Press Release/Media Advisory press conference at 5 pm on Tuesday August 4th.
Contact: Simone Netherlands, Salt River Wild Horse Management Group 928-925-7212
Congressman Grijalva’s press office: 202-225-2435
Forest Service Announces Plans to Annihilate Famous Salt River Wild Horses; Salt River Wild Horse Management Group to hold press conference on Tuesday August 4th at 5 pm.
The Forest Service has rejected a 50 page humane management proposal from the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and has posted a public notice of roundup and removal starting on August 7th, 2015. Amanda Marsh, widow of Granite Mountain Hotshots Superintendent Eric Marsh, will join Simone Netherlands of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group as well as Congressman Grijalva in a plea for humane treatment of the Salt River Wild Horses in her Late Husband’s Memory.
Mesa, AZ (August 3, 2015) Wild horse advocates, including Amanda Marsh, widow of Granite Mountain Hotshots Superintendent Eric Marsh, will hold a press conference Tuesday in response to a recently-published public notice announcing the U.S. Forest Service’s (FS’) intent to remove the historic Salt River Wild Horses in the Tonto National Forest, Mesa, Arizona, beginning on Friday August 7, 2015. Reportedly the Forest Service will use helicopters to round-up the horses which can prove deadly to the newborn foals and the older horses. The river is treacherous in places and the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group fears for the safety of this historic herd.
The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group has submitted a 50 page proposal to the Forest Service setting forth a humane and sustainable management protocol for the iconic wild horses which includes humane birth control, but are shocked to find out that it has apparently been ignored and roundups will start immediately.
While we used to have over half a million wild horses in Arizona a hundred years ago, we now have less than 500 left and that includes the BLM Herd Management Area’s and the Heber Territory that the FS is also planning to zero out.
In 1971 the Forest Service was mandated by the Wild Free Horse and Burro Act to establish wild horse territories where wild horses and burros existed at that time. The Forest Service admits that the Salt River Wild Horses were present in and around the Salt River at that time and many eyewitnesses and articles prove that fact, yet they did not create a territory for the herd, the reason for this has never been answered by the Forest Service.
We believe that the Forest Service violated a federal law by refusing to assign a Wild Horse Territory where they themselves have records of wild horses roaming as far back as 1930, according to their Environmental Assessment of the Sunflower grazing allotment.
There is no reason why the Forest Service should want to rob Arizona of this historically, economically and ecologically significant herd. Why are they in such a hurry and why are they doing this without a fair public process. This is one of those points in time that mankind is really going to regret years from now, states Simone Netherlands, President of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group. If the horses are rounded up, the Forest Service is making an historical mistake that cannot be reversed.
WHAT: Press Conference. Press and Public welcome.
WHEN: Tuesday, August 4th, 5 pm
WHERE: Butcher Jones Recreation Area, Fort McDowell, off of Bush Highway in Mesa, Arizona. (first exit after Saguaro lake)
WHO: Amanda Marsh, widow of Eric Marsh, Superintendent of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, will join Simone Netherlands, President of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group in calling upon the Forest Service to work with the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group on a humane management plan, instead of robbing future generations of Americans of our very last piece of living history.
BACKGROUND
Historic news articles published between 1890 and 1927 document a population of over 500,000 wild horses roaming the plains of Arizona at the turn of the century. It is believed that they were brought to the area by the Spanish missionary, Father Eusebio Kino in the 17th century. Today, there are fewer than 500 wild horses remaining on public land in the entire state.
For its part, the Forest Service admits in a recent Sunflower Allotment grazing permit renewal Environmental Assessment (EA) that the horses have been present on the Salt River since at least the 1930’s — – decades before the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed in 1971 to protect mustangs and burros on public lands. Yet the Forest Service intends to round up and impound the horses as “stray livestock.”
### the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group is an AZ non-profit organization set up to monitor and scientifically study the Salt River Wild Horses. Each horse has their own records with birthdates and bloodlines, some of which date back 20 years. It is the goal of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group to preserve this iconic herd for future generations, but as a second option the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group will welcome the Salt River Wild Horses into their sanctuary in Prescott, Arizona in order to prevent them from ending up in cruel situations.
Please take whatever is needed from the following footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdSTVxzQKao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rbsXdxc8jQ
Public notice of impound of all horses on the Tonto National Forest.
http://publicnotices.azcapitoltimes.com/…/a99a02cd-08f6-4…/…
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Reblogged this on hocuspocus13 and commented:
jinxx♠xoxo
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Petition to save them:
https://www.change.org/p/u-s-national-park-services-tonto-national-forest-stop-the-annihilation-of-the-salt-river-wild-horses?recruiter=2155875&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
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here’s more:
http://www.12news.com/story/news/local/valley/2015/08/03/salt-river-horses/31081367/
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Thank you so much for sharing this Debbie.
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So wrong!!!
