BLM to Sell 50,000 acres of public land in Utah for Private Oil &Gas Production
Looks like George W. Bush has tried to pull another fast one. Late in the day on November 4, when we were all busy figuring out who'd take Bushie's spot in the White House, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) quietly announced that it would auction off more than 50,000 acres of Utah land to the oil and gas industry. The catch? Several of these parcels are right on the borders of the Arches, Dinosaur, and Canyonlands National Parks. If the sales go through, future visitors to Arches will look through famous Delicate Arch and see a drilling platform in the near distance, just over a mile away.
The chief park service administrator in Utah calls the plan "shocking and disturbing," according to MSNBC. Nevertheless, the sale seems to be going through, with a land auction scheduled for December 19. You can voice your disapproval via the BLM's Web site. I know I will: I spent a day in Arches this past spring while on assignment for Condé Nast Traveler (writing the Iconic Itinerary to the American Southwest), and found it one of the most breathtaking examples of our country's natural wonders.
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/80days/2008/11/drilling-threat.html?mbid=rss_contf
Thursday, November 20, 2008
BLM Land Sales Down in Nevada; Developers say no to top dollar auctions
Southern Nevada Land Management Act, which governs land sales by the Bureau of Land Management, say land sales down so park funding tanks.
Bureau of Land Management isn’t selling, so funding for parks tanks
Local governments request less, shift focus from new projects to renovations
Las Vegas has asked the Bureau of Land Management for $4.2 million for improvements to the park, near Lake Mead Boulevard and J Street. A complete refurbishing would cost $7 million, which is not in the picture this cycle.
By Mike Trask
Tue, Nov 11, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Steve Marcus
Sun Archives
Lawmakers celebrate land act’s 10th anniversary (10-23-2008)
Bureau of Land Management reorganizes (9-30-2008)
For years, Southern Nevada has developed its expansive parks with proceeds from the sale of federal land to developers hungry to build sprawling housing tracts.
The more we expanded into the desert, the more money from government land sales was set aside for parks.
But with the real estate market tanking, developers are no longer asking the government to put its land up for top-dollar auction. There’s just no demand for it.
And as a result, the stream of money for parks has turned to a trickle.
Look at what’s happened over the past two years.
In early 2006 more than $461 million was awarded to municipalities for major park projects, in accordance with the Southern Nevada Land Management Act, which governs land sales by the Bureau of Land Management.
Next year that amount will likely be less than $10 million.
The act allows counties and cities to ask the BLM to sell parcels at public auction if developers are waiting in the wings. The proceeds are then used to fund parks and trails projects. Since 1998, the process has funded more than $3.2 billion in major public projects, including $1 billion for parks.
In anticipation of the next round of BLM funding next year, municipalities nominated their projects in October — without knowing how much money will be available.
“The BLM is very vague,” said Connie Diso, a Las Vegas project engineer. “They said as high as $10 million and as low as $5 million.”
The four major local governments — Clark County, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson — have nominated $11.2 million worth of projects for the next round of funding.
The local projects will compete for funding with projects in Lincoln and White Pine counties.
The BLM has stowed $57.6 million for future allocations. But it’s unclear how much of that will be used for parks and trails.
The money is also used for the acquisition of protected land, capital improvements, conservation initiatives, Lake Tahoe restoration projects, the proposed Ivanpah Airport and an education fund.
Local governments have revaluated which projects to focus on, aiming mostly to renovate existing parks.
“The big dream projects are not so much the target,” Diso said. “Now we’re able to focus on some of the smaller details and address some of the smaller projects.”
Las Vegas has received more than $245 million over the past decade. This includes $49.4 million for the Las Vegas Water District’s Springs Preserve project.
It is asking for $4.2 million to renovate Doolittle Park near Lake Mead Boulevard and J Street, add a trail head to the Las Vegas Wash Trail at Marion Drive and Harris Avenue, and add markers and kiosks to regional trails.
