Coffey
OPEN LETTER TO THE BLM:Regarding the “Desatoya Mountains Habitat Resiliency, Health, and Restoration Project”
Introduction
“The project area encompasses approximately 230,000 acres, which includes …136,400 acres of the Desatoya Herd Management Area (HMA) (84% of the HMA).”
“Within the project area, up to approximately 32,705 acres of ground disturbing treatments are proposed over a ten year period including…herbicide treatment… Page 83 – In fact, 2,4-D has limited residual activity (2 weeks); therefore any incidental contamination risk to non-target plants would likely be negligible.”
When considering plants, animals, water and humans, note that:
The EPA says that 2,4-D is seventh largest source of dioxin in the U.S.
Dioxin DCDD that contaminates 2,4-D herbicide is not tested, measured or monitored by the EPA, or even regulated. A Canadian research paper states that dioxin DCDD may have large public health implications due to its prevalence in our food and environment.
DCDD is one of the hundreds of kinds of dioxin – (TCDD is the worst, but DCDD may be equi-potent):
NOTE: “2,4-D is contaminated with an unmonitored form of dioxin,
2,7-dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,7-DCDD)… There is very little research on this form of dioxin, but in 1986 2,7-DCDD was found to be “equipotent” to the very toxic 2,3,7,8-TCDD in a test of immunosuppression. Given the wide use of herbicides that are contaminated with 2,7-DCDD there may be large public health implications of this contamination of our food and environment.”
When your office prepares an EIS, please notify the public if genetically engineered (GE) seeds will be used in the “reseeding” project. If so, which seeds will be genetically engineered and what could the impact be to human health? (For example, cows that will eventually end up in the food chain, may be grazing on genetically engineered seeds.) What will the impact of genetically engineered seeds be on the wild horses ingesting GE grass on the range? In your EIS, please provide studies to prove the safety regarding this to animals and humans.
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Here is what I don’t understand and find utterly unconscionable from this “Government” agency. We are taxpayers, they receive taxpayer dollars and yet continue to break the law they have been eentrusted to protect. And yet continue to lie, talk, coerce, buy and whatever else they have to do to get out of the mess they have gotten themselves into. Just like they made amendments to the law that protected the wild ones from being rounded up by aircraft, only to have the government leagalize it so that the could do in starting in the 1970’s. It just proves the BLM and their crones in the Government will do what ever they can to get rid of the horses in order to allow the rich ranchers and miners to confiscate the “free” land that is available to them through the BLM. How long will the American People stand for this? Aren’t they now considered part of the 1%’ers? We have got to stop them some how. How do they get away with charging us $125 for one horse, forcing us to fill out an application that is intrusive which is okay, I don’t mind, but then they let this kill buyer get away with $10 a head and no application? Where is the law to protect my animals now?
See Annie’s Law below…..It should be shouted from our very rooftops, I don’t know how else to help them!
The Wild Horse Annie Act
During the 1950s in Nevada, Velma B. Johnston, later known as Wild Horse Annie, became aware of the ruthless and indiscriminate manner in which wild horses were being gathered from the rangelands. Ranchers, hunters and “mustangers” played a major role in harvesting wild horses for commercial purposes.
Wild Horse Annie lead a grass roots campaign, involving mostly school children, that outraged the public and ultimately got them fully engaged in the issue. Newspapers published articles about the exploitation of wild horses and burros and as noted in a July 15, 1959, Associated Press article, “Seldom has an issue touched such a responsive chord.”
In January 1959, Nevada Congressman Walter Baring introduced a bill prohibiting the use of motorized vehicles to hunt wild horses and burros on all public lands. The House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill which became known as the “Wild Horse Annie Act.” The bill became Public Law 86-234 on Sept. 8, 1959, however, it did not include Annie’s recommendation that Congress initiate a program to protect, manage and control wild horses and burros. Public interest and concern continued to mount, and with it came the realization that federal management, protection, and control of wild horses and burros was essential.
The 1971 Act – Public Law 92-195 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act
By 1971, the population of wild horses had diminished drastically due to the encroachment of man and the mustangers elimination of them.
In response to public outcry, members of both the Senate and the House introduced a billed in the ninety-second Congress to provide for the necessary management, protection and control of the wild horses and burros. The Senate unanimously passed the bill on June 19, 1971. After making some revisions and adding a few amendments, the House also passed the bill by unanimous vote. Former President Richard M. Nixon signed the bill into law on December 15, 1971. The new law became Public Law 92-195, The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was later amended by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Public Rangelands Improvement Act. Public Law 94-579, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, dated Oct. 21, 1976, allowed for the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to use or contract for the use of helicopters and motorized vehicles for the purpose of the management of wild horses and burros on public lands.
