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Virginie Parant of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign speaks to reporters at Wednesdays protest in San Francisco. Protesters are calling for an immediate moratorium on all wild horse roundups until Congress settles several issues. photo by Lee Abel
Protesters gathered outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Ca) San Francisco office yesterday in a peaceful protest calling attention to the ongoing BLM roundup of 2,700 wild horses from Nevada's Calico Mountains. The legally contested and highly controversial roundup has spurred recent protests across the country. Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, California and even London saw protests yesterday, another was held Sunday in Nevada and more are scheduled for next week.
Among the many issues involved , protesters say the BLM is removing horses while increasing the number of livestock allowed in the same area through publicly supported grazing permits.
In an interview with this reporter, Jo Lynn Worley from BLM's Nevada State office responded by saying, " That statement is totally incorrect." Worley offered figures representing the amount of forage alloted to cattle from 1982 through 2009 which did indeed show a significant decrease in forage alloted to cattle. When asked how these numbers correlate to wild horses, Worley replied, " Well that's where it gets kind of tricky... It's like comparing apples and oranges... We do not determine AUM's ( forage used) for wild horses."
In regard to achieving balance between the wild horses and cattle, Worley stated," People keep trying to characterize that there should be some sort of equality among livestock ranging and wild horses and that's not the way that any of the laws passed by Congress tell BLM to manage the public lands. So that's really not how we develop our decisions, our resource management planning decisions. It's based on different laws. The Taylor Grazing act (1934) was passed long before the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act (1971) and the Taylor Grazing Act is still a very viable act that we follow."
The determination process for multiple use of Americas public lands is without a doubt a complicated one..... certainly too complicated to explain in a single conversation. Ms. Worley has promised a second interview for further clarification of the cattle grazing versus wild horse issue.
Academy Award winning author of Dances With Wolves, Michael Blake, and Terri Farley, author of the popular Phantom Stallion book series, were on hand in San Francisco later in the day to ask the public to write President Obama for an immediate moratorium on all wild horse roundups until the issues can appropriately resolved by Congress.
Animal welfare and wild horse advocate organizations fear Americas wild horse herds are being managed toward eventual extinction. "The last truly wild horses may have already been born." says Farley.
Americas wild horses seem to be caught in the middle of conflicting laws, love and hate, and a never ending stream of misinformation. While America waits for answers in the coming New Year, the Calico Mountain roundup will continue as will the protests against it.
For more information on the Calico round up:
Comments
This nightmare has to be stopped. Everyone PLEASE write a hard copy letter to your senators, representatives and the bureau of land management-these letters really do make a difference!
There's an online petition to save these wild animals that's shooting for 50,000 signatures
www thepetitionsite com/takeaction/166841148 (add .'s where the spaces are)
I dispute Ms. Worley's contention that the grazing leases have declined. Every report the BLM puts out contradicts the figures put out in the next report--just try comparing 2 reports from the same year. The BLM has been asked for maps showing what land the cattle grazing leases occupy--they state they don't have them but them later state they do. FOIA requests take YEARS to answered some are never answered at all although Obama specifically stated hat the federal agencies were to operate with transparency and cooperate with public requests for information--what a laugh. Salazar is a rancher, the wolf is guarding the chicken coop and Obama knew it. Where's that achange
Waaait just a minute, Ms. Worley. You say, "The Taylor Grazing act (1934) was passed long before the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act (1971) and the Taylor Grazing Act is still a very viable act that we follow."
Is this a choice the BLM gets to make? Wouldn't the WFRH&B Act supersede the Taylor Grazing Act? And the WFRH&B Act plainly states the the wild horses are supposed to be the "principal" presence in a multi-use situation.
What about that? If you do get another interview, Carrol, why don't you ask her?
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