These are wild horses in the wild. The wild needs YOU! Action item at the bottom of this page.

ACTION ITEM  Planning 2.0 is like the “finger in the dyke” holding back larger threats to the land and our wild horses. Tell your Senator you want the rules to stay in place.

Please call your Senators today. If you don’t know your Senate office numbers directly, call (202)-224-3121 to be connected to your Senate offices (just tell them what state you’re calling from). Many Senators can be reached in their “home” offices. You can go here to find yours: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

When you speak to your Senators, please tell them to protect BLM Planning 2.0 by voting “no” on S.J. Res. 15. NO LONGER ACTIVE, 2.0 is gone.

Current action, call senators and say, “Killing wild horses is not ok in the Department of Interior Budget to save a few dollars.”

Edited March 6: We expect a vote in the Senate this week.

Action item is repeated again after the editorial.

There is a war against the environment and all that depend on it’s health to survive (that means human beings, too). Both sides are fierce. One side wants to profit from the land and one to preserve it. The federal government is supposed to sit somewhere in the middle as a kind of referee.

In all wars there are tools, strategies and tactics. Just to make sure that vocabulary is not misunderstood; a strategy is the art of planning and a tactic is the action carefully planned. The word “tool” has two distinct meanings in our use of modern language; a device used to carry out a particular function and someone without the mental faculties to know they are being used.

Right now the tools, strategy and tactics of profit driven enterprise are being wielded, masterfully. It looks like sheer chaos, but that is a masterful strategy to engage each tool as a tactical weapon to achieve an objective.

At this stage in this deranged war the opposition to wild horses has masterfully played the field. They are the opposition after all and have behaved as opposition should; organized, united and fully engaged toward achieving their goals.

Advocacy? Not so much. We know that might be unpopular to say, but it is a truth. Often we see fractured movement that is competitive, not supportive. Or even worse we have seen outright attacks against those involved and on the ground from others that are in all actuality, far removed. If you read websites and mailers the goal is often a vague one, “save wild horses.”

Did we just make you upset? That is not the intention. Our intention is to help you see advocacy as a movement that requires tools, strategy and tactics to succeed. Even more importantly a clear goal must be established.

With wild horses we have many issues like rescue efforts, sanctuary, adoptions. Those efforts are efforts to protect formerly wild horses from falling into bad hands or rescuing them from bad situations. Adoption efforts from holding are to assist formerly wild horses from ending up in the massive system of government warehousing where they await an uncertain fate.

These efforts address a symptom of failed management of the wild horse in the wild. If you look at the pie chart of spending in the BLM Wild Horse and Burro program, you are looking at a mirror of how advocacy uses it’s funding in a broad brush. More than half the funds donated to “save wild horses” goes into maintaining sanctuary horses, the next largest chunk is program support or salaries and public relations firms. Many wild horse organizations don’t really have an “on range” program and if they do those funds are usually used to observe a roundup or go on a tour given by the BLM. Another sad fact is that often big organizations without much of a range program to begin with, often use the funds they obtain from posting pictures of roundups not to engage change at roundups but instead  funnel the funds obtained into their rescue or “support” system. Funds are removed from the range to pay for “holding costs,” just like BLM. This fact does not imply that the rescue or sanctuary or “holding” is not important, it is simply not “on range” issues.

Did that just make you angry? That is not the intention. The intention is to create a broader understanding of the reality we face when we advocate for the “wild.”

The tools, strategies and tactics of the opposition are extremely united, organized and focused. In order to even enter the field advocacy must be as well. Even simply typing that phrase brings a cloud of dread. Since the Act to protect wild horses and burros a fractured advocacy has been a tool of the opposition that is often wielded in a masterful strategy, historically and in the present day. (READ HERE: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2016/03/09/velma-johnstonthoughts/ )

We will present more in part two. We do have tools, but the strategy and tactics to utilize them are not something advocacy uses the way it should. We will focus on that in the next installment.

Right now we DO need you to act. The BIG picture that wild horses occupy is changing rapidly. Advocacy for the “wild” must focus on that picture.

The strategy of the opposition is focused  on protecting profit driven privilege on public land. The tactics have included eroding credibility of opposing forces, gaining and maintaining control of political seats, strong arming and intimidation. The tools they wield are many, using both definitions of the word.

Many wild horse advocates are unaware of what “2.0” even is. In simplistic terms you can substitute the word “sage grouse plans” for “2.0.” Everyone sees in the news that 2.0 is under threat. But why should you care? Because it is part of a larger strategy to remove all regulations to protect and preserve public resources. Wild horses are a resource, not a use, under law.

Wild horses always get the short end of the stick in any protocol or policy and 2.0 was no different. However it created another layer to the conversation of management that removed may of the old pitfalls that involve serious local cronyism by involving all stakeholders in the planning process from ground up and back down, (WHE was at many of the local meetings that were both alarming and encouraging to anyone that understands all aspects of process, including litigation). It also created another layer for litigation if engagement failed. It is an unfortunate reality for those of us that are trying to protect resources that litigation becomes a primary tool as profit driven organized engagement often has the largest voice. (This is a good editorial on 2.0. It even lets you know a number of  the entities against 2.0 including the Nevada Association of Counties, NACO. http://www.postregister.com/articles/opinions/2017/02/19/house-editorial-blm%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98planning-20%E2%80%99-likely-doa Keep in mind that you, the tax payer, has already spent a billion dollars on this plan to avoid the listing.

The purpose of 2.0 is to stop the listing of the Greater Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). If the bird is listed exploitation comes to a halt and the mechanism to continue to reap a profit off of public land would need to be rebuilt, post listing. It could be done, just like after the Spotted Owl was listed in the Pacific Northwest, but profits would drop severely for a few years.

2.0 was built as a buffer to listing. The clock is ticking already in the time frame to list. If the plan failed, the bird is listed in about 4 years time.

So if 2.0 goes away the immediate restrictions to industry do too.

If we then get rid of the ESA, the threat of restrictions goes away.

So those protecting profit driven interest are attacking 2.0 and the ESA.

We are NOT going to give you a sign on letter or petition. Those are NOT effective, they build mailing lists for organizations to send you fundraisers. If you want to follow this website to receive our articles just add your name in the sidebar to “follow.” If you want to do an appropriate action you need to pick up a phone, a pen or craft your own email to YOUR representatives in the Senate. These measures passed the House fast. (If you are a wild horse advocate you probably remember a hearing in the House on wild horses and we will cover that well orchestrated debacle in part two).

Please call your Senators today. If you don’t know your Senate office numbers directly, call (202)-224-3121 to be connected to your Senate offices (just tell them what state you’re calling from). Many Senators can be reached in their “home” offices. You can go here to find yours: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

When you speak to your Senators, please tell them to protect BLM Planning 2.0 by voting “no” on S.J. Res. 15.

DO IT. JUST DO IT.

We will do a separate action and explanation on the ESA.

Our series continues in #FactWeek soon. Fight a world built by public relations firms and greed. LEARN just the facts and then act.

“We don’t just take pictures, we act with facts.”

Support the work of Wild Horse Education. We focus on the “wild” in wild horses.