Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

GAO report summary (“BLM is concerned about the possible reaction to the destruction of healthy animals.” Go figure?) : http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-77

Here’s the full report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0977.pdf

BLM “welcomes” report (of course it does, given what the report says): http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/november/NR_10_11_2008.html

AP article: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0KjM5RmgCK9mR1hWIheT8pYBzFAD94CDVM81

It will be interesting to see what comments come of this report when people read it … and after the Wild National Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting next Monday, Nov. 17, in Reno, Nev. My first reaction is this: It’s reactionary – not visionary. Even while the BLM says it has no money to care for horses in long-term holding, it’s still removing horses from the range and doesn’t appear to be considering returning them to ranges they are legally entitled to (and have been completely removed from during the past 30 years because of livestock interests, oil and gas interests, etc.) – just killing them.

How much does a contractor get to round up wild horses? Why all these catastrophic removals of hundreds of horses at a time? I’ve heard contractors get $3,000 per horse. Is that right?! Hello?! Two things wrong there (if that’s correct): No WONDER so many horses are rounded up at once (more profitable to the contractor!), and why is the BLM paying so much to REMOVE horses from the WILD when it can’t find the money to sustain them away from the wild??

Something I read recently had a huge impact on me. With 30,000 individual animals in the wild (and how do we really know that? one problem is and has been BLM’s inaccurate counting), most species at that number would be on the endangered species list. The BLM wants to drop that number even further, to 27,000. How is that the magic number?

From the summary: “Most of the field offices GAO surveyed considered similar factors in determining AML, such as rangeland conditions; however, BLM has not provided specific formal guidance to the field offices on how to set AML. Without clear guidance, BLM cannot ensure that the factors considered in future AML revisions will be consistent across HMAs. At a national level, in 2007, BLM was closer to meeting AML (about 27,200 animals) than in any other year since AMLs were first reported in 1984. The extent to which BLM has actually met AML depends on the accuracy of BLM’s population counts. Nineteen of the 26 field officials GAO surveyed used a counting method which, researchers say, consistently undercounts animals and does not provide a statistical range of population estimates.”

I don’t have the answers. If I did, I’d be on the phone, not on a blog. But a “decision” to kill horses and a government report supporting a government decision (hello!?!?) is cowardly. A number of suggestions have been put forward, and I’m pretty sure “euthanasia” isn’t anywhere on that list. Why aren’t those suggestions being considered?

From the end of the summary: “The long-term sustainability of BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program depends on the resolution of two significant challenges: (1) If not controlled, off-the-range holding costs will continue to overwhelm the program. The percentage of the program’s direct costs for holding animals off the range increased from $7 million in 2000 (46 percent) to $21 million in 2007 (67 percent). In 2008, these costs could account for 74 percent of the program’s budget. (2) BLM has limited options for dealing with unadoptable animals. The act provides that unadopted excess animals shall be humanely destroyed or, under certain circumstances, sold without limitation. However, BLM only manages these animals through sales with limitations. BLM is concerned about the possible reaction to the destruction of healthy animals.”

Again, totally, totally reactionary. Nothing about actually “protecting” wild horses – part of the mission – horses in the wild. And “limited options”??? Here are some: http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/solutions.htm

From the AWHPC Web site (http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com):

The AWHPC Coalition is calling for a Congressional inquiry into the government’s wild horse management policies, and coordinating a grassroots campaign in support of:

• the review of scientific findings that contradict BLM’s claims of wild horse overpopulation and negative impact on the range;
• a moratorium on round-ups until actual numbers of wild horses and burros on public lands have been independently assessed; and
• implementation of in-the-wild management, which would save millions of tax-dollars.

Go to the Web site and click on the links (shown as underlined above) to learn more.

The advisory board is accepting comments through Nov. 12 – that’s Wednesday. Please send comments to the board c/o Ramona DeLorme: ramona_delorme@blm.gov.

Bandit

What a weekend! I had the great fortune of visiting some of the wild horses of the Little Book Cliffs range near Grand Junction with two women who know them best: Billie Hutchings (see her blog, listed under the blog roll) and Marty Felix, both with Friends of the Mustangs. Part of my inspiration for documenting our Spring Creek Basin herd has come from the meticulous documentation of members of this group (Marty has been doing it in LBC for 30-some years!). At their roundup last September, less than a month after ours, I got to see firsthand how that documentation has played a role in them being able to conduct gathers that are less stressful on the horses but still get the job done of removing excess horses so the ones that remain have better access to forage – the BLM’s goal.

