Yesterday, a WHE volunteer sent a request to those that signed up for our Fish Creek alerts. The request asked that you sign onto the WHE letter to BLM (and key elected officials) asking that BLM abandon their reckless plan for the Fish Creek herd.

Edit: As of Monday, August 19 at 9 am, over 3000 people have signed and more are adding their names every hour. Will you join us in seeking justice for Fish Creek? (you can skip to the sign on letter by clicking HERE)

On September 6, 2019 the BLM will decimate the population of wild horses at Fish Creek. The BLM plans to remove 500 wild horses, over 75% of those that live there; the BLM plans on doing no fertility control, no release, nothing but gutting the population of wild horses in the area and destroying any hope of salvaging a long-term management strategy. 

You can learn more about Fish Creek here: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/08/07/justice-for-fish-creek-time-travel/

The following is a letter to urge BLM  to cancel the current operation and work toward alternative solutions: 

As a US taxpayer I implore you to cancel the removal operation at the Fish Creek HMA. The current plan will destroy a $2 million dollar investment made in 2015 to create a framework for appropriate management of wild horses at Fish Creek, including the identification and protection of habitat critical for the long term preservation of the herd. 

The agency appears to be on the verge of removing nearly 75% of the wild horses that currently exist in the area in an operation steeped in politics, not common sense. 

This removal will devastate the underlying framework, I as a tax payer, have invested in. Historic data indicates the boundary lines of the Herd Management Area (HMA) are inaccurate invalidating the stocking level (AML) of wild horses and creating unfair management. In addition the removal will devastate the wild horses living in the area.

The protocol begun in 2015, and halted after the financial investment, was an incremental process that would fix underlying flaws and create justified decisions. Nearly 2 million dollars were invested to fix management and the agency is throwing that investment away. Many wild horses have already lost freedom, and some paid with their lives, to create a long term plan at Fish Creek to validate any assertion of  fair management. BLM cancelled the plan without true cause. 

As a tax payer the decision to move forward with a broad scale removal at Fish Creek is irresponsible to the public and the public resource. 

BLM should not remove any of the wild horses that were branded with tracking numbers and have done extensive DNA profiles on. The agency cancelled the data/fertility control program that was to begin in 2016. This decision has been cloaked in secrecy. Until BLM is fully transparent in it’s decision process at Fish Creek the removal should be cancelled. 

It appears that the BLM has entered into secret deals that may re-designate waters noted in the 2015 Environmental Assessment (and every other EA associated with Fish Creek) without full stakeholder involvement. BLM has dismantled waters used by wild horses and noted in every single management document on Fish Creek.

Furthermore, the agency will not release this critical information prior to further removal of wild horses based on the very waters it dismantled in secret deals! 

Additional information indicates this operation is being rushed through without any thought to the long-term damage to the herd, fiscal responsibility and public trust. Politics have your agency literally shifting responsibility back and forth from the National office to the Field office. This is not acceptable. BLM is placing politics before preservation of public resource, transparency and full stakeholder involvement. 

Until the agency discloses it’s past actions and decision process concerning critical waters that the Fish Creek herd has relied on since there were wild horses in Fish Creek, the agency is essentially obstructing the ability of wild horse advocates to appropriately address the pending operation. The agency must also disclose any other agreement, settlement, informal handshake deal, involving any practice that references wild horse management. 

BLM is attempting to justify the operation with a Land Use Plan that is three decades old that they know is seriously flawed. Since 2009 BLM has refused to do a revision, or even a supplement, to rectify flaws devastating to the herds in the district. I am tired of BLM claiming to manage wild horses, yet do nothing but make excuses to appease politics. 

As a tax-payer, and member of the public with a strong interest in preservation of our wild horses, I implore you to cancel the operation and work with advocates for a long-term solution.

Sincerely,

add your name by clicking HERE.

Wild Horse Education is asking you, our supporters and the public at large, to raise your voice against the abhorrent malpractices that are planned for Fish Creek. By clicking the highlighted text above, you can add your name to a letter to the BLM (and key elected officials) demanding this flippant disregard for our wild horses be ended, and due process and respect be given to our public lands and wild horse herds. We hope that, with support from you, we can start the ripple that becomes a wave and finally find some justice for our beautiful wild horses that live in Fish Creek.

To learn more about Fish Creek: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/08/07/justice-for-fish-creek-time-travel/

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Keep us in the fight!