Department of Interior Kingpin Pulling “Fast-One” with Merger of BLM and OSM?

 StraightfromtheHorsesHeart.com

 R.T. Fitch

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“U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, released the following statement regarding Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s order to combine the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) into the Bureau of Land Management WITHOUT Congressional Approval”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, released the following statement regarding Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s order to combine the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) into the Bureau of Land Management (BLM):

“I’m deeply concerned about this proposed unilateral action. If it were simply a consolidation of administrative functions, that is something I could support. According to Interior’s release, however, it appears that the proposed merger would be much more extensive and, I believe, would require amending the separate organic acts that established BLM and OSM.   READ MORE

BLM “News Release”Fraud?

Debbie Coffey   Copyright   2011    All Rights Reserved

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“Why shouldn’t we write or call our Congressmen and BLM management officials?   American soldiers fought and died so that you would be free to do this.  BLM POLICIES are set at THE TOP by Congress, and by Secretary Ken Salazar of the Department of the Interior, and by Bob Abbey, Director of the Bureau of Land Management.  Call and write to them. “

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AUTHORS NOTE:  ALL DOCUMENTS MENTIONED BELOW ARE AVAILABLE IN THE READING ROOM AT   http://wildhorseeducation.org/

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) News Release (the BLM seems to be using the word “news” loosely here) dated 5/28/10 with Lisa Reid and Dean Bolstad listed as contacts, was a BLM announcement of the final public tours at Indian Lakes Wild Horse Facility.

This BLM release states: “Indian Lakes is a privately-owned and operated  facility, was never intended as a public facility and isn’t staffed to serve the public.  As a result, staff from other offices have been taken away from priority work and unplanned costs have been incurred.”

The most important question is “WHY would a government agency use OUR money to put something publicly owned (OUR wild horses) on PRIVATE PROPERTY, where we can NEVER HAVE ACCESS to them again?”  Isn’t this like stealing?

I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and asked for a list of staff taken from other offices, for a list of the priority work they were taken away from and for a list of and the amount of money spent on the “unplanned costs.”  I received a letter from Paulette L. Sanford of the Department of the Interior dated 10/6/2010, and was told “There is no itemized list or record of the amount of money spent on the unplanned cost” and “there is no list or record of staff who were detailed to work at the Indian Lakes Facility away from their priority work.”   

The BLM’s big “fire sale” of our land

 Debbie Coffey (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

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 A Six-Point Plan to Avert a Global Crisis” and the 2010 National Geographic’s special issue cover story was “WATER: Our Thirsty World.”   Would it be too much to hope that Dept. of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar or BLM Director Bob Abbey might have read these and consider water issues?  (Oh wait a sec, the Gulf Oil Spill happened under their watchful eyes.)  Or that as leaders of U.S. land management agencies, they’d be concerned with vanishing supplies of uncontaminated water? 

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is selling YOUR land right out from under you.  Concurrently, the BLM is blitzing the media with PR spin to justify removing all of our publicly owned wild horses off of our public lands.  If you want to see what has really been happening to our wild horses at recent roundups, go to http://blog.grassrootshorse.com/

Do you know how many acres of your public lands are being sold off in each state?  This is a policy being pushed by your President, your Congress, Ken Salazar (Secretary of the Dept. of the Interior) and Bob Abbey (BLM Director).  Your state and local governments have their hands out to receive part of the profits.  Your “public agencies” (like the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management) are actually corporations and their priority is to make money. 

Each BLM office is required to have quarterly “lease sales” of your public lands.  The BLM is making their money off of you and the remains of your United States of America. 

To keep this simple, we’ll just look at one state’s lease/sales of our public lands to oil and gas companies.

Wyoming, as it turns out, is going gung ho on oil and gas “leasing.”  The BLM calls giving the use of our public lands to extractive industries for as little as $2 an acre a “lease sale.”  These are 10 year leases and they can be renewed.  Oil and gas companies can ask for certain parcels of public property to be leased. 

However, unless you’ve ever heard of an oil pipeline being ripped out after it was installed, I’d call this a “permanent” use of our public lands.   An oil or gas (or mining) company will extract all of the oil/gas/ore.  They often contaminate water, land and air.  They use a LOT of our water from aquifers in their extracting process. 