The Little Book Cliffs range is about 36,000 acres (Spring Creek Basin’s is about 22,000), their appropriate management level is 90 to 150 horses, and they have 119 currently on the range. Their horses are fat and shiny and uber-healthy (like ours!). One of the biggest things that struck me was the sheer challenge of finding horses because of the geography of their range. Lots of tree, lots of canyons, lots of rocky country. There’s no place where you can stand and scan a 180-degree arc looking for horses – and in our basin, there are several such places. But if anyone can find horses, it’s these two eagle-eyed women. And even with 119 horses in their charge, they know every single one … but sometimes it takes awhile to find the newborns!

Billie and Marty also get paid a little by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Research Division for their work on the fertility control study in the Little Book Cliffs. The study is in place there, on Pryor Mountain and at the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area just outside Cody, Wyo. In fact, the main reason I went north and got to see their horses was a talk Marty gave about the immunocontraception drug PZP. She and three other people (including their wild horse specialist) are certified to dart their mares with the PZP each year. I think the study has been going on since 2002. The biggest thing I learned from her talk is that the PZP-22 drug our mares (Alpha, Kiowa, Chipeta, Molly and now-dead Slate) were given – the 22 means 22 months – is basically effective only one year, I think because they were all pregnant when they got the drug. So it will keep them out of the foaling business for just one year, not two.

Interestingly, we were supposed to get three mares from the Little Book Cliffs herd last year after their gather to boost the genetics of our herd (with an AML of just 35-65 horses, it is not a naturally genetically viable herd). But we didn’t get those mares, and the reason I heard was because they got the PZP for just one year – as opposed to our two. Now that I find out our “two-year” drug is good for only one year, I’m a little frustrated. The compromise is that we’d get mares from one of the other herd areas instead. We were told Sand Wash had planned a gather, but it wasn’t funded. This weekend, all news seems to point to Sand Wash’s gather going on as planned.

I had a fantastic time on the Little Book Cliffs range, and it was awesome to “meet” some of their horses and listen to Billie’s and Marty’s stories about them. We were able to get out of Billie’s truck several times and approach quite a few bands. We saw about three others from a distance. Thank you, Billie and Marty, for such a wonderful day! I hope you’ll let me return the favor in the future by going out with me to Spring Creek Basin!

Buttermilk

His band was the first we saw. He was out in a little meadow on a hillside, and his mares and 2-year-old colt were napping already under a tree.

Diamond Rio

Sorry, sir!

Choca

Gunsmoke, Kiva and Spook

Spook

Chrome and Phantom

Phantom

Phantom

Skylark

Chablis and Illusion

Cabin Boy

I’m out of time, but I went to the basin after all my other travelings, so I’ll post some pix from Sunday soon.

Documentary filmmaker James Kleinert recently put together a public service announcement about the BLM’s decision to euthanize horses. James is the wonderful filmmaker behind “Saving the American Wild Horse,” a tough-to-watch but eloquent plea for protection of our nation’s mustangs. He has filmed quite a lot in Spring Creek Basin, and our horses may be seen throughout the film.

Follow this link to the PSA: http://www.theamericanwildhorse.com.

And here’s another announcement about a summit to be held in October in Las Vegas. I’m already excited about the hoped-for outcome of this meeting. Contact information is included if any of you are able to attend.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: Karen Sussman ISPMB, 605-964-6866

EMERGENCY WILD HORSE SUMMIT TO CONVENE IN LAS VEGAS
With more than 33,000 healthy wild horses threatened with
euthanasia by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the International Society
for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB), Wild Horses Forever, and
Marisa Morin will hold one of the most informative and enlightening wild
horse summits ever to be conducted.

The summit will bring together the leading experts in the world of equine
behavior, genetics, research, and range management.  The focus of the summit
will address the current crisis facing America’s wild horses’ threatened
existence on public lands and will bring forth proposed solutions.

Along with the many equine scientists presenting, there will be panels
composed of interested wild horse groups yet to be announced.  ‘It is the
desire of our group to have as many diverse participants on the panel to
create an enlightening discussion,’ says Karen Sussman.  The conference’s
theme will be ‘Using our Diversity as a Strength to Preserve and Protect
Wild Horses.’

The summit will be held at South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on
October 11th and 12th from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., culminating with a media event
on the morning of October 13th.

Interested parties should send their names, addresses, and e-mail address to
wildhorsesummit@gmail.com. You may also check the Web site for up to date information at www.wildhorsesummit.com. Registration deadline for the summit is September 9th and can be done on line.

No, I didn’t see one, but I’m mad as a grizzly bear defending her cubs; I only wish I had the information to give teeth and claws to my complaint.

Note to Mr. “I Know About Wild Horses” from Brighton: If I ever see you again in Spring Creek Basin, you can be sure I’ll get your license plate number and report you – again. I thought you were clueless but harmless. I still think you’re clueless, but your clueless actions could have done lasting harm to the horses. Do you know the first mare you chased off has a (healed) fractured pelvis? I guess I should thank you – I’ve NEVER seen her run before (go figure), but at least now I know it doesn’t seem to bother her (she ran away just as fast as the boys).

