browser icon
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.

Action Alert: Save Massacre Lakes Wild Horses!

Posted by on September 25, 2013

Help Save Massacre Lakes Wild Horses!

Comments are due by Sept. 27th!

The Massacre Lakes HMA is entirely within the Massacre Lakes grazing allotment of permittee Gene Erquiaga.    In what might seem like a clear conflict of interest to most Americans, the Erquiaga family seems to heavily influence BLM decisions about public lands in ways that could benefit their family.  And the BLM has been complicit in this influence peddling.

 John Erquiaga was appointed to the BLM Northeastern RAC,  John’s wife Bonnie Erquiaga was appointed to be on the Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Committee.  The Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Committee recommended that only 25-45 wild horses be left on their 39,888 acre HMA.

It is only because of the persistent, hard work of advocate Carla Bowers that we even have Alternative 4, which would allow 100-121 horses to remain on this HMA.  Be sure to state that you want ALTERNATIVE 4.  However, a viable herd should contain 120-150 wild horses.  We need a lot of people to speak up against these entrenched special interests. so PLEASE send in a comment in your own words.

Carla suggested these points be included:

•  I support Alternative 4 in the Massacre Lakes EA that will set the AML for the wild horses at 100-121 animals & reduce livestock numbers so that the forage allocations are more in balance with wild horse & livestock use in the limited size, legal HMA.  This allocation follows the original intent of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act.
•  I support the herd being preserved for scientific research studies since it is one of the last herds in the ten Western states to be non-manipulated since 1988.
•  I support the herd being managed as an individual herd, not as part of a ‘complex’ with nearby HMAs, to preserve its integrity for scientific research.  (The proposal to combine the Massacre Lakes HMA into a “complex” with the Bitner, Nut Mountain and Wall Canyon HMAs in order to address genetic and management concerns is not based on science.   There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the Massacre Lakes herd migrates out of the HMA to nearby areas to intermix with other herds.)
•  I support the herd being managed in family units to preserve its most natural state if animals need to be removed by water/bait trapping to obtain the AML of 100-121.
•  I expect the wild horses & burros to be managed in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the American people, not in accordance with the demands of the taxpayer subsidized industries that use my public lands for personal gain.

Submit comments no later than Sept. 27, 2013 to:

(Please include “Massacre Lakes EA, DOI-BLM-CAN070-2013-0021-EA” in the subject line)

Email:  casrpubcom@blm.gov

Mail:  Bureau of Land Management
Surprise Field Office,
PO Box 460
Cedarville, CA 96104
The Environmental Assessment is here.   Be sure to add some original comments in your own words.
The Massacre Lakes wild horses need your voice.  This is your chance to do something!

Comments are closed.