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Thursday, May 03, 2018
You Don't Have to Burn A (Wild Horse) Book to Censor It I've never laid my life on the line for a story, and it's coincidence that the most recent "Of course you didn't interview BLM about wild horses" remark came on World Press Freedom Day. The reader was talking about Wild at Heart: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them, my non-fiction book published by Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt. The book's credibility has been honored without BLM. It's a Junior Library Guild selection, winner of the Sterling North Heritage award for Excellence in Children's Literature and has been honored by Western Writers of America, National Science Teachers Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science. For nearly a year, I negotiated and nagged for interviews about BLM's wild horse and burro program. Didn't happen. But it's important to me that you see how it didn't happen. My last correspondence before the publication of this book is posted below. 
Tom
Gorey, Senior Public Affairs Specialist July
23, 2014
Bureau
of Land Management
1849
C. Street NW
Washington,
D.C. 20240
Dear Tom,
As you know, I’m writing Wild at Heart:
Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them for
Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt. This non-fiction book for young readers will be
published in Fall 2015.
In January of this year, Lisa Ross at
BLM’s Carson City office told me that all on-the-record responses must go
through you. I’ve contacted many BLM staffers since then, but received no
official statements. A partial list:
1/23/14: E-mail to
Tom Gorey, introducing project, asking for interview; he said he’d have to
check with wild horse and burro staff.
2/3/14: E-mail to Gorey
seeking update
2/4/14: E-mail from Gorey
indicating response is in the works; e-mail from Jeff Krauss asking for
questions in writing and “don’t hesitate to call” invitation
2/11/14: E-mail
questions to Krauss
2/19/14: E-mail
requesting update from Krauss
2/24/14: Melissa
Farlow, photojournalist working on the project, contacts Krauss since they’ve worked
together in past. Krauss responds
quickly but with no answers.
3/19/14: E-mail to
Krauss requesting follow-up to written questions
4/11/14: E-mail and
phone requests to Gorey and Krauss repeating offer to let them cherry-pick the
questions they wish to answer.
4/25/14: Phone calls
to former BLM staffers to ask about possible sources of information are met with enthusiasm. They, too, are told no current
staffers are authorized to speak.
5/5/14: Phone and e-mail
to Jeff Fontana, BLM California, and Lisa Reid, BLM Utah. Neither receives
authorization to answer questions.
5/5/14: Gorey e-mails
that he will respond to my voicemail request for update, copies Krauss. No
answers. Last contact with Gorey and Krauss
6/3-4/14: After phone
conversations, Debbie Collins asks for a brief history of e-mail exchanges with
BLM staff and list of questions. These are supplied. Last contact with Collins.
6/4/14: Fontana e-mails positive BLM news story from
2006. Last contact.
My publisher has pushed back Wild at Heart’s due date to give BLM more time to respond, but we’ve bent as far as we can. If I hear nothing by Aug. 1, 2014, we’ll reluctantly publish without comments from your agency.
Sincerely,
Terri Farley
CC: Neil Kornze, Director of
BLM
Before Wild At Heart, I'd had a conflicted but cordial relationship with BLM staffers, but now it's routine for government agencies to spurn or stonewall the press and public. That's not safe. Attention must be paid, even if what you hear is silence. Labels: BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Junior Library Guild, mustangs, National ScienceTeachers Association, Western Writers of America, Wild at Heart, wild horses, World Press Freedom Day Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:50 PM 0 comments  
Thursday, August 24, 2017 DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: WE'RE WILD HORSES. WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL US? Dear Mr. President,We’re wild horses. Born in Nevada, we ran free on the range, manes blowing, legs reaching and pulling us up mountains and then downhill in crazy gallops, zig-zagging through storm-hammered sage brush.We’re not there anymore. We’re in a place called BLM. We’re young, healthy and we play chase when we can.So, when we heard you wanted to kill us -- not as the cougar does, one at a time to feed her young, but all together, for reasons we don’t understand --we asked a friend to speak for us in your language.Thank you, sir, The Mustangs
please turn on audio
Labels: BLM, cougar, gallop, Mr. President, Palomino Valley, sage brush, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 6:56 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 30, 2017 5 WILD HORSE MYTHS: Alt-Facts Lead to Deadly New Budget for Mustangs
Budget 2018 calls for killing all wild horses and burros in Bureau of Land Management holding pens. That's about 44,000 equines according to BLM and roundups continue. BLM records show more mustangs "gathered" in the first three months of 2017 than were captured in all of 2016. Few voters want wild horses killed, but they’re bombarded by myths which infer there's no choice. Labels: animals, BLM, books, education, government, livestock, mustangs, Nevada, phantom stallion, politics, rodeo, rural, terri farley, West, Wild at Heart, wild horses, writing Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:15 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Wild Horses Die to Clear the West for Industry Each morning, dawn touches fewer wild horses on America's Western range lands. Roundups by the Bureau of Land Management clear the way for a tsunami of industrialization. Senate confirmation of Interior Secretary-designate, Rep. Ryan Zinke, advocates looser environmental regulations for extractive industries. He proposed legislation to open horse slaughter plants in the West.