Did you feel bad about not only stopping Grey/Traveler’s band’s direction of travel (I think they were heading to water; it was 100 degrees out) but chasing them down the road with your truck? That band has a lame mare, a yearling colt with a wonky knee and a 3-month-old filly. The other band you chased with your truck – which was the second band you chased away on foot when they didn’t stand still for your cell-phone photography – has a 20-plus-year-old mare and her 2-month-old filly. In the THIRD band you chased down the road with your truck was a WEEK-OLD COLT. The Bachelor 7 make up the FOURTH band I saw you chase down the road with your pickup. How awful did you feel to chase THIRTY horses down the road with your truck?

Do ya feel like crap now? You obviously didn’t when you chased Poco’s and Seven’s bands away from where I was photographing them. Do you know I have NEVER seen Poco, Bones and Roach up in that area? That, in fact, I have NEVER seen them outside their relatively small little area farther south – where there’s not much to eat and water is scarce? They were up where they were – where most of the bands were Friday – because the grass there is still plentiful – and there’s water. Think they’ll ever go back to that good grass? I hope so.

I already complained to the district ranger, and I sent a complaint with photos to our BLM herd manager. Too bad I didn’t write down your license plate number when I had the chance.

I know most of you who have an interest in the Spring Creek Basin horses and read this blog know this already, but let me beg again: Please, please, please respect the wild horses. During the course of almost a year now, I have been patient, calm and consistent in my approach to the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin. I do that not only so they are tolerant of me taking pictures to document their lives and social interactions and behaviors and new herd members, but also so you who come behind me have the same beautiful chance to see horses in the wild – that they don’t immediately run off at the sight of a vehicle or people taking pictures of them. I have a very long lens, and I can “get close” to the horses without invading their space – something you, guy from Brighton, with your medium telephoto and cell-phone camera, obviously can’t do. What’s worse, you weren’t even upset that you caused those horses to run away.

The first tenet of wildlife photography applies to WILD horses: NO PICTURE IS WORTH SACRIFICING THE WELL-BEING OF THE SUBJECT. If you cause your subject(s) to gallop off – from you on foot or because of your vehicle – you have failed.

Brighton guy: YOU FAILED.

Thanks to artist Karen Keene-Day for an email about this article that was featured in the Sunday (July 27) Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10002528

I guess even the government can’t control the BLM; despite the letter sent by U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources), the tone of the article seems to be that the BLM is plowing ahead with plans to “euthanize” wild horses or send them to slaughterhouses. None in America? Guess they’ll go to Canada or Mexico.

The article also says three roundups are planned this fall in Colorado. Sand Wash Basin was supposed to have a roundup (we are/were supposed to get three mares from that herd (for genetic viability) because we didn’t get them after the Little Book Cliffs roundup last fall after ours), but it apparently isn’t funded (I still don’t understand that?), and the West Douglas Creek horses are scheduled to be “zeroed out” because of oil and gas drilling. Where’s the other roundup?

The Cortez Journal ran an AP story last week about testing done on Nellis Air Force Base to determine what killed 71 wild horses there last year. This link to a Las Vegas TV news station provides a link to that story (the report is finally out) as well as past news stories: http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/category.asp?C=63593

Roundups also are being planned in the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area outside Cody, Wyo., and on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana (just ones I know about). Where are those horses going to go? The BLM is calling the Pryor roundup an “emergency” and in its EA (http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/field_offices/billings/horseeas/2008.Par.13838.File.dat/2008gatherEA.pdf) shows photos of damaged range (in the lower, desert part of the range where few horses summer) and a thin mare (not even shed out and just had a foal). Pam Nickoles, who visited Spring Creek Basin in late May, visited both those ranges a couple of weeks ago and said she has never seen the ranges – or the horses – looking better. I understand this year may be better than next year and the year after that, but to call for an “emergency” gather seems silly in light of the BLM’s financial woes.

Always something, eh?

Everyone needs to read this letter: http://wildhorsepreservation.com/pdf/EuthanasiaBLM_letter.pdf

I became aware of it this afternoon when I received an email from the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. It is signed by Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, and Raul Grijalva of Arizona, chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, and it is addressed to Henri Bisson, deputy director of operations for the BLM. He’s the guy who made the announcement at the National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting that the BLM just has to start killing horses.

I attended the advisory board meeting in Tucson back in February, and representatives of the GAO were at that meeting. According to the letter, in June 2007, the Committee on Natural Resources requested the GAO “conduct a comprehensive review of the BLM’s management of wild horses and burros on public lands. We did this because of continued concern that this program is being mismanaged, because we felt the BLM did little to address concerns raised by a 1990 GAO report, and because of recent changes to the Act in 2004.”

Please take a few moments and read the letter.

