Victory Could Be A Plus To Wild Horses/Burros
Private Cattle being herded onto public land at Antelope AS wild horses are being stampeded away ~ photo by Terry Fitch
WASHINGTON, (Western Watersheds Project) – Yesterday, Oct 3 2011, the United States Supreme Court denied consideration of an appeal by the Public Lands Council of prior federal court decisions overturning Bureau of land Management grazing regulations promulgated during the George W. Bush administration. The decision affects over 160,000,000 acres of public land in eleven western states.
The Public Lands Council was an intervenor in successful litigation brought by Western Watersheds Project, an Idaho based conservation organization that had filed the litigation that overturned the Bush BLM livestock grazing regulations in federal District Court in Idaho in 2006.
On September 1, 2010 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the Idaho District Court’s decision permanently overturning the Bush era grazing regulations as violating the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act thereby affirming the BLM livestock grazing regulations created by the Clinton administration and then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt in 1995.
The Bureau of Land Management did not appeal the prior court decisions supporting Western Watersheds Project legal position.
“This decision by the Supreme Court stops forever the Bush Administrations attempt to roll back the conservation-based livestock grazing regulations of the Clinton administration.” said Jon Marvel, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, “Perhaps now the BLM will embrace the conservation intent of the 1995 grazing regulations,” Marvel said.
The overturned George W. Bush BLM livestock grazing regulations would have greatly reduced public involvement in the administration of livestock production on 160,000,000 acres of western public lands while creating new property rights for ranchers for water rights and range installations.
Western Watersheds Project was ably represented in this litigation by attorney Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West’s Boise office and the late Tom Lustig of the National Wildlife Federation and before the U.S. Supreme Court by Scott Nelson of the Public Citizen Litigation Group.
Related articles
- BLM Alleges Internal Investigation on “Inhumane” Charges (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- BLM Responds to Allegations of Inhumane Wild Horse Treatment (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Federal Lawsuit Filed to Stop BLM Plan to Sterilize Wyoming Wild Horse Herds (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Judge’s Sage Grouse Ruling Could Stall BLM Plans in Wyo., Idaho (nytimes.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Talk about being involved and to the nitty gritty. This all just hurts my brain!!!! How does anyone keep track of all of this without running away screaming?
Can anyone ‘translate’ this for me? I will come back later in the morning and try again.
;/
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Ditto to all your questions.
Can someone please break this down and translate using as little legalease as possible?
And while it may help the wild ones, I highly doubt it because FS and BLM use every excuse possible to remove….from ridiculous AMUs to range condition to no water, wild fires, etc. It’s that “discretionary” thing that Slaughterczar has.
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Yes , Featherlady I agree 11, I also need translation ?????????
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WAS EMAILED THIS FROM WWP
The Supreme Court of The United States Ends The George W. Bush Livestock Grazing Regulations & Western Watersheds Project Sues to Protect Pygmy Rabbits
~ Jon Marvel
Jon Marvel
Friends,
Western Watersheds Project (WWP) has been sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court !
Today the United States Supreme Court denied consideration of an appeal by the Public Lands Council of prior federal court decisions won by Western Watersheds Project that overturned the Bureau of Land Management’s livestock grazing regulations enacted during the administration of George W. Bush.
The decision ends once and for all the public land ranching industry’s attempt to reinstate regulations that would have significantly reduced public participation in the Bureau of Land Management’s livestock grazing program and granted private ranchers property interest in range developments and water on over 160,000,000 acres of federal public land in eleven western states !!
Western Watersheds Project was ably represented in this litigation by attorney Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West’s Boise office, the late Tom Lustig of the National Wildlife Federation, and before the U.S. Supreme Court by Scott Nelson of the Public Citizen Litigation Group.
Read Western Watersheds Project’s News Release
Read the SCOTUS denial of petition for a writ of certioraripdf
(page 70, docket ’10-1290′)
Read the 9th Circuit Decisionpdf
Read the District Court Decisionpdf
Western Watersheds Project Sues to Protect Pygmy Rabbits
nyet65405180214.hmediumWestern Watersheds Project has filed a court challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision that the Pygmy rabbit, a tiny bunny small enough to hold in your hand, does not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Fragmentation and loss of large sagebrush habitat are rampant throughout the rabbits’ range. Livestock grazing, which occurs on nearly all of the areas inhabited by pygmy rabbits, radically alters sagebrush habitat, removing forage, lowering the nutritional value of grasses, spreading exotic weeds and diseases, collapsing burrows and attracting predators. Once populations are isolated by fragmentation and habitat degradation, interbreeding and malnutrition preclude the bunnies from thriving and entire populations perish.
Much like Greater Sage-Grouse, Pygmy rabbits are an indicator species for the health of the sage-steppe landscape in several western states. Without protection from human impacts including energy development and livestock grazing, pygmy rabbits will continue to decline toward extinction.
Read Western Watersheds Project’s News Release
Read the Complaintpdf
WWP’s excellent legal representation in this case is by Todd Tucci, Senior Staff Attorney with Advocates for the West in Boise.
