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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. 
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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
Friday, March 11, 2011 No $$$ for Mustang Round-Ups  photo of Antelope Valley foals in BLM corrals by Karen Hopple Dear Readers, Yesterday BLM officials announced that they're out of money to round up wild horses. THAT'S GREAT NEWS! It's what we've been talking and arguing and scheming to accomplish. Now we have to keep Congress from awarding BLM more money to fund more round-ups. With your help, helicopters will be grounded. There will be no more HoneyBandits, no more traumatized foals ripped too early from their mothers and mustangs will live as God intended -- running free. Keep up the good work, Terri Labels: BLM roundups, helicopters, Honeybandit, orphan foals, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 6:52 AM 2 comments
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