BLM Sold Out America and Condemns Wildlife to Death by Thirst

 http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/blm-sold-out-america-and-condemns-wildlife-to-death-by-thirst/

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

The Web of Lies Chokes the Credibility of the BLM

HOUSTON, (SFTHH) – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tasked with protecting our public lands and wildlife has been doing exactly the opposite; they have been killing wild horses, deer and other species by selling off public water rights to private interests and allowing fences to be erected for private purposes so that the natural wildlife dies of thirst.
As reported by Steven Long, editor of Horseback Magazine in his most recent article, “Water on BLM Land Privately Owned Since 1916”, wild horse advocate Laura Leigh witnessed the Desert Ranch Reservoir located in the middle of a wild horse herd management area was fenced off.  Earlier in the week the BLM killed in excess of 20 wild horses during an ill conceived, mid-summer helicopter stampede in the Owyhee area.  Laura Leigh managed to obtain a TRO from a Federal Judge to delay the roundup in accordance with the rules of the BLM’s own handbook and to wait until the weather had cooled.  Federal BLM attorneys argued that it was an emergency that all of the horses were in danger of dying of thirst so the roundup must take place; the judge lifted his order but issued a statement that Leigh would be allowed to witness the BLM and their stampede contractor’s operations.  Both the contractor and BLM violated the judge’s order by moving the trap and staging area to a small private location within tens of thousands of public acres so that Leigh was not allowed access.
Tom Gorey, BLM Washington spokesperson, reported to Steven Long, regarding the fenced off water,
“Desert Ranch Reservoir, and I can categorically state that the Bureau of Land Management has never owned the water rights to that reservoir, nor has any entity of the United States government. I used the water rights ownership database of the Nevada state government’s Division of Water Resources, which shows that the water right was filed in September 1905 and was certificated in December 1916. It was originally owned by John G. Taylor and has been passed from different “grantors” to different “grantees” down to the present day.”
This week, Investigative Reporter for Las Vegas’ Channel 8, George Knapp reported.
“While we’ve been working on our latest stories, my photographer Matt Adams discovered an interesting feature on Google Earth. There’s an “I” for information feature and if you use it, it will allow you to identify some valuable info including:
a) all water sources in the Tuscarora HMA’s
b) all the cattle allotments
c) the division of public and private land. I don’t know if the same breakdown is available for all HMA’s but it is for these three.
I think it will make you sick when you study it. All of the water sources, or nearly all of them, have been made private. A rancher might have a tiny sliver of private land, surrounded by vast public acreage, but the small piece owned by the rancher is invariably the one with the water.
Nice job by the BLM protecting the public’s interests.”
The BLM continually twists and bends the facts in an effort to convince the general public that they are acting in the best interests of the wild horses but as the facts mount up and the law suits gain in numbers it is obvious to the general populace that the BLM does not act in favor of anyone or anything other than the BLM and their private interest cronies.