BREAKING!
Wild Horses Pay Tab For Martin Fire
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has changed the roundups schedule, Owyhee wild horses will pay a big price for the Martin fire.
On August 17 the BLM removed the Silver King area off the schedule and replaced it with the Owyhee Complex.
In July the Martin fire ripped through the Owyhee Complex reaching nearly 440,000 acres. The fire moved at speeds reportedly reaching 35 miles per hour. This fire is the largest single loss of wild horse habitat due to a natural event since the passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971.
The fire was fueled by grass loads that ranged from 200-1000 times the normal in the area. This area has been repeatedly hit with large scale removals of wild horses, the last in the winter of 2016, nearly 2000 wild horses were removed. In 2017 there was the Snowstorm fire, in 2018 the Martin, totalling over half million acres. Wild horses remove grass fuel loads. Each roundup of wild horses has been based on a premise that the “land can not sustain them.”
Since the fire began Wild Horse Education (WHE) has reached out to BLM offering assistance; monitoring, equipment, post fire planning. WHE received no reply except a “thanks, but no thanks.”
Instead of working with long-standing and known wild horse interests to create a management plan for the remaining wild horses, BLM simply proposes to remove them.
Wild Horse Education received a confidential report from an involved party that hundreds of wild horses burned in the fire. BLM has not made one statement that addresses wild horse casualties of this massive loss of habitat in an area criss-crossed with fencelines.
“BLM constantly ignores any assistance, comment, involvement from any wild horse interest that makes all attempts to engage process appropriately,” said Laura Leigh, President of Wild Horse Education. “BLM rewards those that engage with intimidation and harassment tactics. What are you trying to teach me BLM? That to get you to allow me to help you do your jobs for free I need to set up a protest camp outside a BLM office? This is insane, cruel and simply wrong.”
Wild Horse Education and it’s members have long histories of demonstrating how much they care about the wild horses of the Owyhee Complex.
“We pay the price for BLM arrogance and the horses pay the price for prioritization of interests, every single time. It’s heart breaking,” Marie Milliman, Wild Horse Education volunteer.
READ the rest on our new site here: https://www.publichorses.com/owyhee-constant-sorrow/
~~~~~~
History of Owyhee Wild Horses and our involvement: https://bit.ly/2fc5Ijj
Gold Rock Mine; Pancake: (second item, 8/21) https://www.publichorses.com/press-releases/
Categories: Wild Horse Education
You must be logged in to post a comment.