Nevadans Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston and Carrol Able spend their lives fighting for America's wild horses. It seemed like a good time to give them their say, again.
I sat down with Wild Horse Annie
today. We had quite the conversation. I complained of how convoluted her law
had become, how it was now a life sentence for the very animals it was intended
to protect. She listened quietly, never uttering a word. “We really need your
help.” I told her. She offered no reply.
The grass surrounding us was cool damp; refreshing, the day warm and clear. I closed my eyes and imagined a
band of wild horses grazing peacefully nearby. How fitting it would have been.
But alas! Imaginings are nothing more than imaginings. There were no wild
horses and Wild Horse Annie was not going to answer.
Beside me was a small and unassuming
grave marker. In that, it was much like the woman buried there. Beneath the
name Velma B. Johnston, Wild Horse Annie and the dates March 5, 1912 - June 27,
1977 are three mustangs, running wild and free. As I ran my fingers across the
relief and looked closer at the image, I realized there was something
unexpectedly ominous portrayed there.
The running mustang trio has reached
the edge of a dangerous precipice with no choice left but to jump. The last of
the three is rearing and looking over his shoulder as if deciding whether to
fight or flee. Tears started flowing when I put the scene in the context of the
battle we’re waging today.
I started sobbing like a crazy fool and blurted out,
“Help me! I don’t know what else to do.”
It was then that a voice came to me,
a gentle but strong whisper in my ear.
“FIGHT”
it said, “Fight like a wild stallion.”
Labels: BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Department of Interior, Interior Secretary, Velma Johnston, West, wild horse advocate, wild horse Annie, wild horses, Zinke Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:15 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 In Storm-Struck West, War on Wild Horses Accelerates
These are some of the national headlines that came in on a single day's (9.11.17) Google Alert on Wild Horses. Please follow the links to the complete stories. . Wild Horses in Massive Snow Bound Roundup BLM to Roundup 700 Wild Horses in Milford Area BLM Recalculates Desired Horse Population for Pryor Mountains Massive Wild Horse Roundup Begins in Utah Labels: BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Flooding, helicopter roundups, helicopters, snow, Storm, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 6:09 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Wild Horse Roundups : Who calls an emergency?
Christmas Week, Eagle and Silver King gather: Helicopters contractors paid to prowl Nevada's high desert and spot wild horses' shelters from blizzards, had flushed put and captured 18 mustang stallions, 16 mares and 9 foals befor the Bureau of Land Management declared snowstorms a hazard to pilots and aircraft. Today BLM plans to continue its "emergency" round up. BLM says these wild horses come too close to the road.Why is this wild horse round-up an emergency? No, wait, these are excess mustangs. That's the emergency. Most members of the public only know what BLM said in its press release. It announced a race to remove 100 "excess" wild horses from public and private lands “to provide for public and animal safety.” Either or neither could be true, because: Self-declared Bureau of Land Management emergencies do not require environmental assessments
Emergency gathers aren't uncommon in BLM wild horse management. Just this year they've had emergencies in places like Three Fingers, Oregon and Caliente, Wood Hills, Tunnel Springs, CherrySpring and Silver King, Nevada.
