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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Oppose Massive Wild Horse Roundup in Wyoming’s Pristine Red Desert; 1,500+ Mustangs Targeted for Removal in Adobe Town

American Wild Horse preservation Campaign

Email us your comments by Friday (August 13); 
we will hand deliver to BLM on Monday (August 16)
 
BLM is galloping ahead with its wild horse roundup schedule, 
despite overwhelming public opposition and the request by 
54 members of Congress to halt the mustang captures. 
Among those targeted: the famed wild horses of Adobe Town 
in the pristine Red Desert region of south/central Wyoming. 
Photographer Carol Walker has chronicled the lives of these 
magnificent mustangs in her book Wild Hoofbeats.
 
Beginning in October, BLM intends to round up — via helicopter 
stampede — 1,951 wild horses, or 80 percent of the estimated 
mustang population living in the Adobe Town Herd Management
Area (HMA) and the adjacent Salt Wells Creek HMA. Nearly 
1,600 of these wild horses will be permanently removed. 
BLM claims that this vast, 1.7 million acre range can support no 
more 610-800 adult horses in Adobe Town and 251-365 in 
Salt Wells Creek. Meanwhile the agency allocates more 
resources within this public lands area to privately-owned 
livestock than to our federally-protected wild horses.
When BLM began the environmental planning process for 
this roundup, the agency received over 7,000 public comments 
opposing the Proposed Action. In an effort to avoid being 
“bombarded” with “frivolous” emails from the citizens who 
pay their salaries, officials in the BLM’s Rock Springs and 
Rawlins field offices have decided to prohibit email 
comments on the Environmental Assessment for this capture plan. 
But don’t let the BLM dissuade you from participating in our government!
Be sure to send the email below, because we will personally 

hand deliver each and every one of your letters to the BLM in 
Wyoming so that your voice is heard.
 
The BLM must understand that Americans feel strongly protecting 
our wild horses and reforming the broken federal wild horse program.

What You Can Do
Please personalize, cut, paste and email the letter below to us at  
by Friday, August 13. Please be sure to include a mailing address 
so that BLM does not have an excuse to dismiss your comments.
Email to: SaveAdobeHorses@gmail.com
—————————————————
Dear Rock Springs and Rawlins Field Offices of the Wyoming BLM:
Please accept these comments on the Environmental Assessment 
Adobe Town-Salt Wells Creek Herd Management Area Complex 
Wild Horse Gather (EA WY-040-EA-10-109).
I oppose the BLM’s proposal to roundup approximately 1,951 
wild horses from the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Herd 

Management Areas (HMAs) in Wyoming and permanently 
remove 1,577 of them from the range. The Environmental 

Assessment (EA) for this capture plan is inadequate because it:
- Fails to provide a scientific basis or rationale for the decision 
to remove such a large number of horses. No evidence of range 
damage, poor condition of horses or other data is presented 
to justify the determination that these “excess” horses must be removed.
- Fails to adequately consider the impacts of the Proposed 
Action on the horses, including those who are permanently 
removed, those who are rounded up and re-released, and 
those left behind on the range. The EA contains no discussion 
of the harmful effects of social disruption and destruction of 
family bands, or the expected deaths of horses in holding 
facilities due to capture-related trauma and stress.
- Fails to consider any alternatives to the helicopter stampede 
of wild horses over rugged terrain for up to ten miles, 
which has been demonstrated to cause trauma, injury and death.
- Dismisses without foundation, alternatives to the 
Proposed Action which were submitted by thousands 
of members of the public. These include increasing 
Appropriate Management Levels for wild horses; reducing
livestock grazing pursuant to BLM’s clear legal authority 
to do so; converting livestock grazing allotments to increase 
forage for wild horses and allow greater population numbers; 
and making range improvements, such as water enhancements, 
to better distribute horses throughout the HMAs and sustain
higher population numbers. Explanations provided as to why
these alternatives were dismissed from consideration are 
 entirely inadequate.
- Fails to evaluate the social, economic and legal impacts 
of the warehousing of the majority of captured horses in holding 
facilities, where they will join the 38,000 wild horses already 
warehoused at taxpayer expense.
BLM’s decision to prohibit email submissions of public 
comments on the EA, along with its dismissal of alternatives 
suggested by thousands of citizens, is evidence that public 
input is irrelevant to BLM plans. BLM is proceeding with the
removal of nearly 1,600 federally-protected wild horses while 
continuing to allocate more resources to privately-owned livestock
in these designated wild horse areas, indicating that this 
agency manages our public lands for the benefit of commercial
interests rather than the public.
The BLM’s professed commitment to change is not evident in the 
Adobe Town/Salt Wells capture plan. I join with the 54 members 
of Congress who have requested that the BLM halt all wild horse 
roundups. The Adobe Town/Salt Wells Creek roundup should not 
proceed on the basis of such deficient science and inadequate 
environmental review.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
[Phone]






The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. Its grassroots efforts are supported by a coalition of over forty organizations.

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