Debbie Coffey          Copyright 2012  All Rights Reserved.

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues at a breakneck pace to leave non-viable herds of wild horses on public lands and while it also considers cutting back on livestock grazing (watch out for drought management plans in your area).

Meanwhile, over and over again, extractive industries and new energy projects seem to go almost unchecked for use of massive amounts of water that adversely impact public lands and risk contamination of aquifers.

Just an aside on the letter below, Melani Mirati was the BLM’s COR (Contracting Officer’s Representative) at the 2012 Calico wild horse roundup and made the decision to allow the contractor (Sun J Livestock) to use a hot shot (electric prod) on a horse that had been stuck in a trailer and had just fallen on the ground.  (video link under SOURCES below).

Open Letter to the BLM:

May 18, 2012

Melanie MiratiBLM Winnemucca Field Office5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd.,

Winnemucca NV 89445-2921

BLM_NV_WDOJacksonMtnsWildHorseEA@blm.gov

RE: Public comment/Jackson Mountain wild horse gather

Dear Ms. Mirati and BLM Winnemucca Field Office:

In this document, BLM states:

“1.4 Purpose and Need for Action:

The purpose of the Proposed Action is to remove excess wild horses from within and outside the HMA, to manage wild horses at the established AML ranges for the HMA, to reduce the wild horse population growth rate in order to prevent undue or unnecessary degradation of the public lands by protecting rangeland resources from deterioration associated with excess population of wild horses within and outside the HMA boundaries, and to restore a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple use relationship on the public lands.”

My comment: The BLM has NOT proved an excess. It seems that not only are there no photos or videos shown to the public to verify the BLM’s estimation of the number of wild horses on the HMA, in order for Ms. Mirati’s population estimation to be correct, the mares would have to be giving birth to litters. More