BLM Employee “Animal Abuser” Issues Email from BLM.gov

 “Animal Abuser” Issues Email from BLM.gov

(In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“

“These are the sort of psychotic individuals that have been entrusted to protect and nurture the symbol of our American heritage yet they are illegally ripping them from our public lands against the will of the people of the United States.  This is the mindset, this is the perversity and this is our current state of affairs.”

Independent Review Too Late for Wild Horses and Burros?

Media Contacts:

Makendra Silverman

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454

For Immediate Release

Independent Review Too Late for Wild Horses and Burros?

Moratorium on roundups must accompany National Academy of Sciences review

Colorado Springs, CO (August 27, 2010)— The Cloud Foundation fully supports the independent review of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) mismanagement of America’s Wild Horses and Burros by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), but only if it is coupled with an immediate moratorium on all wild horse and burro roundups. 54 members of Congress requested both the review and an immediate moratorium in a letter sent to Secretary of Interior Salazar on July 31, 2010. Each herd is an integral part of the ecosystem and without a moratorium there will be few genetically viable herds on Western lands in left to study. The NAS review of the flawed Wild Horse and Burro program is scheduled to begin in 2011 and last two years, but at the current rage BLM will have removed tens of thousands more mustangs from their legally designated ranges in 10 western states by then. In just this fiscal year alone, BLM has removed nearly 12,000 wild horses and burros, most warehoused at taxpayer expense. 

BLM’s been Bluffing Public, Press and Politicians over Roundup “No Fly” Zones

Live Link:  STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES HEART

(The News As We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart”

                                                                                      

 Champion of the American  Horse, Steven Long ~ Photo by R.T. Fitch

Investigative journalist/author/editor/publisher Steven Long of Houston, Texas has uncovered yet another glaring, corrupt distortion of truth and regulation by controversial Secretary of the Department of Interior (DoI) Ken Salazar’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Within a recent article in Horseback Magazine Long exposes the fact that the BLM’s secret “No Fly Zones” over their aerial attacks on native wild horses is a figment of their own imagination, proving that America has been duped for years by the malevolent federal agency.Press and public alike have always taken the BLM’s warnings at face value but under questioning by Long a Washington based BLM Spin Master gave a polished up answer: 

“…we did consider a TFR for the Nevada gathers, but the field staff learned from the Federal Aviation Administration that gather operations (roundups) currently do not meet the standard criteria…” 

This news comes as a great boon to the bulk of U.S. taxpayers who are collectively banding together in an effort to stop the BLM from moving forward with their inhumane and unnecessary wild horse roundups. 

As of late, the BLM and their helicopter stampede contractors have slipped into a “covert mode” of operations due to increased fear that the truth regarding their questionable operations will be documented by the press and U.S. citizens.  During the deadly Calico Complex roundup, earlier this year, eye witness accounts and photos surfaced of young horses being run to their deaths by helicopters and videos were circulated of the hostile and aggressive manner in which helicopters are utilized to harass and terrify America’s native wild horses.  Since that time, BLM roundups have been conducted under a cloak of secrecy by securing the trap sites and holding areas on private land, therefore ensuring that American citizen’s First Amendment rights cannot be exercised.

How the Grinch Stole Equus: Salazar; the new Grinch

Live Link:  “Straight from the Horses Heart”

A short film by John Holland documenting the activities of the new Grinch on the DC block…Ken Salazar! 

Comments? We don’t need no stinkin’ comments! “King” Salazar doesn’t really care what you think

 

Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved

A big Stinkfly award goes to Ken Salazar!

Ken Salazar, quite possibly one of the most insidious characters to occupy an appointed federal office since maybe, Donald Rumsfeld, has just topped his own high measure of malfeasance.  Heading up what has become notorious for being one of the most grossly mismanaged agencies of the federal government, the Department of the Interior (DoI), Salazar has set into motion some of the worst plans and policies ever implemented by the DoI.  Among these policies is the eradication and zeroing out of herds of wild horses and burros all supposedly protected under the 1976 Wild Horse & Burro act. 

Its unfortunate that the 1971 Act contained no provisions allowing for the protection of the herds from the BLM, itself.  The BLM represents the most formidable threat not only to the wild herds, but also to the environment and biodiversity as well. 

BLM Above the Law? “Who will stop Salazar’s rogue bureau before they ruin the West?

 

The Cloud Foundation

Media Contacts:   

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454                 

Makendra Silverman 

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 

Tel: 719-351-8187 

 For Immediate Release: 

 BLM Above the Law? 