Were these true emergencies? We must listen to BLM's "trust me" because the streamlined process only requires a
BLM staffer -- often a field office manager responding to a rancher-tenant who wants mustangs off "his" land -- to report an "emergency" situation to a state program
lead. The lead contacts the Washington, D,C, office. Then,
"If timing permits, a gather plan environmental assessment is prepared prior to any removal of wild horses or burros in response to the emergency. If this is not possible, a report is prepared after the action is taken. The public is notified via at least a news release." (Jason Lutterman,Public Affairs Specialist (On Range), National Wild Horse and Burro Program and BLM handbook ) 
No shelter for wild horses at BLM's Broken Arrow facility, but that's no emergency. It's where mustangs go
after Christmas week Eagle /Silver King gather 2016 (BLM photo)
These days, I try to give BLM the benefit of the doubt by listening to sources inside the agency if they'll talk with me. There's a real danger America's pubic lands and wildlife will be handed over to slaughter-friendly states in 2017 and, despite its flaws, BLM is--under law -- restricted in their treatment of wild equines. Still, I can't swallow "after the action is taken" explanations because I've been in California grazing association meetings, where a BLM field manager coodled ranchers with wild horse worries, by promising, "Anything we can do to assist you, we will. Anything." One element of "anything" turned out to be the 2015 round-up of 1,070 wild horses and the admitted deaths of 16. But that was another time. Now, I urge you to sign up for Google.com/alerts for news on wild horses. Even though I've covered BLM's handling of our wild horses for 30 years, I haven't been skeptical enough. Too often when they've said "Trust me," I should've heard "I'm lying." You can help me and the wild horses. 
--
Labels: BLM, BLM staffer, emergency round-ups, gathers, helicopters, round-ups, snow, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:11 PM 0 comments
Thursday, December 15, 2016 Rough Weather Ahead for Captive Mustangs 
Thirty years ago, I visited BLM's Palomino Valley wild horse corrals for the first time and saw a palomino foal drown in the mud. Since then, I often visit after heavy rains, just to keep watch.
Over time, improvements have been made, but changes reflect human ideas of what's cost-efficient. Last month, BLM-authorized helicopters rounded up nearly 2,000 Owyhee mustangs. Most of those wild horses -- staff couldn't be more specific than 1400 -1600 horses -- are at Palomino Valley. Earlier this week I visited Palomino Valley between northern Nevada storms. These horses are so wild, so sensitive to my approach that they bolted, rammed into each other, slipped and sometimes fell in the mud.
This weekend high wind warnings -- up to 100 mph on the ridges -- snow storms, and below-freezing temperatures are predicted.
Read more about long-standing troubles of unsheltered mustangs: 2013 Palomino Valley: winter 2013 Palomino Valley Summer Labels: BLM, BLM roundups, humane, Owyhee, Palomino Valley, shelter in captivity, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:33 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 13, 2016 Yes They Can: Bureau of Land Management Is Authorized to Kill Healthy Wild Horses
It's tempting to think the headlines are just Internet hoopla.Is the West's Wild Horse Crisis So Bad Only Euthanasia Can Fix It?US govt will slaughter 45,000 wild horses, making room for cattleBLM Wild Horse Advisory Board Proposes Euthanasia of MustangsIsn't it lucky you're smart enough to just roll your eyes and feel a twinge of pity (or superiority) because animal nuts are allowing their bleeding hearts to be broken by yet another hoax?Fact: The Bureau of Land Management's advisory board voted 7-1 to dispose of thousands of wild horses and burros which have been rounded up, then warehoused in pens around the U.S.Not this time. But they can't do that, can they? Don't they need Congressional approval? Fact: They already have it.
"The
Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971
(Public Law 92-195) Amendments in Bold
Section 3
2c The Secretary [of the Interior] shall
cause additional excess* wild free roaming horses and burros for which an
adoption demand by qualified individuals does not exist to be destroyed in the
most humane and cost efficient manner possible."
I added the asterisk because of the creative writing used in defining "excess." Part (1) of Section 2 is a true Catch 22. If a wild horse is rounded up, she becomes "excess." Section 2 f "excess animals" means wild free-roaming horses or burros (1) which have been removed from an area by the Secretary pursuant to application law or, (2) which must be removed from an area in order to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area." http://www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov/92-195.htm Another section says wild horses can be sold "without limitation." That's a shortcut to slaughter. The wild mare Ghost Dancer came to me that way, so I've read her BLM paperwork. It says I'm discouraged from reselling her for commercial (meat) purposes, but I am not forbidden to do so. And neither is BLM. If you disagree with the advisory board which speaks for you, as a member of the public, email these BLM administrators: Neil Kornze nkornze@blm.gov, Dean Bolstad dbolstad@blm.gov
Labels: 000, 44, 45, Amendments, BLM, BLM Advisory Board, Dean Bolstad, euthanasia, foal, mustang, Neil Kornze, slaughter, vote, Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 1:20 PM 0 comments
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