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Action Alert: Protect Wyoming Sage Grouse & WIld Horses. Due 3/25/14!

Posted by on March 23, 2014

BLM WYOMING NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU!

 http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16974

 

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Photo by Carol Walker, Living Images

Public Comment Deadline: Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming is now accepting public comments on its sage grouse conservation plan. Once again, the agency is turning a blind eye to the devastating impacts of widespread livestock grazing on the land and on sage grouse, a seriously threatened ground-dwelling bird that depends on the West’s vast sagebrush habitat to survive.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended that sage grouse be officially added to the U.S. Endangered Species List. But the BLM knows that listing the sage grouse as endangered could spell the end of livestock grazing on public lands. So the agency is trying to avert this action by introducing its own sage grouse conservation plan.

The BLM’s plan for Wyoming affects 16.2 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land, including seven wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and at least five Herd Areas (HAs). The affected HMAs are: Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin, Little Colorado, White Mountain, Stewart Creek and Lost Creek.

The Environmental Impact Statement that BLM Wyoming has prepared is grossly inadequate, making it difficult to determine how much livestock grazing occurs in sage grouse habitat. What is clear is that livestock vastly outnumber wild horses in the planning area — 50 times more cattle (annual equivalent) than wild horses! Even worse, the BLM Wyoming does not consider livestock grazing to be a surface disturbing activity, despite the documented ill effects of the practice across the West.

Alternatives under consideration would set the stage for reductions in wild horse populations, while perpetuating the status quo regarding livestock grazing. Any reductions to stocking levels for cows and sheep would be strictly voluntary under the BLM’s preferred alternative!

Please do not let the BLM and its rancher constituencies get away with using the sage grouse as an excuse to further destroy the remaining wild horse and burro populations in Wyoming. Please get your comments in today!








Unfortunately, the draft LUP Amendments do not adequately protect wild
horses in accordance with federal laws and regulations, and the DEIS
does not adequately analyze the impacts of the LUP Amendments on wild
horses. Nor does it properly disclose or analyze the impacts that
widespread livestock grazing in the planning area is having on the sage
grouse. In fact, the BLM Wyoming wrongly excludes livestock grazing from
classification as a surface disturbing activity, despite the vast
landscape decimation caused by this unsustainable practice.

None of the alternatives analyzed adequately protects wild horses and
burros. The alternatives described would set the stage for BLM to reduce
the already low wild horse Allowable Management Levels (AMLs) in the
name of sage grouse conservation, while the BLM’s preferred alternative
for livestock grazing perpetuates the status quo by making any
reductions in stocking levels for cattle and sheep strictly VOLUNTARY.

This is unacceptable, given the gross disparity in resource allocation.
The BLM allocates 47 times more forage to privately-owned livestock than
to federally-protected wild horses in this planning area. This equates
to an annual equivalent of more than 100,000 cows vs. just 2,135 wild
horses!

Finally, the DEIS fails to consider the significant differences in range
impacts caused by livestock vs. wild horses. The DEIS does not consider
wild horses as distinct from livestock, indeed many of the sections
regarding impacts of various alternatives to wild horses are apparently
just cut and pasted from the livestock section!

In summary, the final EIS must include the following:

1. Complete data on livestock grazing within the entire planning area,
including a listing of all BLM/FS allotments, acreage, Active
(permitted) AUMs, and actual AUM use for the past 5 years.
2. Clear charts and maps that disclose acreage and AUM allocations for
livestock grazing in all three categories of sage grouse habitat.
3. Accurate and detailed analysis on the impacts of livestock grazing on
sage grouse.
4. Clear delineation of wild horses from livestock both legally and
biologically/environmentally.
5. Designation of Alternative C as the Preferred Alternative. This would
eliminate livestock grazing in sage grouse habitat. Alternative C
should be amended to allow for increases in wild horse AML and
restoration of HA territory, where appropriate, once livestock grazing
is removed. Alternative C should also require mitigations to any impacts
on wild horses caused by removal of livestock grazing, including
closure of water sources.
6. Cumulative impacts analysis of proposed alternatives in conjunction
with BLM’s plans to zero out wild horses from the Salt Wells Creek and
Great Divide Basin HMAs, to reduce the Adobe Town HMA population by
half, and to convert the wild-free roaming horse population in White
Mountain to a sterilized herd.
7. Incorporation of the June 2013 National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
recommendations regarding the reform of the wild horse and burro
management program into all alternatives related to wild horses. The BLM
spent more than $1 million and waited almost three years for this
review to be completed. Consequently the BLM must incorporate the
recommendations of this thorough and scientifically sound report into
its land use pans.
8. Full analysis of the social and economic impacts of proposed actions,
including the prevailing American social preference for wild horse
protection and the full costs of the federal livestock grazing program,
including tax subsidies.

Please give these comments your thoughtful consideration.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

BLM WYOMING
Email:Sagegrouse_Amendment_WY@blm.gov

 

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