Salazar’s Agency Ignores Federal Court Order Honoring First Amendment, Denies Observers Access to Wild Horse Roundup  

Reno, NV (July 19, 2010)—Laura Leigh, Herd Watch Project Coordinator for The Cloud Foundation, has been denied access to observe the Owyhee roundup, the first leg of the Tuscarora roundup near Elko, Nevada. On July 16^th, Federal Judge Larry Hicks’ ruled Leigh’s First Amendment rights be upheld and therefore allow her and others to view the roundup. Leigh contends that the BLM has gone against the Judge’s orders for three days. Today Leigh filed a motion to uphold the court order for her First Amendment rights.

“We cannot know the truth because they are preventing us from bearing witness.” Says Leigh. 

BLM officials refused to tell her where the trap site was located. They had strategically placed it on private land within the public herd management area (HMA) even though the range contains more than 450,000 acres of public land. The private landowner would not grant Leigh and others access. BLM used this method before to hide the Calico roundup from the public and journalists except for rare staged “media days”. 

The helicopter stampede resumed as soon as the Judge lifted the injunction last Friday. Since then BLM has captured 620 mustangs and their young foals in the sweltering heat. More than 17 wild horses have been killed during the roundup. At least 2 foals were shot (euthanized) because of leg deformities resulting in lameness after being run over many miles of volcanic rock.

Mustangs Fenced Out of Water- NV Roundup Death Toll Rises to 12

Media Contacts:   

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454                

Makendra Silverman 

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 

Tel: 719-351-8187

For Immediate Release: 

Mustangs Fenced Out of Water- NV Roundup Death Toll Rises to 12

 

Independent Investigation requested to uncover cause of mustang deaths and inability to access water

 

Elko, NV (July 15, 2010)—Mustangs of the Tuscarora/Owyhee Complex in NE Nevada are now the focus of a BLM “emergency” as the agency claims that they don’t have enough water. The issue is not one of lack of water but prevention of access to water as the Tuscarora mustangs must navigate a maze of livestock fences and closed gates. Miles of fencing prevent their free-roaming behavior and ability to access water sites they’ve used for decades if not centuries. 12 Tuscarora wild horses have died after BLM contractors used a helicopter to roundup 228 of them in less than 150 minutes on July 10.  Prior to the roundup BLM told advocates that they were confident this was a reasonable window to remove horses in and maintain their good condition despite the presence of very young foals and the heat. However when the first day proved to be fatal and the roundup placed on hold, BLM began referring to the horses’ situation as an emergency. BLM now states that “an escalating drought” necessitates an emergency “gather.” However this is a typical weather pattern for the area in the hottest month of the year and the Cloud Foundation points to the fencing off of water sources and division between herd management areas in the complex as the root cause of their “emergency.”

Ken Salazar “Doctors” Evidence on Wild Horses AND Oil

In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch – author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“

The Lies Never Cease

Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) Ken Salazar’s crooked and corrupt Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to run out of control while it lies, deceives and kills off our publicly owned wild horses as Salazar’s deceitful nature is clearly exposed in the Gulf Oil crisis.

Salazar and his henchman Bob Abbey defy science and facts as they sweep across the western plains capturing every wild horse they can find while they lie to the public that there are hundreds remaining when observers only note dozens.  Behind locked gates they sterilize, geld and kill wild horses to ensure that they will die out as distinguishable herds and breeds.  Almost 150 horses have died at the hands of the BLM since the conclusion of their last roundup, alone.  Flipping off the tax paying public has become a common practice of the corrupt BLM.

Now Salazar turns his dead eyes and blank stare to the Gulf of Mexico as he, once again, ignores the advice of experts and then carries it a step further and lies about their findings to the entire world.  But this time a Federal Judge catches him with his pants down.

Isn’t it time that the criminal action of an Obama appointee be brought to a close?  Can we not inject sanity into the management of our country’s precious natural treasures?  Or is everything wild and natural destined to die before the onslaught of the Obama political juggernaut.  Where is the change we were promised, where is that “animal friendly” administration?

All I see is death, destruction and ruin.  I want our “natural” country back!

The Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History, and It’s Still Business As Usual?

Food & Water Watch

Secretary Salazar Needs to Close Atlantis Today, or Get Out of the Way!
“Salazar is basically rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.”