The Doolittle Park request is for only one phase of planned improvements. Completely refurbishing the 18-acre park would cost more than $7 million.
North Las Vegas has received $154 million in funding since 1998. It nominated only a pair of projects — both small park renovations — totaling $1.5 million for the next round of funding.
The city is asking for $985,000 for improvements to Walker Park and $600,000 for renovations to Eldorado Park.
North Las Vegas is working under the assumption that about $8 million will be awarded.
“There’s definitely a concern that there is such limited funding and how long it is going to continue,” said Michelle Menart, a park planner for North Las Vegas. “We’ve tried to tailor our projects to what we think we can get. The reality is that there’s not enough funding for new park development.”
It’s the same elsewhere in the Las Vegas Valley.
Clark County has nominated $4 million worth of projects. The county wants $561,750 for new restrooms at Sandy Valley Peace Park, $839,000 for improvements to Horseman’s Park near U.S. 95 and Flamingo Road, and $947,430 for a restroom at Hollywood Regional Park along Hollywood Boulevard on the east side of the valley.
Also, the county is seeking $739,000 for improvements to Boulder City’s Bootleg Canyon Mountain Bike Park and $1 million for a second phase of Mesquite Regional Park.
It’s far cry from the $69 million used to acquire the 1,200-acre Warm Springs Ranch in the Moapa Valley last year.
“We’ve been fully aware of the limited budget for quite awhile,” a county spokesman said. “As with all grant programs, we applied for multiple projects and are hoping for the best.”
Henderson has received more than $235 million since the program started. This year it is adjusting expectations, asking for about $1.5 million for two projects: improvements to the River Mountain Loop Trail and construction assistance at Paradise Pointe Park on Horizon Ridge Parkway.
Click on title for article;
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/11/bureau-land-management-isnt-selling-so-funding-par/
Bureau of Land Management isn’t selling, so funding for parks tanks
Local governments request less, shift focus from new projects to renovations
Las Vegas has asked the Bureau of Land Management for $4.2 million for improvements to the park, near Lake Mead Boulevard and J Street. A complete refurbishing would cost $7 million, which is not in the picture this cycle.
By Mike Trask
Tue, Nov 11, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Steve Marcus
Sun Archives
Lawmakers celebrate land act’s 10th anniversary (10-23-2008)
Bureau of Land Management reorganizes (9-30-2008)
For years, Southern Nevada has developed its expansive parks with proceeds from the sale of federal land to developers hungry to build sprawling housing tracts.
The more we expanded into the desert, the more money from government land sales was set aside for parks.
But with the real estate market tanking, developers are no longer asking the government to put its land up for top-dollar auction. There’s just no demand for it.
And as a result, the stream of money for parks has turned to a trickle.
Look at what’s happened over the past two years.
In early 2006 more than $461 million was awarded to municipalities for major park projects, in accordance with the Southern Nevada Land Management Act, which governs land sales by the Bureau of Land Management.
Next year that amount will likely be less than $10 million.
The act allows counties and cities to ask the BLM to sell parcels at public auction if developers are waiting in the wings. The proceeds are then used to fund parks and trails projects. Since 1998, the process has funded more than $3.2 billion in major public projects, including $1 billion for parks.
In anticipation of the next round of BLM funding next year, municipalities nominated their projects in October — without knowing how much money will be available.
“The BLM is very vague,” said Connie Diso, a Las Vegas project engineer. “They said as high as $10 million and as low as $5 million.”
The four major local governments — Clark County, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson — have nominated $11.2 million worth of projects for the next round of funding.
The local projects will compete for funding with projects in Lincoln and White Pine counties.
The BLM has stowed $57.6 million for future allocations. But it’s unclear how much of that will be used for parks and trails.
The money is also used for the acquisition of protected land, capital improvements, conservation initiatives, Lake Tahoe restoration projects, the proposed Ivanpah Airport and an education fund.
Local governments have revaluated which projects to focus on, aiming mostly to renovate existing parks.
