“I know this is a bad plan. If you found my blog, then odds are good that you know this is a bad plan too. It cannot be allowed to happen. We kill all the predators and then maim all the prey and for what? To put European sheep in the middle of a high altitude desert. Cover-up all your screw ups by making even more mistakes. It doesn’t matter what you do so long as the ends justify the means. Isn’t that the true American dream?
At the very least, now you have the facts and hopefully a better understanding of the BLM’s schemes. Comments are due by Thursday January 14th.” – Rachel Reeves
Source: reevesimagery.wordpress.com
by Rachel Reeves
Well, the day I have been dreading for over 3 ½ years has finally arrived. I suppose I should be thankful they waited so long instead of having it show up in August, but really, I would have been perfectly fine waiting forever only to have it never show up.
What am I talking about? The BLM has released a scoping statement for the White Mountain Wild Horse Herd. This is the first step of the process. Basically, they are announcing their intentions. The public has the opportunity to comment, at which point the BLM goes back and write a more detailed Environmental Assessment. There is another comment period on the EA. After that the BLM, having done their bureaucratic due diligence, proceeds to do whatever they want.
Vimes’ Band. Left to right: Striker, Guinivere, Saran, Chasma, Bink, Nova
Exciting prospect, I know. The short version is that the scoping period (now) is the time when the public has the best chance of influencing the BLM in their decisions. Anything after that point generally requires lawyers and a strong constitution to wade through all the BS the BLM likes to fling.
I am going to (hopefully) break everything down for you. From there, you can email your personal thoughts and comments to: blm_wy_whitemtn_littleco_hma@blm.gov. The subject line should be titled “WMLC Scoping Comment”.
The BLM’s plans for White Mountain involve a research project performed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS is actually planning similar studies in another 5 HMAs in the West, though I do not know which ones yet.
Lou Diamond
Here’s what it looks like:
Step 1: Helicopter Roundup this summer/fall. The BLM plans to remove horses in White Mountain and their neighboring herd Little Colorado, bringing White Mountain down 205 horses and Little Colorado down to 100 horses.
Step 2: The USGS will be putting radio collars on some mares and tail tracker tags on some stallions in both herds, and then releasing them. From there the USGS will be studying the horses, their movements, birth rate, death rate, etc. The BLM will be doing… whatever the BLM does when they’re not removing horses. This is the USGS’s show.
Step 3: A second helicopter roundup would be conducted in White Mountain in 2017. 30-50 mares will then be spayed and released. The “ideal” number will be roughly 50% of the mares in White Mountain. Little Colorado will be left alone.
Step 4: The USGS will study birth rates, death rates, etc. and determine the “effectiveness” of spaying horses in the wild.
Yeah. I wasn’t too thrilled either.
Now that you know the plan, I’m going to break it down further. You can find the FAQs on all of this here. Please note that some of the information in this blog does not show up in the BLM’s fact sheets. I had a telephone conversation with Jay d’Ewart, the Wild Horse Specialist for these herds, and he is the one who gave me the scoop on said details.
Please be sure to read the rest of this article HERE.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
From Rachel’s blog..I don’t think she will mind my posting this, as I think it is important for others to read.
This Filly might possibly need to be mentioned in all of our comments
Have it to the Full (excerpt)
December 31, 2015
https://reevesimagery.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/have-it-to-the-full/
A wild horses’ life is not an easy one. At least two foals in the southern part of the herd did not survive their first weeks. In some respects, she’s lucky to ‘only’ have a serious eye injury. After all, she is strong – infused with the blood of generations of wild horses before her who survived all that life threw at them. Strong as steel and precious to boot.
There is still a long winter ahead. Statistically, the first year of life is the one that wild horses are least likely to survive
If she survives the winter, there is still likely going to be a helicopter roundup to contend with. Again, her odds are good. Since she is a female, the BLM is more likely to release her (more details on that next blog post) so again, she has a better chance of staying wild.
Truth be told, I’m tired of thinking to the future. I have spent years thinking of little else, especially as it pertains to White Mountain.
Whether she lives or dies, whether she spends her life seeing out of one eye or two, whether she stays free or is removed. At least for now, in this moment, she lives.
At her birth she was heralded. Loved by her mother. Honored by others who share these wild lands with her. When she became a little less perfect, she was still as accepted and cared for by her family as she was on that first gentle day. And in the end, her existence reflects everything that really mattered in 2015.
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Hi Louie! I do not mind you posting that at all. I plan on including that filly in my comments to the BLM as well. Her bad eye does not hurt her quality of life in the wild, and if, God forbid, she was removed, I can guarantee you that I could find her a home within a week.
I am actually a little more worried for the 5 bachelor stallions in White Mountain with enlarged, arthritic knees & another bachelor whose, ah… private parts were injured. All of them manage quite well – they’re physically healthy, can run when needed, and always seem content with their other bachelor friends. If any of those 6 hit the trap, I know it will be game over for them. Some may see that as more humane than “letting them suffer”, but to me it seems like a waste of life since they are all coping with their disabilities well and none seem to be suffering in the true sense of the word.