Public Law 95-514, the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978, established and reaffirmed:
the need for inventory and identification of current public rangeland conditions (monitoring);
the management, maintenance and improvement of the condition of public rangelands to productively support all rangeland values;
continuance of the law protecting wild free-roaming horses and burros from capture, branding, harassment or death, while at the same time facilitating the removal and disposal of excess wild free-roaming horses and burros which pose a threat to themselves and their habitat and;
the transfer of title after one year to individuals who had adopted wild horses and burros removed from public rangelands, provided the animals had received proper and humane care and treatment during that year.
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Read the last line, Receive “proper & humane care and treatment during that year”. And the line before that is the “continuance of the “law PROTECTING WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES & BURROS FROM CAPTURE, BRANDING, HARASSMENT OR DEATH! Isn’t that what the BLM routinely does when they round them up by helicoptor, by running them to exhaustion, separating mother from foals, letting them stomp each other to death in their fright? Aren’t those two lines a contradiction to what they do in reality?
They should be ashamed of themselves, and I just wonder, how do they sleep at night?
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Dodge Reservoir area of Twin Peaks HMA is on the far northern end of the CA side of the HMA and one of the FEW areas that there are Wild Horses and that did NOT burn .
http://yubanet.com/regional/BLM-Crews-Beginning-Prescribed-Fire-Pile-Burning-Projects.php
BLM Crews Beginning Prescribed Fire, Pile Burning Projects
Published on Oct 31, 2012 – 5:50:08 AM
By: BLM
Oct. 30, 2012 – Fire crews from the Bureau of Land Management in northeast California will take advantage of favorable burning conditions this fall and winter to complete prescribed fire projects aimed at reducing hazardous fuels, improving stands of aspen trees and benefitting wildlife.
The Eagle Lake Field Office in Susanville plans several pile burning projects.
The Big Bally Project is a broadcast burn planned for a 44-acre site about 15 miles east of Fort Bidwell in northeast Modoc County. The Starvation Project will focus on a five-acre site near Dodge Reservoir, about 19 miles east of Madeline in northeast Lassen County.
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So … one of the very few areas (on the California half of the HMA) where a few horses are believed to have survived the major fire will now be burned on purpose??? There is a time and place for control burning but not there and not now. IMO
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STOP THIS! BLM, STOP THIS!
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Maggie, the fire in the video posted wasn’t on the Twin Peaks HMA. It says there that it was in Frenchglen. You can go to the YouTube site and there is more information below the video.
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Yeah but it’s the idea that if one is not in the good ole boys network they get burned out..look at that Guy’s cows. Obviously the horses n burros are not part of their network And they threatened that guy with legal action (perhaps kangaroo court). The BLM are no better than the KKK in my opinion, no better than the Nazi regime..
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Dammit! When will it all end?
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Thanks Louie – had no idea where French Glen was –
Obviously, there are ranchers & townspeople who are just being ignored. Why arent these people rising up & complaining about the burns? Seems they should be “writing & calling their congressmen” etc about this. That was dangerous not only to the cattle but the people who lived in the area. They have no say in this either? The BLM is above EVERYONE and EVERYTHING ELSE? Seems to me they are pushing it way beyond the envelope! This should bring the local people & horse advocates together – it seems to be affecting not just animals, but people too.
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I have been told by 6 Obama supporters , that we must not vote for Rommey because he will be cruel to the mustangs. What is worse this what is happening now. The last 3 years approx 150,000 horses have gone over our borders to slaughter. TELL ME WHAT COULD BE WORSE THEN THIS RECORD.
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Maggie, Frenchglen is in Eastern Oregon:
http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/jul/12/e-oregon-wildfires-grow-frenchglen-put-alert/?print
E. Oregon wildfires grow; Frenchglen put on alert
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It still makes no sense; Eastern Oregon or Twin Peaks, CA.
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Most of the Twin Peaks HMA is unburned and those survivors among the wild horses and burros could subsist there provided hordes of livestock do not take all their forage. Then they would be the perfect restorers of the burned area, because they are natural gardeners whose feces build the soils and plant the seeds, much more so than is the case with ruminant grazers, although they too can help in this process. These wonderful presences must be appreciated for their important role in the ecosystem. They can do the job and require no enormous subsidy to do so. This is the right and attuned way for sure!
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Trust your instincts… something is up!!! None of this makes sense. Spending senseless tax payers money on MISMANAGEMENT, saying the horses are starving when obviously they are in excellent health (using an old mare or sick individual as an example of “starving” is blatant misrepresentation), that the mustangs damage the range and when it has been proven they do not and that actually sheep & cattle do more damage, saying they are overpopulated when they have reduced the total number of wild free mustangs from approximately 2 million mustangs 100 years ago, to less than 20,000 in 2012… what the hec is going on behind closed doors??? AND I have never seen anyone on the actual committees speaking in defence of any proposed measures other than asking if said measures will be done safely. The law states the land is reserved for the mustangs!!! I’m all for adapting and changing with the times, and know there is an easier and peaceable solution to all this… if their motivation was generated by money and giving land to the ranchers.
