Palomino Valley Center, PVC. BLM preparation facility.

Many of you watched the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting online this week; many of you took time out of your workweek to comment. You can still send written comments to the board; they simply wont be presented to the board prior to the meeting.  Sending comments after the meeting ends gives you the ability to actually comment on the meeting content presented. You can make suggestions that reference topics you would like the board to cover as well as comments on the program. The email address is: whbadvisoryboard@blm.gov

You can also simply listen to the board, look at the materials for the session, and use that info to formulate a letter to your lawmakers or BLM leadership.

Please remember the board is not a “board of directors,” but hand-picked members of the public BLM has chosen to craft recommendations. The board does not make policy. Often they will reflect the agency, but they do not direct it.

Members of the public that spoke at the meeting are given a limited time to discuss concerns; 3-minutes is not a lot of time.

Several people that have volunteered with WHE spoke as members of the public. We thank all of you that took the time to participate. We know that far too often you feel ignored, but that does not mean that you stop speaking out.

Two WHE core team members spoke yesterday. Both speakers decided to limit the bulk of comments to wild horses and burros that are still on range and sit at the “ground zero” of the frame for all that comes afterward. We want to assure you that our work expands to all layers of the program. But out team devoted speaking time primarily to on-range issues.

Many of you could not tune in and have requested that we post our comments.

The image below is from Onaqui summer 2022. Many of the stallions look rough after a roundup increased the sex-skewing on the range to favor males by an estimated 65%. BLM also uses the PZP vaccine on the range. On many ranges BLM is lumping multiple forms of population growth suppression without ever analyzing cumulative impacts to the herd and herd behavior. Any form of fertility control creates a “stressor” to a herd. A roundup is a stressor as well. We have seen big behavior changes on many ranges including increase in aggressive behaviors (many ranges are beginning to mimic some of the intense behavior changes we saw at Sheldon NWR before the end of those herds).

The image below is from the month and a half long roundup at Triple B in 2022. The BLM CAWP (welfare team) attended 3 days of operations and published their assessment of welfare compliance on July 22, over a month before. the operation ended on August 25.

Prior to the meeting we  published two pieces that focus on the frame on-range, the “in the wild” part of wild horses and burros. A bit of history, the formation of the framework of advocacy for wild horses on our public lands.  You can access part 1 HERE. Part 2 focuses on regulation and policy, where we need to advocate to “keep wild horses wild” and part of why that breaks down. You can access part 2 HERE. We also published a piece on numbers in holding that demonstrate just how close the program is to hitting a wall. You can access it HERE. We are completing a report from our WHE CAWP team (welfare) and will post as soon as we finish editing.

We are working on a visual presentation to present to you to answer your questions. We are under a time crunch on several projects and will post the video soon.

You can shoot us a fast comment on the board meeting, concern, etc. for us to include in our presentation (we will include as many as space allows)

Help keep us in the fight.