“The big dream projects are not so much the target,” Diso said. “Now we’re able to focus on some of the smaller details and address some of the smaller projects.”
Las Vegas has received more than $245 million over the past decade. This includes $49.4 million for the Las Vegas Water District’s Springs Preserve project.
It is asking for $4.2 million to renovate Doolittle Park near Lake Mead Boulevard and J Street, add a trail head to the Las Vegas Wash Trail at Marion Drive and Harris Avenue, and add markers and kiosks to regional trails.
The Doolittle Park request is for only one phase of planned improvements. Completely refurbishing the 18-acre park would cost more than $7 million.
North Las Vegas has received $154 million in funding since 1998. It nominated only a pair of projects — both small park renovations — totaling $1.5 million for the next round of funding.
The city is asking for $985,000 for improvements to Walker Park and $600,000 for renovations to Eldorado Park.
North Las Vegas is working under the assumption that about $8 million will be awarded.
“There’s definitely a concern that there is such limited funding and how long it is going to continue,” said Michelle Menart, a park planner for North Las Vegas. “We’ve tried to tailor our projects to what we think we can get. The reality is that there’s not enough funding for new park development.”
It’s the same elsewhere in the Las Vegas Valley.
Clark County has nominated $4 million worth of projects. The county wants $561,750 for new restrooms at Sandy Valley Peace Park, $839,000 for improvements to Horseman’s Park near U.S. 95 and Flamingo Road, and $947,430 for a restroom at Hollywood Regional Park along Hollywood Boulevard on the east side of the valley.
Also, the county is seeking $739,000 for improvements to Boulder City’s Bootleg Canyon Mountain Bike Park and $1 million for a second phase of Mesquite Regional Park.
It’s far cry from the $69 million used to acquire the 1,200-acre Warm Springs Ranch in the Moapa Valley last year.
“We’ve been fully aware of the limited budget for quite awhile,” a county spokesman said. “As with all grant programs, we applied for multiple projects and are hoping for the best.”
Henderson has received more than $235 million since the program started. This year it is adjusting expectations, asking for about $1.5 million for two projects: improvements to the River Mountain Loop Trail and construction assistance at Paradise Pointe Park on Horizon Ridge Parkway.
Click on title for article;
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/11/bureau-land-management-isnt-selling-so-funding-par/
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
BLM in Oil-Shale Leasing Business Now that Wild Horses are Going, going, gone....
From the BLMs own website, dated 11/17/08;
BLM Finalizes Rules That Could Add Billions of Barrels of Oil to U.S. Supply
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As part of its ongoing effort to increase and diversify America's energy supply, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management today published final regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the Western United States.
In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the BLM final regulations provide the critical “rules of the road” on which private investors will rely in determining whether to make future financial commitments to prospective oil shale projects.
“The U.S. needs all types of energy resources, both conventional and renewable, in order to meet our future needs,” said Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management at Interior C. Stephen Allred. “Production from domestic resources makes us more secure and less vulnerable to future energy crises, and increases our security and economic well-being. The tremendous oil shale resources that we have in the U.S., containing several times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, can be a vital component of that secure future.”
Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. Commercial development of oil shale will not begin until it is technologically viable, which is not expected for several years. The regulations will provide a basis for decisions, as “rules of the road” for the large investment that will be necessary for industry to develop technologies to extract the resource in an environmentally sound manner. Those investments could exceed $1 billion.
Before any oil shale leases are issued, additional site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be completed on the proposed development. Once a lease is issued, the lessee will also have to obtain all required permits from state and local authorities, under their respective permitting processes, before any operations can begin. Another round of NEPA analysis would be conducted before any site-specific plans of development are approved.
The leasing regulations incorporate provisions of the Energy Policy Act and the Mineral Leasing Act relating to: maximum oil shale lease size; maximum acreage limitations; rental; and lease diligence. The rule also establishes a royalty rate based on a time-adjusted rate, beginning at 5% during the first 5 years of commercial production, and then rising 1% every year thereafter until the rate reaches 12.5%. Forty-nine percent of the royalties are shared with the states within which the leases are found.
