February 24, 2010

Please Take a Minute to Help Wild Horses — Reminder: Public Comments Needed by March 5 on Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Roundup in California

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Eagle Lake (California) Field Office is seeking public input by March 5 on the proposed roundup and removal of 1,800 wild horses and 180 burros from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA), northeast of Susanville, Calif. The roundup is tentatively planned for August and September 2010.

In keeping with the BLM practice of setting arbitrarily determined and artificially low "appropriate management levels" for horses and burros, the BLM is claiming that this 798,000-acre public land area can only sustain 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros.

The BLM is seeking comments in advance of preparing a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA) on its plan to capture and remove the Twin Peaks burros and horses, some of whom are descended from Spanish stock and Cavalry remounts and include both draft and light breeds.

Read the BLM's news release announcing the public comment period here.

Now is the time to speak up for the Twin Peaks horses and keep the momentum going to stop BLM wild horse roundups! In the past two months, after receiving well over 10,000 comments in opposition, the BLM postponed two scheduled wild horse roundups in Utah's Confusion Mountains Complex and eastern Nevada's Eagle Herd Management Area. The BLM also recently removed several burro captures from its 2010 roundup schedule.

Please personalize, cut and paste the sample email below. Help save the Twin Peaks horses from the tragedy that has befallen Nevada's beautiful Calico Mountain horses, 54 of whom have died so far as a result of the roundup, which ended on February 5, 2010.

Americans are speaking out in increasing numbers for wild horses and burros, and now is the time to keep up the pressure!

Comments are due by March 5.

SAMPLE LETTER

To: twinpeaks@ca.blm.gov
Dayne_Barron@blm.gov
Subject: Public Comment for preparation of Twin Peaks Herd Management Area Preliminary Environmental Assessment

Dear Mr. Barron,

I oppose the current proposal by the Eagle Lakes Field Office to roundup 1,800 wild horses and 180 burros from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA). The BLM has been found repeatedly to arbitrarily set Appropriate Management Levels for Wild Horses at numbers so low they often defy common sense. Such is the case with the BLM's contention that 798,000-acre Twin Peaks public HMA can only sustain 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros.

The BLM's proposed massive removal of wild horses and burros from the Twin Peaks HMA and the warehousing of these animals in government holding facilities violates the intent of Congress and the will of the American people that our wild horses be managed on the range in a humane and minimally-intrusive manner that preserves their wild and free-roaming behavior.

As a result, I urge the field office to consider the following measures to improve management of the wild horses in the Twin Peaks HMA:

• Re-evaluate and increase the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for wild horses for this 798,000-acre complex;
• Utilize the BLM's discretion under 43 C.F.R. 4710.5(a) to close or limit livestock grazing in the Twin Peaks HMA and/or or designate this area to be managed principally for wild horse herds under 43 C.F.R. 4710.3-2
• Offer any ranchers grazing livestock in the Twin Peaks HMA the option to retire cattle grazing allotments or convert cattle grazing allotments to wild horse allotments to promote ecotourism activities;
• Implement and expand the current proposal of fertility control treatments to allow more horse to remain on the range.
• Implement range improvements and water enhancements that will benefit all animals, including wildlife and horses, living in the Twin Peaks HMA.

Further, any environmental assessment conducted for this capture plan must include objective evaluation of the above mentioned items, as well as a detailed economic analysis of the costs associated with the capture, removal and warehousing of these horses, and a full consideration of the impacts of capture, removal and warehousing on the horses taken from the range.

Please use this opportunity to implement a humane and progressive management program for the Twin Peaks mustangs and burros and reject the plan to massively round up and warehouse these free-living animals.

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