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit said this of U.S. Interior Secretary Salazar today, and we’ve found it to be true. The first official response to Food & Water Watch’s request for a federal court order to shut down BP’s Atlantis oil rig has shown little has changed under Salazar’s leadership. Tell President Obama that Salazar should either close Atlantis today, or get out of the way.

We notified the Minerals Management Service over a year ago that BP Atlantis was missing 89 percent of its necessary safety documents. Even though missing documents are at the heart of many BP disasters, including the current one, MMS still refuses to close Atlantis until it can be proven safe. In an official response last week, the agency even admitted that they have done no meaningful investigation and even though we’re facing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, MMS continues to issue permits to BP for deepwater oil drilling.

The inability to close a rig that is operating without any evidence of safety, especially in light of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, makes us think that Secretary Salazar is serving oil interests, not the public interest. It seems to be business as usual under his leadership, despite heavy-handed rhetoric to the contrary.

President Obama should demand his resignation and find someone who will regulate the oil industry-starting with shutting down BP Atlantis until it is proven safe.

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4081

Thanks for taking action,

Sarah Alexander
Outreach Director
Food & Water Watch
fish(at)fwwatch(dot)org

 

 

 

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

 

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Spin Doctors Hired for the Destruction of America’s Wild Horse and Burro Herds

Media Contacts:                

Makendra Silverman 

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 

Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454

For Immediate Release:

BLM uses MMS’s PR and Public Affairs agency to facilitate Salazar’s agenda at June 14th public workshop in Denver—protest on June 15^th  

Denver, CO (June 14, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation has learned that the San Francisco based public relations and public affairs firm, Kearns and West, with ties to big energy and offices across the country, has been hired to push the Salazar Plan for Wild Horses and Burros through Congress in Fall 2010—despite public outrage. Kearns and West has expertise in crisis management as well as accomplishing policy and regulatory goals. Their clients range from Mineral Management Services (MMS) and PG&E to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Department of Interior (DOI) has enlisted the firm using the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) as the go between. Senior mediator of Kearns and West, J. Michael Harty will facilitate an unprecedented public workshop in Denver, Colorado at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, on June 14^th followed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Public Advisory Board Meeting on June 15^th. Both days will be live-streamed and viewing available on www.thecloudfoundation.org. The public and members of Congress are encouraged to watch. The public will protest on June 15^th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with a press conference at noon.

Ken Salazar: JACKASS OF THE YEAR

This is a “Screaming Jackass” award for Ken Salazar, the most inept, corrupt and underhanded Secretary of the Interior to hold that office in decades. 

We present you this award for your ineptness; for your corporate pandering at the public’s expense and for zeroing out our wild horses and burro’s so “welfare cattle ranchers” could profit at the expense of the wild herds, and the environment. 

Ken Salazar’s “candy shop”

By Janet Carabello

“The BLM itself admits that there are now probably more mustangs in captivity then there are left in the wild. But the roundups are still going on and BLM pledges to keep reducing the herd numbers, while continuing to hand out more livestock grazing permits.”

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Live link:  The Cloud Foundation

Adding further to Dan Haley’s editorial on Ken Salazar: The energy interests are not the only ones receiving handouts from the “candy shop” that our public lands have become under the Department of Interior (DOI), currently headed by Ken Salazar.

Mr. Salazar, himself a rancher, has perpetuated the handouts of millions of acres to the recipients of “welfare ranching”, i.e. government subsidized grazing rights.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which reports ultimately to Mr. Salazar, issues grazing rights at the current cost of $1.35 per month per “animal unit,” that is, one cow and calf (really two mouths eating grass). A rancher leasing private land to graze would probably pay upwards of $16.00 per month for the same livestock count.

Americans Call for Urgent Reform in Department of Interior’s Wild Horse and Burro Program

Media Contacts:                

Makendra Silverman 

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 

Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454  

For Immediate Release: 

“Salazar has continued the Bush-era policy of massive wild horse removals off public land leading to the demise of America’s wild herds—burdening the taxpayer with a bill of $3.5 million per month for the 37,000 now incarcerated wild horses. Since Salazar’s appointment, over one dozen herds have been zeroed out with at least another five on the chopping block for fiscal year 2011.” 