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Returntofreedom@wildhorses.org
Read this link.. We can join with these Orgs to do the same and file a law suit with the BLM for violation of the American wild horse and burro act.
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At the rate they are gelding our stallions and fixing our mares we are going to have no wild mustangs let . On the road to extinction
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The BLM is creating NON-REPRODUCING herds. Most herds are already non-viable.
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The nut jobs that come up with these insane ideas they have of “managing the herds” need to be spayed and neutered and bulky radio collars around their necks so we can keep an eye om THEM. ….. then chase them to death via helipter
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Reblogged this on hocuspocus13 and commented:
jinxx♦xoxo
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It is a shame that what many wants for the wild horses is denied their say, ( leave the wild horses wild and alone )! What the BLM wants done is to remove healthy Stallions and Mares and fix them so that no more pure wild foals can be born ! The BLM have removed so many wild horses and penned them up in corrals with little if any shelter, very little water if any and food when they want to feed them ! Many of the wild horses have been sent to be slaughtered so that more can be captured…then more cattle are seen in areas that once belonged to the wild horses ! What good is it to capture a wild stallion, geld him and release him…He has been denied his purpose it life ! Capture a wild Mare, fix her so that she has no more babies…she would be like the gelded stallion…NO PURPOSE in the life of any herd ! It is just another way for man to kill off another species of animal !
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This VIOLATES the Wild Free Roaming Horses & Burros Act which is the LAW
CONGRESS FINDS AND DECLARES THAT WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS ARE LIVING SYMBOLS OF THE HISTORIC AND PIONEER SPIRIT OF THE WEST; THAT THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE FORMS WITHIN THE NATION AND ENRICH THE LIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE; AND THAT THESE HORSES AND BURROS ARE FAST DISAPPEARING FROM THE AMERICAN SCENE. IT IS THE POLICY OF CONGRESS THAT WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES
AND BURROS SHALL BE PROTECTED FROM CAPTURE, BRANDING, HARASSMENT,
OR DEATH;
AND TO ACCOMPLISH THIS THEY ARE TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE
AREA WHERE PRESENTLY FOUND, AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE NATURAL
SYSTEM OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
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Louie,
Well said. The Wild Horse and Burro Act has been violated in so many ways. Google Fla Rep Vern Buchanan’s letter to Sec of Int. Jewell demanding answers about the wild horses that were all slaughtered in 2010
AND WITH 60 000 PLUS horses in holding pens surely they must know that many can’t possibly be adopted out.
Why are they going to be penned up in these pens for 3 years? That cant be healthy for them with No shelter, little excercise.
missed the note about what happened to the herd from Palamino Nevada DI’d they find them?.
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We are disgusting. Meanwhile, we keep breeding until we overrun the planet. I was just reading an article about aquaculture – we really have no idea how we are going to sustain our numbers in the future. Every other creature is being their ‘carrying capacity’ but us. It’s terribly sad that we have to destroy all other living beings for the sake of ourselves. 😦 But, we’ll have to pay the piper one day ourselves. It’s inevitable.
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sorry, that should read ‘every other creature is supposedly beyond their carrying capacity’ but us.
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“[m]anagement activities affecting wild horses and burros shall be undertaken with the goal of maintaining free-roaming behavior.” 16 U.S.C. §1333, 43 CFR 4700.0-6 “All management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level”. 16 U.S.C. §1333(a) It is illegal to maliciously or negligently injure or harass wild horses or burros protected by the Act, treat them inhumanely or use them for commercial gain. 43 CFR §4770.1
https://animallawcoalition.com/can-the-wild-horses-and-burros-be-saved/
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NEPA requires that all relevant and pertinent information be given to the Public
There is no mention of the fact that 4 Wyoming Herd Managements Areas are located within the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Study Area.
Click to access OSTS_Chapter_3.pdf
3-44
Wild Horse Herd Management Areas within the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Study Area (FY 2011)
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Nor the prospect of lithium (as well as trona and coal) mines in Wyoming’s Red Desert:
http://casperjournal.com/news/article_529f6532-683c-5bba-bd12-3d37e01e9cb5.html
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Why was the United States Geological Survey selected to do reproductive studies on wild animals??? Rocks don’t generally reproduce or overpopulate, nor do they migrate naturally (other than downhill). ???
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Morning.
Thakyou for your very informative blog.
NO..WE CANT STANDBY AND LET THIS SPAY /NEUTER ROUNDUP HAPPEN TO THIS VERY SPECIAL HERD..OF THE WM.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE RETURN TO FREEDOM LINK ABOUT THEIR FILING A LAWSUIT AGAINST TGE BLM FOR VIOLATING THE AMERICAN WILD HORSE AND BURRO ACT?
THEY HAVE FILED FOR A HALT ON THE SAME THING PROPOSED FOR THE SAYLOR HERD IN COLORADO.
wildhorses @returntofreedom.org
THEY ARE BANNING TOGETHER WITH AWHP ,CLOUD AND OTHERS TO FORM A COALITION TO STOP THIS.
WE NEED TO DO THE SAME.