A local nonprofit group that partners with San Juan Public Lands here in Southwest Colorado will host “Pony Up Month” in August. The San Juan Mountains Association has all sorts of things going on, Claude Steelman will show off his new, excellent book, “Colorado’s Wild Horses,” and a local brew pub is setting aside a portion of its beer sales during the month of August to go toward our Spring Creek Basin horses.

Check out this Web site – http://www.sjma.org/whoweare/news/ponyup.htm – for more information.

The planning for this event started months ago, but in light of recent “decisions” by the BLM, it seems especially timely in our effort to save our wild horses.

Found these links today on the Mustang Saga blog: http://mustangsaga.blogspot.com/2008/07/blm-considers-euthanizing-excess-wild.html

The BLM home page has been updated with the WHB material at the top of the Spotlight…

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html

Link to the statement page:

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/Statement_06_30_2008.html

Direct link to the feedback form:

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/feedback.html

WHB Home page with a link to the statement:

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html

If you haven’t already seen this news, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. If you’ve seen it from one source, here are a few more. The article headlines kinda say it all. The BLM’s Wild Horse and Advisory Board just met Monday in Reno, Nev., and that’s apparently when all this came out. I’m kinda stunned, so for now, read the articles linked here.

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/06/blm_considers_ending_wild_hors.html – Associated Press article titled “BLM considers ending wild horse roundups, killing some animals”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/144279 – July 1 Newsweek article titled “The Wild Horse Is Us: An advocate of the American West’s mustangs blasts a proposed government policy to cull the herds.” The figures at the beginning of the article are backward, I think.

I got an email recently from Ann Bond, who handles a lot of public information for the public lands office based in Durango. Ann has close ties to our Spring Creek Basin horses and has even adopted a couple of burros through the BLM. She came up with some great questions while reading the blog and suggested I answer them on the blog.

“TJ – I had some questions while I was reading up on the ponies – how do they find enough to eat, what do they eat, how do they seem to handle the gnats, where do they get water, how do they handle the heat, etc.?”

What follows is from the email I sent back:

“The water is especially interesting lately – there’s not much of it. Recently, I’ve seen them drinking out of muddy hoofprints in nasty white-alkaline arroyos, from Wildcat Spring and from a ribbon of water in an arroyo (I’m not sure if that’s Spring Creek or if it’s a tributary) just down from a secret seep. Of the two water holes that have water, one is almost dry, and I’m not sure the horses are using it anymore anyway. Few of the horses are using the so-far-good water hole (Roach’s group and possibly Seven’s band). And the water’s on at the catchment, but none of the horses are up in that area (likely because of lack of grazing as well as memory of the tanks being empty).

“To be honest, I don’t know how they find enough to eat, but I talked to my mom this morning, and she commented on how fat the horses are. I sent her a pic of Houdini with her 2-plus-month-old filly, and Mom, a horsewoman, thought Iya was a yearling and Houdini was pregnant! Jif, Traveler’s dun mare that had been missing, showed up thin and limping, and Molly, the muley bay mare that had her foal almost a month ago, is thin – but (our BLM guy) said she was aged at 20+ by Cattoor, so that’s understandable. The others –
especially Luna! – are just downright fat. 🙂 Even the stallions – particularly Steeldust and Hollywood – have gained weight. They got pretty lean earlier in the spring when they were fending off the bachelors.

“As for what they eat – everything they can wrap their little lips around, I think! Luna eats practically all the time (she IS fat!), it seems. I’ve seen ’em nibbling on those kinda spiky-sagey plants (I’m not sure what the
plants are – it’s not sage; it has a kind of rubbery feel, and it’s taller/bigger than sage), and the sage – just about everything. The cheat grass is post-purple – nasty stuff. I hate it almost as much as I hate the gnats for sticking in my shoes and socks. Whatever they’re eating, it’s a good year. I hope the fat they’re putting on now carries them into August.

“They seem to handle the gnats better than I do, that’s for sure! They stamp and shake their heads, and their tails never quit swishing, it seem, but they’re fairly calm for how annoying it must be. The gnats do go away at night (around dark), but they’re back by about 8 a.m. Some seem more bothered than others. When I see Bones (the grey mare with Poco and Roach), it’s hard to get pix of her because it seems she never stops shaking her head. And they don’t seem at all bothered by the heat. They hang out in the open – I have seen the pinto family and some of Traveler’s under trees – and from recent observation, I think they go to water  pretty regularly – middle of the day and evening at least. I’m sure they also drink first thing in the morning.

“I’d love to go out there sometime with a botanist or someone who knows all those plants. I’ve learned some, but although I walk around through it all the time, my plant knowledge is embarrassingly limited.”

If anyone has any questions about the herd, I’ll certainly try to answer them. You should know that the more I learn about the wild horses, the more I realize how much more there is to learn.