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July 2010
by Ron Cerri

What has happened to common sense?

I hope everyone is having a good spring. Those of us in northern Humboldt County are going to be short on irrigation water due to a snow pack that was about 60% of normal. It sure would be nice to get a winter with normal or above normal precipitation again. There are a number of ranches that are at the end of the streams that haven’t had water on their meadows for five or more years. We were fortunate this spring to get some really good rains at the right time. The grass out on the range is exceptional which is great, except that in about a month when it all dries out we could have a potentially bad fire season.

Dealing with the wild horse issue is still taking a lot of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and my time. I have talked a lot about wild horses in my columns, so everyone must be thinking that it is a big issue to me personally. I don’t have wild horses on my allotments or even around me; it is just a subject where there seems to be a lack of common sense and it irks the hell out of me! To me a deal is a deal. In 1971 a plan was put together and both the BLM and the wild horse advocates have failed to hold up their end of it.

I just returned from Denver, Colorado where I attended a two-day meeting that was intended to draft goals, objectives and possible management actions for wild horses and burros that was put on by the Bureau of Land Management who hired a facilitator. The first day was set as a public comment forum and the second day the Wild Horse and Burro Commission held their meeting. A lot of the discussion revolved around Secretary of Interior Salazar’s initiative intended to create a cost-efficient and sustainable wild horse and burro management program. The outline for the discussion contained seven key areas for the BLM’s strategic planning effort. They are:

• Sustainable herds
• Preserves
• Treasured Herds
• Place Excess Animals into Private Care
• Communications
• Animal Welfare
• Science and Research

Probably 80% of those attending were wild horse advocates and the other 20% were from State Departments of Wildlife, Conservation Districts and various sportsmen’s groups who favored multiple use.

During the public comment forum, it was very apparent that the advocacy groups had strategized ahead of time what they were going to say and do. In listening to the speeches and comments from the wild horse advocates and hearing the response of the BLM, it seemed pretty apparent to most of us that the BLM may be caving in to the advocacy groups on a lot of issues.

I was a little disappointed in the facilitator of this discussion. In the beginning, he did try to keep the discussion on point, but as the day went on the advocacy groups were allowed to turn the discussion into horses versus livestock grazing. The horse advocacy groups were referring to ranchers as welfare ranchers that wanted to kill all predators. He also let them go on about how the BLM is trying to eliminate horses, stating that the BLM basically doesn’t care about the horse’s welfare and that the wild horse and burro counts are inaccurate. It was really disheartening to watch BLM personnel, for the most part, hang their heads and not defend themselves.

These groups are adamantly opposed to preserves anywhere other than in the west because they think moving the horses out of the environment they are used to would be too emotionally traumatizing to the horses. Another thing the advocates made sure to say numerous times is that it is improper for the BLM to break up family units such as happens during gathers because this also traumatizes the horses. They are also opposed to the Secretary designating certain herds as treasured herds and managing them as such, saying it is improper to elevate one herd over another because all horses are treasured herds.

The bottom line is that the horse advocacy groups are opposed to anything and everything regarding horse management. They are all about expanding the horse’s range with absolutely no concern for other uses; ie. wildlife, grazing, recreation, etc. They contend that if left alone, horses will self-regulate themselves. They also contend that ranchers and their livestock are the real villains and are responsible for any of the over-grazing that is taking place. I found it to be the pinnacle of hypocrisy that the only so called environmental group there advocating for the wild horses was Western Watersheds Project represented by Katie Fite. WWP’s stated goal is to remove public land grazing because they contend livestock grazing ruins watersheds and destroys the ranges. Evidently feral horses aren’t livestock and they don’t overgraze.

The second day the Wild Horse and Burro Commission met and discussed the same points that were made during the public comment period the day before. During the meeting, we learned that by the time the Commission meets again, there will be six new members on the board. The BLM has changed a position that is currently held by livestock interests to an interested public position with emphasis on equine behavior. This will result in further stacking the deck in the horse advocates favor. It was, for the most part, a majority of the board members favoring proper horse management for the well being of the range as well as the horses, recognizing that the two are intertwined. Unfortunately, the committee chair was unwilling to bring to a vote any recommendations. I think this was due to the fact that there will soon be a new board and the chairperson felt the new board should come up with the recommendations. The recommendations made to the BLM will be critical. The Government Accountability Office recommended the BLM find effective long-term solutions to manage unadoptable wild horses (GAO-99-77). The BLM is working on this now because of the GAO study that pointed out that continuing to manage wild horses and burros using current practices is not sustainable. The BLM hopes to define a more sustainable approach for the future management of America’s wild horses and burros to take to Congress.

After listening to all the comments and discussions during this two-day period, many of those in attendance that favor multiple use think that the Wild Horse and Burro Program is at a crossroads for many reasons. It doesn’t matter whether you are a permittee, sportsman or conservationist, everyone should comment. To learn more or to provide the BLM with comments, click on the link provided at www.blm.gov.

This month’s quote comes from “Horse Sense” by Bix Bender

"You can lead a fool to talk,

[but you can’t make him think.]

”

 

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