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From Vicki O’Neill..That is a very good point about the sheep. The fact that sheep are so destructive of the grassland was a big bone of contention between cattlemen and sheep farmers years ago. And, cattle, though less destructive than sheep are more likely to overgraze an area than horses.So, why the rush to get rid of these horses? The BLM should be investigated. There is something very wrong with this picture.
And well said, Louie C. We think that about covers it.
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Good question ICY Spots. I wouldn’t trust the BLM with a stick. Honestly we’d be better off without them. So would our wild horses wolves wildlife and public lands. Even us. We pay taxes on all their screw ups I think Louie said
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There must be away to dismantle the BLM , yhey are nothing but lier ,murderers and theaves.
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I hope that someone with more knowledge on the subject will jump in and inform us all about the WHIM project that the USGS and BLM were working on a few years back. Basically it was a wild horse and burros identification system to have computer data and identifying photos for all of our wild ones. It is my opinion that this project was scrapped because the last thing the BLM really wanted to have records on was any way to accurately count or follow our WH&B on or off the range … it’s more difficult to fudge the population counts and more difficult to sell them to kill buyers if there is documentation.
In the meantime, the USGS and BLM have been working together in other ways and here is one.
Click to access ofr2015-1084.pdf
It is also my understanding (and shown in the above report) that after an aerial population count is completed (and trust me … they do not have supporting documentation for their aerial “count”) and the BLM bolsters the supposed “count” … then the data is sent to the USGS for further expansion of the bogus population count.
Why would they prefer to increase the population in their reports? Funding – plain and simple. $$$
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Foreign-owned mines operate royalty-free under outdated US law (excerpts)
https://www.revealnews.org/article/foreign-owned-mines-operate-royalty-free-under-outdated-us-law/
The ‘lords of yesterday’
LAWS OF THE PAST COST TAXPAYERS TODAY
Legacy laws like these are what legal scholar Charles Wilkinson dubbed the lords of yesterday. In his 1993 book, “Crossing the Meridian,” he wrote that the lords of yesterday:
“… are the controlling legal rules, usually coupled with extravagant subsidies, (that) simply do not square with the economic trends, scientific knowledge, and social values in the modern West.”
We’re launching a reporting campaign digging into the legacies of these lords of yesterday.
I’ll be looking at mining, grazing and water issues, focusing in particular on how certain legacy laws and policies allow private interests to make a profit off public resources at the expense of the taxpayers and the environment. Archaic laws allow ranchers to graze their sheep and cattle in national forests and on other public land for cheap and allow big farms to get subsidized water, even in times of drought.
Remember last year’s armed standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and federal employees? The Bureau of Land Management was coming to impound his cattle because Bundy hadn’t paid (way-below-market-rate) fees for grazing his livestock on public land in decades. Bundy’s belief that he has a right to graze on public lands unbothered and unregulated – and the government’s decision to back off and let him – are also holdovers from the 19th century rise of the West.
Stick with us as we explore the consequences of these outdated policies and figure out why they’re still around today.
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Wyoming Wild Horses – Gone Forever?
Featuring wild horses in the White Mountain and Divide Basin herds of Wyoming as well as images from the 2011 White Mountain roundup. Following a consent decree in a legal suit brought by the Rock Springs Grazing Association, the Bureau of Land Management, charged with the protecting these herds, has agreed to eradicate the horses in these two areas as well as the Salt Wells & Adobe Town herds. This decision ensures that the ranchers will be able to lease the public & private land in the area at subsidized rates, assisted by taxpayer dollars, without having to continue to share with federally protected wild horses.
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Did you see that the Return to Freed is filing a lawsuit against the BLM for proposed sterilization of the Colorado herd?
Same thing needs to be done about tge White Mountain herd
.The BLM needs a lawsuit filed about the SRWH too!
Anyone one seen that link?
Haven’t been reading the recent blogs here
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The Return to Freedom is joining with the AWHA to form a coalition and are filing a lawsuit to halt the steralization of the Saylor herd in Colorado.
That Return to Freedom site has a lot of info might be helpful ito do the same with the WM horses.
There is power in numbers …let’s do it.
We need to join with these orgs to investigate and expose the BLM for what they are.
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Sorry the link is wildhorses@returntofreedom.org
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Wildhorses@returntofreedom.org
Read this link. The RTF is joining with AWHA,Cloud Foundation and others about the
violation of the Wild horse and burros act.
They filed for a halt on the steralization of the Saylor herd in Colorado!
Let’s do the same!
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Amother point of contention..
Theae European sheep that they want to farm on this land.
Sheep are the most destructive grazing animals . Unlike horses….. the sheep pull the grassy plants right out by the ROOT.
Leaving the land practically steralized of vegetation. Sion there would be nothing but dirt and erosion.. Would change the whole topography of these areas. Another reason these European sheep should not be allowed there.
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The Independent–
Slaughtering wild horses and BLM :a fatal mix
http://suindependent.com/slaughtering-wild-horses-blm-fatal-mix
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Could use some comments here:
http://www.hcn.org/articles/pzp-where-hope-science-and-mustangs-meet?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email
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