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Yes Michael, as you say, “something” must be up … actually more than one “something”:
(Biomass and Wind near Twin Peaks HMA)
http://www.laidlawenergy.com/Current_Projects
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110602005615/en/Laidlaw-Energy-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-Acquire-California
http://www.lassennews.com/?option=com_content&view=article&id=5793:blm-accepts-invenergys-wind-farm-development-plan&catid=2:lassencountynewsheadline&Itemid=1&fontstyle=f-larger
And if anyone is into “google earth” … take a look at 7/13/2012 at 40degrees 53.40 at 120degrees 01.08 … this is a photo of hundreds of sheep on the Round Corral Reservoir (this is part of the Twin Peaks HMA legally designated for WH&B). Zoom in … they look like hundreds of white locust devouring and of course fouling the riparian area. I have seen this before on nearby lake beds in the HMA and yet the very few wild horses and burros still on this HMA get the blame.
And then read this article that Espil (very large rancher with numerous grazing permits on Twin Peaks HMA) states that he had to get help to get his cattle and sheep off the grazing allotments during the August wildfire … I have looked and have verified that his legal permits for his sheep do NOT include any portion of the month of August when the fire occurred!!! http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=4768
Yes … you are very correct when you say “something” must be up.
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http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured
Please visit this site for info on how cattle and wildl;ife can share forage. Of course it was probably done with a balanced population –not where there were millions of cattle. Perhaps that’s the way it was in the 1800’s when there were millions of bison and wild horses before livestock took over. It was reported in early 1900 that grass was stirrup high.
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Wildlife and domestic lifestock can share and benfeit our public lands.However there must be realistic numbers that balance what the water and folage can handle.
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Thanks for all the bad news! We already know our entire government is as assinine as they come. Everyone just closes their eyes, ears, & hearts, & looks the other way, or, follows blindly, no matter how wrong their “leaders” are! Just how do you propose we stop these insane idiots?? I’m sorry, but, doing “everything by the books”, & all legal & all that nonsense, does NOT work. Never has, never will. This has been going on for way too long, “they” will never change. Change will only come from those who change things! I’m completely fed up with our government & all politicians. It’s not just our wild equine issues, it’s about everything. We need to know how we can all physically change things, & stop the extinction of these beautiful, wild creatures.
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How is it possible, the BLM is getting away with all this , Where are the JUDGES, What happened with all the letters , delivered to OBAMA! . It is so horrible, it HAS to be talked about on the TV. I mailed to 60 minutes, but that goes in their Mailbox, we need it NOW, my heart is aching so much, for the Horses.. How can we get an OUT-CRY from the People?, if they don’t know, what is going on. What about Ellen de Generes? I talked to Peta, if all the Organizations just ONCE do someting outside THEIR r Issues, and alert all their Activist’s and Members, just for 1 time. Please,,,,,,”US”, ask any body, every where., The BLM, are the NAZIS in this country, we HAVE to stop them. , before it is to late for the Wild Horses and Burrows.
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How can the public phychically stop these people. If the courts want to turn a blind eye what can we do as a concensus of animal rights do to stop this from taking place. Can we rip down the barricades they want to run the horses and burros into, can we steer the animals in a different direction? Obvously the courts are aginst saving animals and were just the opposite. People can not sit by any more and just watch these animals get rounded up and go to slaughter, this is part of OUR national heritiage and big buisness’s and ” sportsmen” have there hands deep in the pockets of the judges and lobbists. These animals don’t stand a chance. So I’m asking what can we do as a group to stop this from happening. Paul Watson doesn’t talk about saving the whales he takes action to stop the killing. an we do the same with out a ship? I live in SW Florida but I’ll do all I can to help in any way I can. We have to protect our natural resources and yes the horse and burro are part of our natural resources. What will these greedy bastards kill once ALL the horses and burros are gone?
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Californians and all Americans must make a huge effort to stop this from happening!
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this is crazy!!
What is Madeline doing?THERE
WILL NOT BE ANY HORSE LEFT TO BE FREE ON ACCOUNT OF THE BLM!
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So was this carried out or not ?
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It seems to be an ongoing battle to save these horses.
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As usual the BLM has their heads up the rear ends of their bodies. These beautiful horses I would stand with any day rather what person just wants the land so for those that want these beautiful animals have you would kill them in a heart beat for. You people make me sick. I don’t know if contacting President Obama would help but there is always a chance.
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