The regulations address provisions of the Energy Policy Act that establish work requirements and milestones to ensure diligent development of leases. Standard components of a BLM leasing program--including lease administration and operations--are included, as well as additional NEPA documentation requirements for lease applicants.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. holds more than half of the world’s oil shale resources. The largest known deposits of oil shale are located in a 16,000-square mile area in the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Federal lands comprise 72 percent of the total surface of oil shale acreage in the Green River formation.
“Oil shale is a strategically important domestic energy source that should be developed to reduce the nation’s growing dependence on oil from politically and economically unstable foreign sources,” said BLM Director James Caswell. “The BLM is taking extraordinary steps to improve our domestic energy security, including the establishment of regulatory regimes designed to boost geothermal, solar and wind development and protect our public land resources.”
Throughout the process, the BLM will collaborate and consult with affected states, tribes and local governments to ensure that their interests and concerns surrounding the oil shale program continue to be addressed. For instance, the site-specific NEPA analyses would include the same opportunities for public involvement and comment that are part of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process.
The regulations are just one of several steps designed to harness these vast energy resources. The BLM has also issued research, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases for five oil shale projects in Colorado’s Piceance Basin and one in Utah.
In addition, Assistant Secretary Allred signed the Record of Decision today on a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that would amend several resource management plans to open lands for application for potential oil shale leasing in the future. In the PEIS, the BLM amended land-use plans in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to set aside approximately 1.9 million acres of public lands for potential commercial oil shale development. Additional site-specific NEPA analysis will have to be completed before leasing or development occurs.
The Oil Shale Regulation on the electronic desk of the Federal Register today is at:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-27025.pdf
Click on title above to see article as it appears on BLM website http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/november/NR_11_17_2008.html
BLM Finalizes Rules That Could Add Billions of Barrels of Oil to U.S. Supply
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As part of its ongoing effort to increase and diversify America's energy supply, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management today published final regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the Western United States.
In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the BLM final regulations provide the critical “rules of the road” on which private investors will rely in determining whether to make future financial commitments to prospective oil shale projects.
“The U.S. needs all types of energy resources, both conventional and renewable, in order to meet our future needs,” said Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management at Interior C. Stephen Allred. “Production from domestic resources makes us more secure and less vulnerable to future energy crises, and increases our security and economic well-being. The tremendous oil shale resources that we have in the U.S., containing several times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, can be a vital component of that secure future.”
Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. Commercial development of oil shale will not begin until it is technologically viable, which is not expected for several years. The regulations will provide a basis for decisions, as “rules of the road” for the large investment that will be necessary for industry to develop technologies to extract the resource in an environmentally sound manner. Those investments could exceed $1 billion.
Before any oil shale leases are issued, additional site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be completed on the proposed development. Once a lease is issued, the lessee will also have to obtain all required permits from state and local authorities, under their respective permitting processes, before any operations can begin. Another round of NEPA analysis would be conducted before any site-specific plans of development are approved.
The leasing regulations incorporate provisions of the Energy Policy Act and the Mineral Leasing Act relating to: maximum oil shale lease size; maximum acreage limitations; rental; and lease diligence. The rule also establishes a royalty rate based on a time-adjusted rate, beginning at 5% during the first 5 years of commercial production, and then rising 1% every year thereafter until the rate reaches 12.5%. Forty-nine percent of the royalties are shared with the states within which the leases are found.
The regulations address provisions of the Energy Policy Act that establish work requirements and milestones to ensure diligent development of leases. Standard components of a BLM leasing program--including lease administration and operations--are included, as well as additional NEPA documentation requirements for lease applicants.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. holds more than half of the world’s oil shale resources. The largest known deposits of oil shale are located in a 16,000-square mile area in the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Federal lands comprise 72 percent of the total surface of oil shale acreage in the Green River formation.
