Source: by Scott Sonner as published in the Houston Chronicle
“Especially contentious is disagreement over the role of and need for the roundups…”
Wild Burros in BLM holding ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
RENO, Nev. — An independent panel of scientists that spent two years reviewing the U.S. government’s controversial management of wild horses planned to release a series of recommendations Wednesday to combat skyrocketing costs and help quell decades of conflict on public rangelands.
The study was expected to touch on a wide range of fronts, from mustang roundups and fertility control to better ways to calculate the preferred size of the free-roaming herds and their impacts on rangeland ecology in 10 Western states.
The Bureau of Land Management requested the appointment of the 14-member research committee by the National Academy of Science‘s National Research Council in June 2011, nearly three years after congressional auditors concluded rising costs at facilities to house tens of thousands of gathered animals would “continue to overwhelm the program” with no end in sight.
Especially contentious is disagreement over the role of and need for the roundups, a debate that has pitted horse protection advocates against ranchers in competition for the grasses for decades but has become more acute in recent years for cash-strapped federal land managers with no room for any incoming animals.
The number of animals at holding facilities surpassed the estimated number on the range in 10 Western states earlier this year for the first time since President Richard Nixon signed the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
A recent BLM report shows 49,369 wild horses and 1,348 wild burros were being housed in government corrals and pastures. It said 31,500 wild horses and 5,800 burros remained in the wild — about half of them in Nevada. It estimates the population on the range doubles naturally about every five years.
The federal land management agency averaged removing 8,000 horses from the range annually from 2002 to 2011. Last year, it spent more than half of its wild horse budget on holding facilities alone, more than $40 million.
BLM announced in March that budget cuts had forced it to scale back weekend operations at its largest wild-horse adoption facility in the country — the Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Center about 20 miles north of Reno.
The research committee planned a formal release of its report in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT.
The 14-member panel chaired by Guy Palmer, an expert in animal disease and public health at Washington State University, includes Nevada’s former state veterinarian, grazing specialists at the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado State University, a wildlife scientist at Montana State, a forest health researcher at UC Berkeley, a landscape ecologist at Brigham Young University and experts from the St. Louis and Bronx zoos.
Click (HERE) to comment at the Houston Chronicle
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Holding our breath!
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The BLM is a violent, hateful organization funded by our tax dollars. It should be abolished.
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no Matter What The Report Says, The BLM WillInterpret It’s Own Skewed View And Continue On With It’s Agenda Of Death And Destruction Of The Wild Ones. Past Practice Dictates This. My Opinion Is To Disband The Rogues And Put The Horses Back Where They Belong…Finally Remove Livestock From Their Lands.
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The BLM has a new name now…Bureau Loving Money…All that they care about is removing the wild horses and burros to allow the cattle and sheep to take over the land that belongs to the wild horses and burros…They do not care about anything that was signed by any President…They want to gain more money by allow other greedy people to take the horses and burros to slaughter ! Many Americans want the horses and burros set free to roam their lands that the cattle and sheep are taking over ! What will become of the sick and dying horses and burros in the pens that the BLM has put them in ? If you look at the captured wild horses and burros and compare them to the ones still in the wild, you will see the ones that were captured look really bad now !
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How can the study be called independent when the BLM appointed the members and furnished them BLM’s information? There was not one wild horse expert . The report will be nothing but more BLM BS I’m afraid.
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And you (not you, Barbara…the trolls on the study), as a member of this “scientific” committee CAN’T COUNT COWS!
It’s a fail from the word “go”.
If that restriction doesn’t prove that the wild equines are NOT treated fairly in their so called “multi-use” excuse, I don’t know what ever will…well maybe all the dead wild equines and their few numbers on the ranges always does.
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Right on, Denise. Our wild horses and burros ought to be on the endangered species list.
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Your so right Denise!!!!………and that studywith appointed members of their choice by the BLM scares me to the bone…..
I am Worried about the future of our “Wild Mustangs” knowing everything has been against them with scewed scientific facts.
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Yes Barbara , you are so right !!!!! PURE BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The 1p EDT release of this report was just announced on NPR so it’s hitting main stream news.
Hopefully this 14 member committee was able to use their math and logic skills to effect a positive solution (ie..remove cows and sheep / honor the 1971 Act by halting all round ups and return captured to their land) for the wild ones.
Once again, not rocket surgery – any elementary student could figure this one out and they probably would have done it for less than the 40 million holding figure
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At best, these studies are likely to be no more than static descriptions- mean values over the period of the study – as thier are too many variables for them to fix any causality. There will likely be little on how the ecosystem actually works, because that would force them to recognize certain facts that are too convenient to ignore, like the demonstrated relationship between reduction of botanical diversity in the face of reduction in ungulate diversity and predators on the range. in other words, it will likely just be more junk science.
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We’ll have to see what the conclusions are with this panel today. If they choose truthfulness, they will recommend the removal of the cattle and sheep and the gradual re-instatement of the wild horses from the holding pens back to the wild. There is so much documented evidence of the destruction to the ecology cause by the over-grazing of these lands by the cattle and sheep. If they don’t conclude the obvious, then we still have a problem that seriously needs fixing!
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Let’s not forget the lease system, water diversion/theft and extraction/energy entities….those are worse than the cattle/sheep situation.