Support WWP
Jon Marvel
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Let’s hope this will help our wild horses. With the cattle competition on the range gone maybe the BLM will stop rounding up so many. We can only hope.
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Round ups and the BLM must be stopped by whatever ways and means necessary to make it an immediate STOP!!!!!
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Just a thought … I don’t know if this is valid or not but this is what I read into the WWP statement by interchanging “rabbits” for WH&B and it makes a lot of sense to me and at least worth thinking about:
Fragmentation and loss of large sagebrush habitat are rampant throughout the WH&B’s range. Livestock grazing, which occurs on nearly all of the areas inhabited by WH&B, radically alters sagebrush habitat, removing forage, lowering the nutritional value of grasses, and spreading exotic weeds and diseases. Once populations are isolated by fragmentation [fencing and less than genetically viable populations] and habitat degradation, interbreeding and malnutrition will preclude the WH&B from thriving and entire populations will perish.
WH&Bs are an indicator species for the health of the sage-steppe landscape in several western states. Without protection from human impacts including energy development and livestock grazing, WH&Bs will continue to decline toward extinction.
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Grandma Gregg…my thoughts, too. Energy extraction…still a threat. From my non-legal viewpoint, I see this decision as GOOD in that it now puts those who have been pushing the Wild Horses and Burro out of their own grazing lands on the same side of the fence.
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or will those grazing leases just be exchanged for oil, natural gas and/or mineral extraction leases? How does that impact their Herd Management Areas?
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I’m with the confused
But if I’m getting the gist of this, it a GOOD thing!
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Yeah, it’s a good thing because it bangs BLM. However, some of the litigants are known to be anti wild equine. And there is always the problem with the 1971 Act that lets DOI/USDA do what ever they want with wild equines.
In the long run, I do believe it is good for the wild equines. No matter the pygmy rabbit or greater sage grouse situation now, those species certainly can’t blame wild equines for their current situations. ….because there were about 2 million wild equines and I didn’t hear anyone complaining about those species back then; now there are less than 15k (that’s right, BLM lies) free roaming wild equines. Let’s see if other enviro groups get it. The bigger problem truly is extraction and water diversion for ag, mining and populations. We shall see.
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Also, not to be a wet blanket because it is still supporting the lower courts decisions about the run amok grazing mafia in the West, but the only thing the US Supreme Court decided was NOT to hear the appeal from the lower court losers. Now someone here can illuminate further, but essentially the USSC decided there was no violation of procedure by the lower courts.
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Louie your absolutely right on. Its important that those of you living in the West keep us Midwesterns informed. If there is a surge of big business in oil and natural gas taking over the West, you need to let us know. We generally do not find out about the take overs until it is too late. So let us know where they
destroying our wild life areas. Again, we are sometimes left uniformed for this
reason. This is a good decision because this to me is what some of us have been saying about taking over rangelands. If it was up to GW there probably wouldn’t be any horses out there. Perhaps this all started sometime back then, who knows. But we all must be vigilant and keep forging ahead for the sake of Wild Horses and Burros. God, who would want to hurt a burro. Most of the time they are so docile and slow moving. What would be great is a published list of herd locations. If there is a website, let me know.
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SPEAK ENGLISH, PLEASE?
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Here is an example of National Wildlife Federation’s mindset:
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/1992/Reining-in-a-Runaway-Herd.aspx
Now, I’ll grant you….maybe they have changed their mindset. I doubt it; as with the Sierra Club and Audubon, specifically certain chapters.
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Advocates for the West list wild equines, although they support the scientific hypothesis that all wild equines are escapees from the Spanish (of, course burros may be entirely different). I think some Native American Peoples oral history and recent anthropological finds dispute this hypothesis.
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I agree Denise! Though I personally can’t “prove it”, I have a “gut” feeling that there WERE original, native, wild horses that somehow managed to survive, & thrive, maybe in small, isolated pockets, &, were already here before, & when, the early Spanish explorers got here. I think those small scattered bands may then have bred with the Spanish horses over time. Who really knows? Native Americans to be sure, but, unfortunately, no one listens to them, or to us. On the other hand, “they” can’t “prove otherwise” either, no one can prove that those native wild horses were completely extinct, how could anyone really know that? Impossible. Fossils, maybe. But, if those small bands were in remote, isolated areas, & survived, there would not be fossils to be found because they were in remote, perhaps uninhabitable places. How could anyone know for certain if an animal species went extinct, they can only guess!
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Well certainly in the Pacific Northwest along the Rocky Mountain plattes and plains of the eastern slope of the Rockies….and more anthropological data is being found and evaluated each year.
However, at least the Feds and States could give all wild equines the benefit of the doubt before wiping out. But we know wolves are “no doubt” indigenous, and they whack the stuffin’ out of them (again for lifestockers and convenience). Hell, when the truly annotated wild equines pass from HMA to state lands or private (no migration caveats in the 1971 Act…WHICH IS SOME OF THE DUMBEST SH*T CONCEIVABLE) , they are no longer considered wild equines? That’s like telling elk stay here or we won’t ensure your protection, longevity etc.
