Press Release from The Cloud Foundation
47% of native wild horse and burro herds have been zeroed out by BLM since 1971
Colorado Springs, CO (April 30, 2010)—Today the Cloud Foundation launches Herd-Watch, an innovative volunteer program to monitor wild horse and burro herds as well as roundups across the West. The iconic horses and burros are currently being managed to virtual extinction, contrary to the. From this day on, Herd-Watch will: watchdog America’s wild horses and burros, provide increased public visibility, monitor the range conditions and the mustang, burro and livestock numbers as well as keep tabs on the Bureau of Land Management‘s (BLM) plans for “management” of each treasured American Herd.
“The more the public knows about our wild herds, the more deeply they will care about their preservation. Through Herd-Watch we will educate and inform the public while protecting an American treasure,” explains Project Manager Laura Leigh of Nevada. “Herd-Watch is an exciting and interactive new development facilitating improved protections for our wild herds and, we hope, an improved dialogue with both the BLM and Forest Service.”
A central database will keep tabs on each of America’s remaining 180 herds on public lands in ten Western States and their ranges. According to BLM, in 1971 339 wild herds were designated for protection. Since then the BLM and Forest Service have zeroed out 159 herds, including 12 in Nevada just last year. Volunteer teams will log and catalog data, photos and information following their visits to the range. The Cloud Foundation hopes that BLM and Forest Service officials will welcome the increased interest and monitoring of wild herds at no cost to taxpayers.
Interested members of the public are encouraged to visit www.thecloudfoundation.org to volunteer, donate and learn more.
“Herd-Watch will remove our wild herds from the ranks of the anonymous. Through the work of dedicated volunteers, the public will learn about each amazing herd of wild horses and burros and what can be done to preserve them for all time, as the Wild Horse and Burro Act intended,” states Ginger Kathrens, Cloud Foundation Executive Director and Emmy award-winning producer whose Cloud documentaries have educated a world public about the rich lives of wild horses.
1971 Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act
Links of interest:
Herd-Watch http://bit.ly/9Wvh58
Roundup Schedule- updated February 2010 http://bit.ly/bOhwdk
Wild Horses: Management or Stampede to Extinction? Reno Gazette Sunday Special by Frank X. Mullen. http://bit.ly/9rGFwV
American Herds – “What’s Left?” http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-left.html
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/
Straight from the Horse’s Heart http://www.sfthh.com
Disappointment Valley… A Modern Day Western Trailer- excellent sample of interviews regarding the issues http://bit.ly/awFbwm
Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
719-633-3842 ~ www.thecloudfoundation.org
The Cloud Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.
107 S. 7th St. – Colorado Springs, CO 80905
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This is one of the best ideas that have come down the pike. We’ve needed to forge a more coordinated effort and I’m all in. This is off topic but I have started a candle group on Gratefulness.org for all of us to honor the horses and/or get a moment of peace when your heart is just sick from it all. I plan on keeping it going by lighting a candle ever 48 hours. Stop by when you feel you need to, hope to see you there. the link is:
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=horsz If the link doesn’t work you can go in and search all groups and enter horsz in the search groups box.
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This link may be considered really off-topic, but I think it shows the value of training for wild horses that have already been or will be removed. Of course, Herd Watch is infinitely more important for monitoring horses on the range, but I think this program also bears watching. In my opinion, it proves that if wild horses receive even minimal training, they stand a much better chance of being appreciated for their quality and potential, and ultimately being adopted by folks who will appreciate them.
http://extrememustangmakeover.com/media.php
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GREAT IDEA!!!
And please remember those in holding need our vigilence (although I know it’s hard to see them) and there are some wild horse herds east of the Mississippi (Virginia for one).
For the horses; always for the horses that always give us their all.
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We will have eyes in as many places as we can get volunteers. We have many very interested in monitoring holding facilities including long-term.
Volunteer at:
CalicoHorses@gmail.com
HerdWatch@gmail.com
or info@grassrootshorse.com
You will receive an application.
Paperwork is being completed now that we are “official.”
Tax-deductible donations can be made at:
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/news/wild-horse-issues/342-herdwatch
Help fuel the tanks!
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Great to hear Laura!
Can anyone begin to imagine the power that a network of caring, ethical humans can create on behalf of our equines…everything from gift cards, cash, rooms, bunk here, admin help, etc. What a great group of people.
Can anyone begin to imagine the amount of information we can begin to collect? Amazing.
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Great! Each holding facility needs vigilant monitors.
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No fear, Laura, TCF..no fear!
We will beat these trolls at their game with something they don’t have….honesty, commitment, science, justice and integrity.
Ever hear of Wallis and all the protrolls discuss integrity? I haven’t because they don’t have it. They are a slimey business lookin’ for convenience and pay out at disposal.
Hey maybe we should start paying canine and feline owners to dump there charges???? OOOhhh! I gotta move! I got an allergy!!!…garbage! Human pieces of garbage with more disposal rights than the animals they dump….or breed…or don’t care for…or don’t euth humanely.
God help us.
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Someone should post those maps with the HMAs side by side. Not only are the number of HMAs almost half, the size of the ‘pastures’ called HMA today are very tiny.