 

The Gulf and Western Public Lands suffer under Salazar and Baca’s Leadership 

Bureau of Land Management: No enabling act or clause for its existence

Marti Oakley (c) coyright 2010 All Rights Reserved

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Photo by Laura Leigh

The Bureau of Land Management has just announced that it will close the Indian Lake Roads holding pens to public visits beginning in June.  Apparently the documentation of the horrendous conditions at the facility and the deteriorating condition of the horses including multiple deaths, poor food, lack of shelter and the climbing death rate of foals (which the BLM does not count in its inventory) is just too much of a hassle for them. 

THE BLM IS COLLUDING AND CONSPIRING AGAINST WILD HORSES, AND YOU: Part 1 of a series

This is part 1 of a series of how ideas from a “team” of 10 BLM employees go from conference calls and an Alternate Management Options plan (the background in this article), to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, to becoming Ken Salazar’s “new plan” for our wild horses.

Debbie Coffey(c) copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

BLM “team” conference calls and Alternate Management Options were obtained by the Freedom of Information Act by The Conquistador Program, a non-profit equine welfare organization in Phoenix, AZ (link below). This article consists of direct quotes of BLM team conference call notes and quotes from the Alternate Management Options (italicized). My comments are (in red).

PART 1: THE BLM IS COLLUDING AND CONSPIRING AGAINST WILD HORSES, AND YOU

By Debbie Coffey

The Bureau of Land Management is deceiving the American public with their plan to eliminate all of our publicly owned wild horses off of our publicly owned lands. And, they want your taxpayer dollars to pay for “counseling for employees and contractors that have to euthanize healthy horses because it is very stressful”! (boohoo)

Ken Salazar:Up to his neck in wild horse, oil and whales

Live Link: Straight from the Horse’s Heart

R.T. Fitch Author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart”

“Salazar then comes along and suggests a hair brained idea of buying/leasing land in the mid-west to ship all the horses to so that Americans can watch them die after being sterilized.”

Salazar Takes His Reign of Ineptitude to the High Seas

The Wild Horse advocates and Environmentalists have been screaming it for the past year and no one has listened, nothing has changed except that conditions have worsened.  The Obama Administration’s selection of Ken Salazar to the position of Secretary of the Department of Interior has been in question since the day of his appointment.  Muddled in rumors of collusion and ineptitude Salazar, a rancher by trade, has made it his hallmark to bumble and stumble his way through mismanaging his federal agency while ignoring congressional inquiries and public opinion.

The Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has accelerated their attack on native, American wild horses to the point that over 35,000 are now held in long term pens to which the taxpayer pays a hefty price to maintain. (they cost nothing left alone on their native, congressionally protected soil).  Salazar then comes along and suggests a hair brained idea of buying/leasing land in the mid-west to ship all the horses to so that Americans can watch them die after being sterilized.  (Great plan; why not save a billion or two and allow them to stay on the land that congress designated to them {ROAM Act} where they have been doing just fine for hundreds of years?)

Ruby Pipeline: The Real Reason Behind BLM’s Push to Remove Wild Horses?

 By: Ginger Kathrens

Contact: Makendra Silverman

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 719-351-8187

Wild horse advocates rally in Denver to stop roundups, ask Senator Udall for help in BLM investigation

Denver, CO (January 7, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation asks the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reveal the truth behind removing healthy wild horses from the Calico Complex of northwestern Nevada. It does not appear to be coincidental that the multi-billion dollar corporate project, the Ruby Pipeline, would run through the Calico Complex—site of the controversial roundup of more than 2,500 mustangs and the Buckhorn Wild Horse Herd Management Area. BLM removed over 200 wild horses at Buckhorn in December 2009 without public notice.

Director of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has told members of the public that the horses will starve if not removed because there is nothing for them to eat. The Director of the BLM, Bob Abbey, also supported Salazar’s claim when he stated this week that horses are being removed “to restore an ecological balance” even though this claim is nullified by numerous experts including a biodiversity science specialist with 8 years experience in the range and the sworn testimony of BLM employees Eckel and Drake.  Abbey went on to reassert the BLM policy position that “we will need to continue removing excess wild horses from the public rangelands in areas where the land can no longer support them.”

Yet, documents recently received by The Cloud Foundation from biologist Katie Fite of Western Watersheds and researcher Cindy MacDonald (publisher of the American Herds blog) today expose what may be the real reasons behind the massive, dead of winter wild horse roundups—and they have nothing to do with horse or rangeland health—but may have everything to do with the Ruby Pipeline. Read More

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/258-ruby1