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Hmmm … “Range records indicate that there has been a population of trespass feral horses along the Lower Salt River (river), southwest of the allotment, since the 1930s. These horses presumably originated from the neighboring Ft. McDowell Indian Reservation and/or Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, both
of which border the Mesa Ranger District to the west/northwest. Although the horses are typically found along the river, within the boundary of the retired Goldfield Allotment, on occasion, they are observed east of the Bush Highway within the southernmost portion of the Desert Unit. Grazing by feral livestock
can have negative impacts on wildlife, through competition of forage resources and through removal of cover and nesting habitat.”
And grazing cattle won’t do the same?
Page 64 of http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/100305_FSPLT3_2547978.pdf
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https://hrm.gdcii.com/directory/R3.htm
Tonto 602-225-5200
2324 East McDowell Road Fax: 602-225-5295
Phoenix, AZ 85006-2496
http://www.fs.usda.gov/tonto
NEIL BOSWORTH Forest Supervisor 602-225-5201
Kerwin Dewberry Deputy Forest Supervisor 602-225-5203
Celena R. Soto Executive Assistant 602-225-5284
Vacant Public and Legislative Affairs Officer 602-225-5290
Clay Templin Fire Group Leader 602-225-5220
Chuck Denton Ecosystems Groups Leader 602-225-5252
Sharon Wallace Public Service Group Leader 602-225-5230
Donna Sherwood Administrative Officer 602-225-5210
Bradley Eadelman Safety Officer 602-225-5209
Bray Addison Law Enforcement Patrol Captain 602-225-5241
Ranger Districts
Cave Creek 480-595-3301
40202 North Cave Creek Road Fax: 480-595-3346
Scottsdale, AZ 85262-3812
Louise Congdon District Ranger
Globe 928-402-6201
7680 Six Shooter Canyon Road Fax: 928-402-6292
Globe, AZ 85501-4079
Rick Reitz District Ranger
Mesa 480-610-3301
5140 East Ingram Street Fax: 480-610-3346
Mesa, AZ 85205-3462
Gary Hanna District Ranger
Payson 928-474-7901
1009 East Highway 260 Fax: 928-474-7999
Payson, AZ 85541-4957
Angie Elam District Ranger
Pleasant Valley 928-462-4301
Forest Road 63 Fax: 928-462-4346
P.O. Box 450
Young, AZ 85554-0450
Vacant District Ranger
Tonto Basin 928-467-3201
State Highway 188 Fax: 928-467-3239
HC02 Box 4800
Roosevelt, AZ 85545-4800
Kelly Jardine District Ranger
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TONTO NATIONAL FOREST, LAND SWAP AND
MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATION
Resolution Copper (Australia)
From Times Square to the Capitol, Apache Protestors Fight U.S. Land Swap with Mining Company
By
Andrew C. Revkin
July 17, 2015
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/from-times-square-to-the-capitol-apache-protestors-fight-u-s-land-swap-with-mining-company/?module=BlogPost-ReadMore&version=Blog%20Main&action=Click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=3#more-
Here’s a Dot Earth postcard from Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, who has been traveling with a group of protestors from the San Carlos Apache tribe in southeastern Arizona. The protestors, from a group called Apache Stronghold, oppose a land swap between the federal government and a subsidiary of the giant Rio Tinto mining company that they say threatens Oak Flat, a part of Tonto National Forest that they consider sacred.
A recent Op-Ed article by Lydia Millet*, “Selling Off Apache Holy Land,” conveys their argument, which centers on dicey politics:
The swap- which will trade 5,300 acres of private parcels owned by the company to the Forest Service and give 2,400 acres including Oak Flat to Resolution so that it can mine the land without oversight – had been attempted multiple times by Arizona members of Congress on behalf of the company…. This time, the giveaway language was slipped onto the defense bill by
Senators JOHN McCAIN and
JEFF FLAKE of Arizona at the 11th hour.
The tactic was successful only because, like most last-minute riders, it bypassed public scrutiny.
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tragedy beyond belief
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Reblogged this on Studio Laurent Photography & Design and commented:
Please everyone read, sign the petition and share this as quickly as possible!!!!!!!!… Sign here: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-national-park-services-tonto-national-forest-stop-the-annihilation-of-the-salt-river-wild-horses-savewildhorses?recruiter=2155875&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink HELP Save Arizona Salt River Wild Horses #SaltRiverWildHorses #
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We can’t believe everything we read on facebook but here is what I just read:
Right now, as we speak (3 p.m. in AZ) there is illegal activity reported by the Salt River Tubing employees … of sheriff’s dept. personnel herding wild horses with ATVs, fan boats and on horseback. Cannot find out more, right now, but spread the word. THIS is beyond outrageous.
2 hrs ago
“_” just sent me a note. She says “They are terrifying the Salt River wild horses! USFS had said they would not start til Friday, but to quote her, the bastards started today.
1 hr ago
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Please save the Salt River horses. This is their home and they have more rights to live here than any human being. Shame on the Forest Service.
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Trying to post again. Cattle company claims to be holding wild stallion Sarge captive. Does anyone know facts???
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