Note from Laura Leigh from the budget debate front, from the heart:
I’ve got some bad news from the front on the fight against the release of additional funding, $21 million, in the 2020 budget battle. I’m making a personal plea, take action today!
There is a lot going on. Wild horses and burros are, once again, being placed on the bottom of everyones list in Congress. Our wild ones deserve more than another “bums rush” from our legislators.
I’m writing this for those of you that want to understand more about “what do you see?” I put the action item at the top for those of you just searching for “what to do fast.” Personally? I have watched so much destructive actions over the last decade, all sides. However, the organized back-door deal making, that started in 2015, to get this type of budget in play is the most foul thing I may have ever witnessed.
It seems the “big corporate orgs” have all simply stood on the premise that BLM needs to increase funding for fertility control. They have not addressed the underlying flaws.
This has led to an “understanding” at the Congressional level that population control is point one; then we increase fertility control. This begins with the basic premise that advocates agree with the framework; wild horses are overpopulated and destroying the West.
It also appears that certain organizations have tried to position themselves as the recipients of potential contracts stemming from holding facility funding and implementing of fertility control. In engaging in this activity they have continued to solidify the premise of the “old game” of remove and stockpile. They have also damaged the ability of anyone addressing management planning (habitat preservation, boundary lines, water improvement, genetic preservation) to gain traction.
This is bad, bad, bad. I wish I could report to you the same kind of traction we gained last round; Congress understood the lack of management planning and they do not this time around because of the mass messaging of those looking for contracts.
We really need you to raise your voice. Last time you were instrumental in helping us gain that traction to get get Congress to reject the last report from BLM.
All of those things that bother you? the low AML, the pitiful forage allocations for wild horses and burros, the lack of habitat preserved for wild horse use? All of that is supposed to be addressed in the HMAP, that we do not have for the overwhelming majority of herds.
The EAs you comment on are not management documents, they are removal documents. Management os covered in the HMAP. (video here)
Congress keeps saying “Pine Nut” to me. The Pine Nuts are the only area in Nevada with an HMAP. Yes, there is some darting there and the auction bid up some horses and they got homes. That is a “successful outcome” for some of those horses and I agree. I was not part of the HMAP creation there because there are dozens and dozens of advocates involved, I went where there was no one. But, I need to point out that the acreage is 104,316 acres and the AML is 118-179. If grazing allotments for domestic livestock could be retired (that would take the passage of a different bill by Congress) stocking level, AML, could be revisited in the HMAP. There was a lot of online upset over the last roundup there. There is a long way to go. Congress focused on that one area? not a good sign to me about what is being pushed forward in Congress. All they are hearing is about fertility control, not any disagreement or issues with the HMAP. That essentially translates as “just give us fertility control.”
The funding being released? it is going to hit areas that do not even have that minimalistic HMAP that Pine Nut has!
Congress is not understanding that they have to mandate the HMAP.
The only way we are going to get a voice to address the things all of you say you want addressed, is to force Congress to make HMAPs mandatory prior to funding being used to remove wild horses. (take action HERE)
If an org feels like they need to cave to the old game because they feel helpless? Get out of the way! If it is a handout? shame on you!
Removals are not management. Fertility control is not management. Both are tools that would be used only after being justified through management planning. The plan has to come first. Why is that so hard for Congress to understand? Perhaps because they are only listening to the million dollar corporate hand out seekers? That’s my take on this.
BLM is getting contracts solidified to fulfill the promises laid out n the roundup schedule; over 5000 will lose freedom before Oct 7, 2020. That schedule is just the beginning.
Send the letter. Please also pick up the phone.
I’m in field and prepping for a roundup year like we have not seen since 2012. The acceleration is going to be grueling and brutal. The roundups we see? remember the vast majority of them have never had management planning, only removals to satisfy politics.
Do not delay. Take action NOW.
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We are up against a very well funded machine. Can you help us continue to fight back? We wont give up.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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