“Oil shale is a strategically important domestic energy source that should be developed to reduce the nation’s growing dependence on oil from politically and economically unstable foreign sources,” said BLM Director James Caswell. “The BLM is taking extraordinary steps to improve our domestic energy security, including the establishment of regulatory regimes designed to boost geothermal, solar and wind development and protect our public land resources.”
Throughout the process, the BLM will collaborate and consult with affected states, tribes and local governments to ensure that their interests and concerns surrounding the oil shale program continue to be addressed. For instance, the site-specific NEPA analyses would include the same opportunities for public involvement and comment that are part of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process.
The regulations are just one of several steps designed to harness these vast energy resources. The BLM has also issued research, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases for five oil shale projects in Colorado’s Piceance Basin and one in Utah.
In addition, Assistant Secretary Allred signed the Record of Decision today on a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that would amend several resource management plans to open lands for application for potential oil shale leasing in the future. In the PEIS, the BLM amended land-use plans in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to set aside approximately 1.9 million acres of public lands for potential commercial oil shale development. Additional site-specific NEPA analysis will have to be completed before leasing or development occurs.
The Oil Shale Regulation on the electronic desk of the Federal Register today is at:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-27025.pdf
Click on title above to see article as it appears on BLM website http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/november/NR_11_17_2008.html
Retirement Ranch Planned for Wild Horses
From the Washington Post;
Retirement Ranch Planned for Wild Horses
Rescuer Sees Tax Credits As Key to Luring Donors
About 30,000 wild horses and burros are being kept in federal holding pens such as this one in Nevada.
Madeleine Pickens (Dennis Cook - Associated Press)
Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who this week offered to rescue more than 30,000 wild horses kept in federal holding pens, said yesterday that she wants to create a permanent retirement ranch for the horses and burros that could be open to the public.
A key to her plan, she said, is federal tax credits to help attract donors. Pickens said she met last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss the proposal, which animal rights advocates have long promoted as an incentive for encouraging private individuals to adopt wild horses.
"It's going to save tax dollars in the end, quite a bit," she said in an interview. "It has become so expensive to take care of these horses in these holding areas."
Half of the nation's wild horse population is in Nevada, and Pickens said Reid told her that he has been concerned about the issue for 25 years. Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, said the senator was intrigued by the proposal but did not commit to it.
"He thought this was a creative idea to a problem that needs creative solutions," Summers said.
Officials with the Bureau of Land Management revealed this week that Pickens had come to them with a plan to relieve a growing agency headache -- the care of wild horses and burros that were removed from federal lands and placed in holding pens to await adoption. The government periodically gathers horses from the range to prevent overpopulation and damage to the grasslands. It typically rounds up about 10,000 horses in a year.
Horse adoptions have slowed significantly in the past five years, and the cost of feeding and caring for these horses has grown sharply, decimating the bureau's budget and creating what the Government Accountability Office termed a "crisis." The government is caring for about as many horses in holding facilities as the 33,000 that still roam wild on federal lands.
Bureau officials reluctantly began to consider exercising a legal but controversial option: euthanasia. Their focus was on about 2,000 unwanted horses that had not been adopted despite several tries.
Pickens, a racehorse breeder and lifelong animal lover, said she was horrified when she learned about the problem. "There's got to be a way to bypass them -- why does it have to be Washington to solve the problem?" said Pickens, who, along with her husband, airlifted 800 cats and dogs stranded by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and brought them to California for adoption.
She said that she approached officials at the Bureau of Land Management and that they embraced her idea. "I was just so thrilled -- at all the areas I expected a 'no' from, I just got a smile and 'Yes, we love it,' " she said.
Pickens is negotiating to win control of more than 1 million acres of grassland in the West, where she plans to establish a horse ranch. She intends to acquire part of the land through private sale and the rest through a lease with the federal government. She is considering several pieces of land, costing $10 million to $50 million.
Pickens wants to adopt all the wild horses and burros being held in federal pens, sterilize them and let them loose on her retirement ranch. As the government rounds up additional horses each year, she said, she could absorb them as well because they would replace horses on the ranch that die from natural causes.
