Dear Friends of our Wild Horses and Burros;
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is holding a meeting Thursday and Friday March 10-11 in Phoenix, Arizona, to discuss its proposed new wild horse and burro management strategy. This is the first meeting in nearly a year and an opportunity for the American public to stand in front of the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board and the BLM to voice your opinions on the management policies of the agency, the complicity of their carefully selected Advisory Board, and solutions available to right the many management wrongs. Or, just simply come to support others making comments.
We will be attending this meeting, and I urge you to join us. We cannot allow the BLM to continue rounding up the last of these great symbols of the West. The roundups themselves have devolved into shoddy, careless actions in which wild horse families are destroyed, burros are hot-shotted and knocked to the ground by helicopters, and old, weak animals are harassed into collapse. We need to present a united front and ask for the following (pick your favorite topics):
- Halt all roundups, at least temporarily
- Raise the number of wild horses and burros (AMLs) allowed to live on their legally designated ranges
- Allocate the majority of forage in herd management areas to wild horses and burros (“principal” users as stated in the WHB Act)
- Improve existing water sources
- Remove fencing to allow for truly free roaming behavior
- Allow for genetically viable populations
- Abandon the artificial skewing of sex ratios, return to a natural 50-50
- Protect mountain lions that have limited wild horse populations growth naturally
- Return healthy wild horses in holding into zeroed out herd areas
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Sincerely explore public-private partnerships
The public comment period of the meeting will be held on Friday, March 11, from 9 AM to 12 PM. People who wish to speak need to arrive by 8:30 AM to register, and per BLM “must provide a written statement of the comments, which may be brought to the meeting.” The BLM’s notice of this meeting can be found here.
If you are unable to attend the meeting, the BLM is accepting electronic comments through their website here. You can find a sample form on the Cloud Foundation website.
The meeting itself will be held at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel at 340 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004. (We are looking into reserving less expensive hotels in the area as the Sheraton is pricy -- what a surprise! Our tax dollars at work!)
Show up for the mustangs and burros! See you there.