BLM Poised to Eradicate Last Large Wild Horse Herds in Wyoming

US Congressman, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), supports listing of wild horses as endangered species

ROCK SPRINGS, WY(July 23, 2014) – The Cloud Foundation (TCF) with 280,000 followers, as well as numerous wild horse and animaladvocacygroups, condemns the Bureau of Land Management’s scheduled roundup which will eliminate all wild horses on 1.2 million acre checkerboard land (alternating one mile square sections of private and public land for 20 miles on either side of Interstate 80) within the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells CreekHerd Management Areas(HMA). The roundup of 946 wild horses is the first step in the planned total elimination of all wild horses in Great Divide Basin and Salt Wells Creek.

“Adobe Town, Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin are home to the largest free-roaming wild horse herds left in Wyoming,” states Carol Walker, renowned equine photographer and Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) Board member. Walker has photographed the unique southwestern Wyoming herds for 10 years. “Genetic tests link the Adobe Town herd to horses re-introduced to the America’s by the Spanish in the 1500s. Great Divide Basin wild horses are descended from Calvary remounts,” she continues. “To lose the wild horses in this vast landscape known by local residents as the ‘Big Empty’ would be to lose touch with our western history, heritage, and the untamed spirit of the West.”

The roundups, aimed at appeasing the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), are in compliance with a Consent Decree between theBLMand RSGA, a back door deal allegedly encouraged by then-Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar. According to the Consent Decree theBLMagrees to zero out Divide Basin and Salt Wells, arguing that these unfenced wild lands allow mustangs to freely roam into private land in the checkerboard areas. Yet even in the Adobe Town HMA, which contains only a small portion of land within the checkerboard, theBLMintends to slash the herd by 100% leaving only 500 horses on over 400,000 acres offederal lands.

WhileBLMand RSGA contend that 1,912 wild horses overpopulate the 2.4 million acres within the HMA’s,TCF and WHFF research reveals that 356,222 cattle and 45,206 sheep graze the same lands under federally subsidized grazing leases.While cattle and sheep are not on the range year round like wild horses, the monthly average of 68,740 cattle and 10,741 sheep is staggering compared to fewer than 2,000 wild horses. Livestock, not wild horses overpopulate and degrade the rangelands.

TCF and other advocate groups question the legality ofBLM’sDecisionto reduce herd levels far below Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) set in their own Resource Management Plans, and without an Environmental Assessment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

“Wild horse and burro herds and thefederal landson which they roam are under fire from those seeking to control land currently owned by the American public,” states Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of TCF. Since 1971 wild horses and burros have lost over 20 million acres of habitat. 339 wild horse herds were designated for protection on western ranges when the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed. Today only 179 herds remain. 70% of the remaining herds are no longer genetically viable due to their small herd sizes. The intent of the forward thinking, environmentally sound and unanimously passed 1971 Act has been totally ignored by the agency charged with protecting wild horses and burros.

As recently as July 10, Utah Representative Chris Stewart introduced HR 5058, The Wild Horse Oversight Act of 2014 which, according to aSalt Lake Tribunearticle, “could allow states to sell wild horses to slaughter.”

“Apparently, Congressman Stewart is not satisfied with the sweetheart deal welfare ranchers have had for decades, in which they pay virtually nothing to run their cattle and sheep on land owned by the American public,” Kathrens says. She also attributes the dire situation toBLM’s bungling of the Wild Horse and Burro Program. “BLMhas turned their back on management practices that would allow for the animals to live out their lives in freedom, rather than languishing in costly holding pens and pastures.”

“Wild horses are between a rock and a hard place. TheBLMwants to eliminate them in Wyoming, and Utah Congressman Stewart wants states to have the authority to eliminate them on federal rangeland,” states Paula Todd King, TCF Director of Communications. “This is why The Cloud Foundation joined Friends of Animals in filing a Petition to List North American Wild Horses under the Endangered Species Act.”

“With the myriad of threats posed to the remaining wild horse herds in America, it is past time that we look to science to guide their management on our public lands,” states US Representative Raul Grijalva (AZ). “I support The Cloud Foundation’s call for wild horses to be federally protected under the ESA.”

The ESA petition’s introduction states:

LINKS:

• Livestock far Outnumber Wild Horses Targeted for Removal in Wyoming, Chart by TCF & WHFF:http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/images/7.23.14prwyru.pdf
• BLM Schedules Wild Horse Removal from Checkerboard Lands:http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2014/july/18rsfo-removal.html
• Decision Record and Categorical Exclusion:http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/rsfo/Checkerboard.html
• Federal Court Sanctions Gov’t Plans to Eliminate Wild Free-Roaming Horses from Wyoming Checkerboard:http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/news/press-releases/217-federal-court-sanctions-gov-t-plans-to-eliminate-wild-free-roaming-horses-from-wyoming-checkerboard
• How the Department of Interior Sold Out America’s Wild Horses:http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/how-the-department-of-the-interior-sold-out-americas-wild-horses/274159/
• Ranchers are Scapegoating Wild Horses says BLM Scientist:http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/news/press-releases/247-ranchers-are-scapegoating-wild-horses-says-blm-scientist
• Wild Horse Oversight Act:https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5058/text
• Bill: Allow Utah, states to more aggressively manage wild horses:http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58190806-90/horses-bill-wild-stewart.html.csp
• Petition to List a North American Distinct Population Segment of Wild Horse (Equus caballus) under the U.S. Endangered Species Act:http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/images/pdf/Final_Petition_Complete_As_Filed.pdf