I am very much looking forward to wild equine advocates’ rebuttal(s)…we nailed them on that piece of trash horse slaughter GAO report.
BTW….how does an agency continue to do business as usual when they are supposedly waiting for a “scientific” report on what the problems really are and if their policies/actions are hurting wild equines? Maybe they (DOI/USDA) know what the findings are ALREADY. I would err on the side of caution and stop EVERYTHING awaiting that report. Hmmmmmm…..
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We’ll have to see what “conclusions” this panel of “experts” comes up with today. For everyone here, the solution is obvious. The over-grazing of these lands by cattle and sheep ranchers has caused wide-spread destruction of the environment and landscape. The obvious solution here is to remove the cattle and sheep and gradually re-introduce the wild horses being kept in the holding facilities back onto these lands. A proper population control program can therefore be conducted by people who are actually experts on wild horses; that should be assigned to their care and management. This would be the ultimate win-win of saving tax dollars and the environment. The only problem here is, the BLM never does any of that!
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Now click on and listen to this little guy—–http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b5OOOIKtj8w– along with our Declan Gregg it looks like our future may have a chance at survival. our kids may be waking up-even if the adults are not.
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there’s a lot of conslusions that are less obvious and not getting play…for instance, it’s not merely overgrazing by cattle, but the fact that its monospecies grazing that’s harmful. Huge amounts of true peer-reviewed evidence that reduction of ungulate biodiversity on the range reduces botanical biodiversity
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The National Academy of Science (NAS) study is not an independent analysis of the Wild Horse and Burro issues. It was bought and paid for by the Department of the Interior / Bureau of Land Management. They were paid $1,245,829 on June 1st, 2011 by the DOI / BLM to do this report. This is a perfect example of hiring the “fox to guard the hen house”.
Has the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) so badly managed the public range land and its resources that only about twenty-six thousand Wild Horses and Burros can be supported on more than thirty-million public acres of congressionally protected Herd Management Area land? Since when does it take over a thousand acres for one horse per year? It does not! There are no “excess” Wild Horses and Burros on their legally designated land.
In 1971, Congress unanimously passed the Wild Horse and Burro Act which provided protection for Wild Horses and Burros who were living on 53.8 million acres of public land, of which 42.4 million acres were under the BLM’s jurisdiction. Today the BLM manages Wild Horses and Burros on public lands that comprise 31.6 million acres, of which 26.9 million acres are under BLM management. The federal agencies (BLM and USFS) do not own the land and the resources and the Wild Horses and Burros and other wildlife. This all belongs to the American people and the federal agencies continue to pilfer and exploit what belongs to you and me.
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Right on GMGreeg. There is no excess of wild horses, therefore, NO population control is needed. Pop. control will lead to inbreeding IMO and probably already has and i will destroy natural selection. There is no compromising with the devil(BLM).
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http://prophoto7journal.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/bureau-of-land-management-and-doi-missing-168-billion-dollars-taxpayers-have-a-right-to-know-where-it-is/
Bureau of Land Management and DOI Missing $168 Billion Dollars; Taxpayers Have a Right to Know Where It Is!
“In summary, there were nearly 70 different types of leasable minerals extracted from federal lands and waters in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. . . For example, the volumes of the four most valuable of these minerals—oil, gas, natural gas liquids, and coal—are measured in barrels, million cubic feet (mcf), gallons, and tons, respectively. According to ONRR data, the total value of all leasable minerals extracted from federal and Indian land and sold in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 was $92.3 billion and $98.6 billion, respectively.”1
Keep these ”total-value” figures in mind, explained further, and also keep in mind this is only one segment of many the Bureau of Land Management’s recklessly managed affairs, basically yet another form of Corporate Welfare, where the taxpayers receive nothing in returns. A scam that needs to cease immediately. In this case a $168.2 billion dollar scam, and this being the tip of the iceberg.
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The BLM are just warehousing the wild horses. This is making the wild horses go crazy and get sick. Now what kind of special education did I need to come to that conclusion, maybe just some common sense.
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WELL, Finally it took millions to get this report and to think they could of had this info FREE but didn’t listen, gosh imagine that??? SOOOOOO now what will happen?? What will happen to all the horses in holding pens is my first question?? Guess I am rushing to get this done and let them go, HA…. I am glad in this report in stating more public input needs to happen and that they of course been doing it all wrong, imagine that!!!! To me what ever was left out of this report I can live with right now, this is a very BIG start to NEW life’s for the horses I am hoping…. 🙂
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You’re so right Debbie…all of this information has been given them time and time again yet they, like our Congress, did nothing. It’s one thing to do something and do it wrong but just to do nothing except take our money is criminal.
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Wanted to let everyone know there’s a segment on July 8th HBO about our Wild Horse Crisis and the destruction of their land…….www.gaslandthemovie.com……
GASLAND II exposes how American democracy is being destroyed by corporate ownership of elected officials–resulting in toxic drilling ruining American lives and the environment.
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At last, the local paper (Gannett) actually showed the article on NAS study. And this Sunday on the CBS Sunday Morning the nature segment at the end will show some actual (!) wild horses. About time. I did see somewhere else that Gasland II has a segment on the horses. The more publicity the better.
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