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Laura, I’ve found some useful information in maps and overlay maps on “GeoCommunicator” under “Rangelands”. I just went to their site, and will have to figure out how to get back to that info. I’ll post a link when I do. One of the things I find most troubling is the amount of Herd Area acreage adjacent to or very near HMAs.
I assume these HAs were where wild horses and burros roamed in the first census after the 1971 Act was passed, but were excluded in “Cooperative Agreements” with area ranchers and “Memos of Understanding” with states.
The Calico complex area is a good example. A really big HA right across the highway (Rte.80?) that the BLM has the power to repurpose for wild horses if they have a mind to.
“Checkerboards” are another really big problem. Check out “Salt Wells/Adobe Flats”(?) in Wyoming (you may have to go to the BLM website for the map). There are so many “checkerboards” within other HMAs. A real mess of public/private lands.
Lands set aside for the wild horses and burros under the 1971 Act were never really “set aside”, and, even then, weighted toward domestic livestock production. Ranchers vote. Horses don’t.
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yes I muddled over that map system the Gov uses “GeoCommunicator” and one can see how the BLM made checkerboard off all the public lands and then sold off to private, every other square. all squares are about 620? acres.
What the heck were they thinking selling off public lands using this method. Yeah sure BLM the wildlife can jump those barbed wire fence. mustangs can’t or get killed trying! why the heck the BLM set themselves up to fail- The BLM knows the horses can’t cross those barbed wire fences and cattle guards or they will die trying. Looks like the BLM doesn’t care one witt for wild horses, an animal that evolved ONLY on north america. It’s like having the WOLF in charge of the Henhouse!
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Ya Laura I’m beginning to think my backyard might qualify as an HMA
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The greenspaqce set aside program in my state is questionable, although well intentioned. First, my state won’t look at any individual land owners with less than 100 acres. Secondly, the process costs about $10,000 legally and requires an attorney.
So in other words, it is not a user friendly system and most people that own 100 acres or more and afford $10k for an attorney in my state are millionaires.
I really wish we get get a team together to work on those overlays starting in 1971. I think a horse advocate could impact a judge visually and effectively dramatize what we have been saying all along…the BLM is not managing the wild equines or the land.
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BORDO WILD HORSES NEED OUR HELP!!!
The Bordo Altravesado HMA is one of only two extremely small BLM HMAs in New Mexico. Soon there may be none.
COMMENTS DUE THIS FRIDAY, May 14th. I’m still working on mine, and I’m hoping to send them by Thursday.
This is the link to the EA:
Click to access DOI-BLM-NM-A020-2010-07-EA.pdf
Please email your comments to: NM_Bordo_EA@blm.gov
I contacted Carlos LoPopolo of Wild Horses of the West requesting any information he had on the BLM action. This was his response:
“Their plans are to “zero out” that wild horse management area. In fact, they want to “zero out” all of New Mexico’s wild horse management areas. That is why I’m trying to set up preserves on private land that they can’t stop. My southern preserve is to the west of the Socorro management area.
“As far as wild horses go, your lucky if you have 40 wilds. You do have many ranch horses that the ranchers let loose when it comes count time. I believe the ratio of cattle to wild horses on the Wild horse management area is 51 head of cattle to 1 wild horse.
“What you have to realize down here in the Socorro area BLM it’s an “old boys club.” It’s been that way for fifty years. This is a place where they reimburse you for the bullets you used to kill the mustangs. The shame of it is that it’s the same all over the west. The BLM does not manage the wild horses for continuation. It is managing the wild horses for extinction.
“My horses are from all over the west, not just New Mexico. My plans are for 10 preserves totaling 250,000 acres, four in New Mexico and at least one in every surrounding state. Right now, I run approximately 180 head on 33,000 acres.
“You should be aware of the fact that those who claim to have old Spanish mustangs and are breeding and selling them have a problem with my preserves, because of our DNA testing and our scientific approach. They have fought me tooth and nail for ten years. Even though I don’t sell or adopt any of my horses, they still feel I’m a threat somehow.”
I encourage you to visit the Wild Horse of the West website for additional information on what I believe is a vitally important effort to preserve the Old Spanish Mustang bloodlines.
http://www.wildhorsesofthewestartgallery.com/index.cfm
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Hello,
I work for the BLM in New Mexico. We appreciate the opportunity to dispel the persistent rumor that we are planning to eliminate the Bordo Atravesado Wild Horse herd. This is false and possibly based on a tentative 2010 gather schedule that does not accurately reflect our plan for the herd.
Please refer to our Environmental Assessment for the proposed gather at: http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/nm/field_offices/socorro/socorro_planning/socorr_eas.Par.4361.File.dat/DOI-BLM-NM-A020-2010-07-EA.pdf
In this document you will find the alternatives we considered for this gather. Our preferred alternative is to gather approximately 107 horses by a technique called water trapping, remove 40-60 of them, and leave the remainder on the range.
Thank you.
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Hello,
My apologies for the link that isn’t working from this site.
Lets try this – The EA is posted on our BLM Planning page so if you’ll follow this link then scroll down to the Socorro Field Office, you’ll find the .pdf file for the Bordo EA.
http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/planning.html#socorro
Sorry for the confusion,
Donna
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The government is not concerned and is not listening to the people in reference to the wild horses. Is there no hope??????
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