Horseback had a good piece on the NC Corolla Wild Equines….problem? DOI is involved.
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I am learning … always learning … but here are a couple of thoughts re: history of the horse in our west.
#1 Take a google at the La Brea tar pits museum (California) where they have a complete skeleton of our wild horse’s ancestor.
#2 Just watched the documentary “El Caballo” (available for about four bucks plus postage – Amazon.com) that quotes many scientists/researchers that state that our wild ones were here long before the Europeans.
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Though this is a start in the right direction, BLM still sits in the place of authority to do their will. What do we do next to keep these changes coming on the positive side of the WH&B?
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I see this as a big victory because it is the United States Supreme Court ruling that the Bureau of Land Magagement is not following NEPA or the FLMPA in granting unfettered grazing rights to ranchers. I know some of you are also paying some attention to WWP’s work and have probably noted that WWP continues to win its suits because they have been able to prove time and time again that BLM is not following the law.
What have we been telling our Administration and Congress? The BLM is not following the law.
Below is a link to an article that helped me understand a little more about the historical context of Public Lands policies and how some of the situations facing the wild horses and burros and us as their proxies have evolved.
Click to access feller_cowboy.pdf
.
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Please forgive me if I interpreted this wrong, the USSC didn’t rule on anything other than the appeals courts had it wrong or right, would rule on legal procedure at the lower level courts. The USSC decided NOT to hear the appeal because nothing was out of procedure or erroneous law decision(s). That means by making no decision….they (USSC) finds no fault with the lower court decision).
Yes, by not HEARING the case….they made a decision….but they didn’t rule on differences of court proceeding and the law by way of plaintiff v. defendent and the resulting impact of the decision. All they did was support the lower Federal Court’s decision. Now, I’m floored that the Roberts’ even decided to consider it; but it didn’t go past consideration. Good news? WWP and other litigants kicked some DOI/DOA butt on this one. Bad news? That discretionary caveat the SEC DOI has to remove, reduce, etc….they just can’t use cattle all the time; but they haven’t for awhile…they use every discretionary excuse in the book as it stands.
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Laura, I sent him a tweet earlier this afternoon and asked him what he thought, and added a link to this post.
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I agree that ANYTHING going forward is Good. We can learn from it.
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I agree with others out there like me, who really don’t understand exactly what all this means to our wild horses & burros?? Help! Can someone explain how this benefits these animals? Thanks! 🙂
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I don’t think we will know for a while if it will help, hurt, or have no effect. It will, however, mean that the BLM will not be able to give preference to ranchers, make the public jump through hoops trying to get their comments to field offices and then totally disregard them. If the BLM is forced to return to the policies of President Clinton and the original intent of NEPA, they will be required to actively monitor the condition of the ranges rather than to make an initial assessement and then ignore what happens in the intervening years.
Every time I see the picture of those cattle straddling the dirt road at Antelope right after the BLM cleared out the horses and remember what RT said about his chat with woman driving the big cattle truck, I get a little burned up. But I think understanding what has been turned back by the Court were policies instituted under W to turn back policies instituted under Clinton helps clear the fog about why there has been such deafening silence in places where we have been asking for help. Pleading with Congress to get them to spend their time intervening on behalf of the horses when the BLM is following the policies it has been given to follow has seemed to be an uphill battle.
If I understand correctly, which I very well may not, it is possible that to some extent what the BLM has been doing in some areas or even most areas was legal after the Bush grazing policies were put into place. So some of what to us seems downright wrong on multiple levels and a violation of the 1971 Act may actually be legal given that there are amendments within the law for NEPA and FLMPA to modify it.
I could be way off base here, but if this decision requires the agency to follow the Clinton policy throughout the entire system of public lands it controls effective as of Oct. 4, then it seems to me that some of the removals the BLM may have planned based on one, old EIS would now require the BLM to go into the HMA’s and do range monitoring and a much more thorough EIS like the one we referenced through the Andrew Cohen series of articles.
However, it is more than equally possible that I am totally wrong.
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I don’t think you are wrong…but with the wild equines and the whacky DOI/DOA, anything is possible.
As to the rest (most) of your post, I think you fairly hit the nail on the head.
Thanks for your thoughts.
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WOW!!! This is complicated but I heard a long time ago that George W. Bush was NOT a friend to the Wild Mustangs & Burros. I have been supporting the Western Watershed Project for some time now. This sounds good to me, if I’m understanding it right?!?!
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and here we are yrs later and it got much worse!. pls save this pg and refer back to this I am trying to send to congress but now i cant get the orig post bk. so many people already knew thisw as a meat mafia back then. so many people said we cannot let this continue we have tied everything and nothing aside our own bodies on the range and in their faces will work now we need a million warriors altogether NOW! get their evil shcedule protest at the offices statewide we have GOT to get organized lawsuits arent working well. never enforced and to many in office support this travesty! omg its sadder than ever. hoping i can copy some comments here, since i cant sh the page pls repost if u have it ty ):
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