Round 'em up and Head 'em Out!
Wild Horse and burro advocates frustrated as BLM increases the number of roundups

In September, while all eyes were on the Bureau of Land Management roundup of Montana's Pryor Mountain herd, a bigger story was brewing in Nevada, where the BLM has been "zeroing out" 11 herds in the eastern part of the state - removing nearly 650 horses - from lands that had been set aside for them. Meanwhile, in California, plans to eliminate the last remaining wild burro population and remove more than 80 percent of the wild horses living in three herd management areas (HMAs)in the northeastern part of the state are also underway, with no stopgap measure in place.

Wild horse advocates had hoped the BLM would be chastised by recent Congressional action and slow the pace of its wild herd reductions giving legislators a chance to pass the Restore our American Mustangs Act (H.R. 1018) into law. ROAM is one of three equine protection bills currently pending on Capitol Hill. Introduced early this year to replace a bill that expired last year, ROAM offers protections that guarantee wild horses will be left on the land. The other two bills S. 727 and S. 503, seek to prevent horses from being slaughtered for human consumption.

The BLM actions have caught the attention of at least one member of congress, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who in August issued a letter to newly confirmed BLM director Bob Abbey stating Grijalva did not believe the roundups to be based upon the "statutory goal of ‘achieving a thriving ecological balance,' nor fiscally responsible management practices."

Rep. Grijalva accused the agency of removing entire herds from public land in order to benefit private livestock interests at a cost to taxpayers—a theory that has been put forth by others.

Although the BLM maintain the roundups are solely an effort to protect the horses from long-term drought that has caused herds to suffer and starve, the agency admits other factors are in play. Chris Mayer, a BLM supervisor for the Nevada roundup, said, "Studies have shown the health of the herds is threatened due to lack of water and the availability of forage," but he added that once the horses are removed the land will be re-evaluated for other activities, including cattle grazing. "In some areas they have not had livestock—or a reduced number—so now we will look at the possibility of increasing cattle grazing."

Some wild horse advocates suspect the BLM is playing favorites with the cattle industry.
Ginger Kathrens, wild horse advocate and film producer, who first brought the story of the Pryor Mountain herd to the public eight years ago with her PBS documentary on the life of Cloud, a wild stallion with the Pryor Mountain herd, is critical of the BLM's true motives. The Montana roundup, she pointed out, included the zeroing out of 31 horses that had veered onto forest service land. "It's a livestock allotment….so it's not surprising they were all taken."

In Montana BLM spokesperson Mary Apple said the agency's mission was to merely thin the Pryor Mountain herd to an "appropriate management level" of 120 horses. In September, after attracting the attention of many wild horse advocates who were prevented from observing the Pryor Mountain roundup, the BLM cut their roundup short after gathering only 146 of their intended 190 horses. "We were trying to gather them in bands…but the horses were getting tired, and we didn't want to run them anymore," said Apple, adding that 89 horses were released back to the range and 57 horses were kept for adoption. "The range is just not big enough for the 190 horses that were there."

Opponents of the gather said the roundup may have been stopped early because Congress was back in session, and members of the House and Senate were getting too many calls from those opposed to it.

"It's a race against the clock," said Kathrens, who believes the BLM's aggressive tactics to remove so many herds before the new fiscal year begins in October is tied directly to the government fiscal calendar. "Use it or lose it," she said, explaining that if the BLM doesn't use the money allocated this year for roundups, the agency won't have it next year.

In California, the BLM program to round up horses and burros continues with plans to gather up another 648 wild horses and to zero out the last three remaining herds of wild burros in the state.

On August 19 the BLM announced it plans to remove more than 80% of the existing wild horses in the Buckhorn, Coppersmith and Carter Reservoir areas, leaving fewer than 135 horses in the designated HMAs. The BLM states the roundups will reduce the herd to the "appropriate management level" (AML), which will protect the range from deterioration and allow the BLM to implement fertility control on mares returned to the HMA.

In September the BLM began gathering 20 to 40 wild burros from around Fort Irwin and announced additional plans to gather another 160 burros in the Slate Range and Chemehuevi areas. "This gathering," said wild burro advocate Linda Lee, "removes all the wild burros from the California area and makes no sense. They're [the BLM] supposed to remove excess… There is no excess."

Lee has gone so far as to contact Senator Diane Feinstein who authored the California Desert Protection Act in 2005 stating she "strongly believe wild burros were part of the heritage of the Mojave Desert – having been present since the Gold Rush," and was opposed to any efforts to remove them.

BLM spokesperson David Briery said burros had wandered onto National Park Service land, where they are not allowed. All wild horses and burros colleted from the gathers will be offered for adoption or sale, he added.

Some don't think that concession is good enough. Rep. Grijalva's missive urged the BLM to "suspend all roundups until the agency had adequately demonstrated to the American people and to Congress that it has addressed the outstanding problems and updated its program to reflect 21st-century values, ensuring that wild horses and burros will always have a home on the range of our public lands."

For more information about BLM gathers, go to www.Americanherds.blogspot.com
To contact Senator Feinstein to stop the California roundup, call 202-224-3841