Motorized Vehicle Use (By Request)

By Laura Leigh on April 26, 2022

Many of you have reached out to WHE regarding the BLM hearing on the use of motorized vehicles in the wild horse and burro program.

Edited 4:30 MT: All of the slots to speak were filled. However, it appears several have registered but have not spoken. WHE team spoke at the beginning of the hearing. If you signed up, the hearing will go until 5 MT. You still have time to speak.

The hearting will be held: The hearing is scheduled for April 26, 2022 from 3 to 5 p.m. MT and will be held using Zoom video conferencing technology and live-streamed at BLM.gov/live.

If you did not sign up to speak, you can still send in written comments. Written comments may also be sent to BLM_HQ_MotorizedVehicleHearing@blm.gov. Please include ‘‘Motorized Vehicle Comment’’ in the subject line of the email. Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. Mountain Time on April 26.

Due to the number of questions we received we ran a webinar last night and will reschedule the CAWP Talk (humane handling) as well as the additional subjects our founder will be covering during the conference being held in DC (Foundations of the Law and the HMAP planning). We know many of you are frustrated because you could not travel and we are working out a format to share our contribution to the conference.

We received multiple requests to demonstrate how WHE will try to fit in information during a 2 minute time frame to help you do the same. We did a practice run early morning and recorded the session. We spoke a bit slower than we will during the hearing so you can get an idea on the direction we took. WHE has 4 speakers this afternoon that coordinated comments so we could cover additional ground in spoken comments.

Our informal rehearsal session (by request). The sample comments are in audio only format due to internet bandwidth issues today. Often, when WHE speak at these hearings or advisory board meetings we are speaking to the public as well as agency personnel. Our comments are as much for you to hear as they are for BLM.

In recent years these hearings have had poor attendance due to the ever increasing frustration by the public. Feeling that the federal agency tasked with managing a public resource ignores the concerns of the public (and instead only listens to their chosen well-funded partners) is very real.

However, do not let a feeling of helplessness (or a feeling that you are not qualified) silence you and prohibit you from participation.

The only thing you have to be cognizant of is the subject matter of any specific discussion or process. This is your time to tell BLM what you feel about the use of motorized vehicles in a program that manages public horses.

We hope all of you continue to speak up.

Issues during capture have, once again, gotten so bad that a bill has been introduced to stop the use of helicopter drive trapping altogether and commission a study by the GAO. We hope you take action on the bill and urge your lawmakers to co-sponsor HR 6635. (HERE)

Help keep us in the fight.