Source: By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times “The U.S. Forest Service has decided to postpone the removal of horses on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada tomorrow (today)” The advocates said the Forest Service failed to give proper public notice of the roundup and was using an […]
Guest Editorial by Grandma Gregg Referring to today’s upcoming capture list – it says 100 wild horses will be bait/water trapped on the Murderer’s Creek HMA in Oregon starting tomorrow! This HMA is jointly “managed” by BLM and USFS, who said in their recent EA: “The AML for […]
Article by Jane Braxton Little of the Sacramento Bee BLM’s current mismanagement of Wild Horses & Burros to be Hot Topic Carla Bowers, a mustang advocate, will present a proposal for managing wild horses to the Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Steering Committee when it meets in public session Jan. […]
It is with great sadness I report to you the death of the magnificent band stallion, Conquistador. We were shocked to learn of his passing from our dear friend, Effie Orser, who noticed that she did not see him while visiting the scenic pasture where the three bands (Conquistador, Trigger, and Shane) live just outside of Wilsall, Montana. She searched and found his body in a small, grassy gully.
Public lands grazing (which produces about 3% of the beef consumed in the US) equates to around a net loss of $123 million annually to American taxpayers and the livestock do upwards of 500 million to 1 billion in estimated damages annually. Wild horse and burros are often FAR outnumbered by livestock… Thank you to the Center for Biological research for this press release.
Press Release from the Cloud Foundation Judge Rules to Keep Expanded Wild Horse Suit in Court Washington, D.C. (December 22, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation is pleased to announce that on December 15, Federal Judge James S. Gwin declined the government’s motions to dismiss or to transfer to a Montana […]
Washington D.C. (August 27, 2010)— On August 25th United States District Judge, James S. Gwin, granted a legal request by The Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and photographer/author Carol Walker, to file a Second Amended Complaint against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) actions in the mismanagement of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses. The ruling allows addition of the United States Forest Service (USFS) to the suit. The Custer National Forest is presently moving forward with building a restrictive boundary fence to prevent the wild horses from accessing crucial current and historical summer grazing lands. Judge Gwin ruled that the Plaintiffs’ claim against the fence is not moot as the fence could be removed or further fence building activities stopped should subsequent legal decisions rule in the Plaintiffs’ favor. Judge Gwin ordered the BLM and USFS to answer the Second Amended Complaint within 30 days.
“BLM’s tactic of completing removals of wild horses and burros from the range in whirlwind fashion and avoiding legal challenges to its underlying management of these animals did not work in this case,” explained Valerie J. Stanley. Attorneys Valerie J. Stanley and Bruce A. Wagman represent the Plaintiffs in this action.
The Custer National Forest awarded a contract on August 6, 2010. It calls for the building of new, bigger, stronger, longer fence to prevent the Pryor Wild Horse Herd from grazing on their mid-summer through fall pastures atop their mountain home. The first question I am always asked is “Why?” To answer honestly, I am not sure what is pushing this kind of expensive and unwanted project. But, to even try to answer the question requires a bit of a history lesson.
Unless urgent action is taken, wild horses and burros in today’s America face a bleak future. Though the unanimously passed Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 originally set aside somewhere between 53 million and 88 million acres for their preservation in the wild, the rights of these animals and their public supporters have been undermined and denied by the very officials charged with protecting them.
Public land grazing elicits some pretty damning declarations. Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt once called livestock grazing “the most damaging use of public lands.” And conservation groups, like WildEarth Guardians, go further: “Livestock production is the most widespread and destructive activity on . . . western landscapes.”
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