"I see it as an eco-vacation spot," Pickens said. "Could you imagine taking your kids there, staying on the range in log cabins or tepees? I love the idea of sharing it with the American people."
Jeff Malcolm, an assistant director at the GAO who studied the wild horse program at the request of Congress, said that Pickens's idea could work but that the government would still need to control the population of wild horses roaming the range. "You have to look at the entire pipeline of the process," he said. "You need a strategy of population control."
Bureau officials have been experimenting with fertility control but have not employed a comprehensive method to manage the population growth of the animals.
Retirement Ranch Planned for Wild Horses
Rescuer Sees Tax Credits As Key to Luring Donors
About 30,000 wild horses and burros are being kept in federal holding pens such as this one in Nevada.
Madeleine Pickens (Dennis Cook - Associated Press)
Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who this week offered to rescue more than 30,000 wild horses kept in federal holding pens, said yesterday that she wants to create a permanent retirement ranch for the horses and burros that could be open to the public.
A key to her plan, she said, is federal tax credits to help attract donors. Pickens said she met last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss the proposal, which animal rights advocates have long promoted as an incentive for encouraging private individuals to adopt wild horses.
"It's going to save tax dollars in the end, quite a bit," she said in an interview. "It has become so expensive to take care of these horses in these holding areas."
Half of the nation's wild horse population is in Nevada, and Pickens said Reid told her that he has been concerned about the issue for 25 years. Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, said the senator was intrigued by the proposal but did not commit to it.
"He thought this was a creative idea to a problem that needs creative solutions," Summers said.
Officials with the Bureau of Land Management revealed this week that Pickens had come to them with a plan to relieve a growing agency headache -- the care of wild horses and burros that were removed from federal lands and placed in holding pens to await adoption. The government periodically gathers horses from the range to prevent overpopulation and damage to the grasslands. It typically rounds up about 10,000 horses in a year.
Horse adoptions have slowed significantly in the past five years, and the cost of feeding and caring for these horses has grown sharply, decimating the bureau's budget and creating what the Government Accountability Office termed a "crisis." The government is caring for about as many horses in holding facilities as the 33,000 that still roam wild on federal lands.
Bureau officials reluctantly began to consider exercising a legal but controversial option: euthanasia. Their focus was on about 2,000 unwanted horses that had not been adopted despite several tries.
Pickens, a racehorse breeder and lifelong animal lover, said she was horrified when she learned about the problem. "There's got to be a way to bypass them -- why does it have to be Washington to solve the problem?" said Pickens, who, along with her husband, airlifted 800 cats and dogs stranded by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and brought them to California for adoption.
She said that she approached officials at the Bureau of Land Management and that they embraced her idea. "I was just so thrilled -- at all the areas I expected a 'no' from, I just got a smile and 'Yes, we love it,' " she said.
Pickens is negotiating to win control of more than 1 million acres of grassland in the West, where she plans to establish a horse ranch. She intends to acquire part of the land through private sale and the rest through a lease with the federal government. She is considering several pieces of land, costing $10 million to $50 million.
Pickens wants to adopt all the wild horses and burros being held in federal pens, sterilize them and let them loose on her retirement ranch. As the government rounds up additional horses each year, she said, she could absorb them as well because they would replace horses on the ranch that die from natural causes.
"I see it as an eco-vacation spot," Pickens said. "Could you imagine taking your kids there, staying on the range in log cabins or tepees? I love the idea of sharing it with the American people."
Jeff Malcolm, an assistant director at the GAO who studied the wild horse program at the request of Congress, said that Pickens's idea could work but that the government would still need to control the population of wild horses roaming the range. "You have to look at the entire pipeline of the process," he said. "You need a strategy of population control."
Bureau officials have been experimenting with fertility control but have not employed a comprehensive method to manage the population growth of the animals.
The Privatization of Public Lands
And a poem by an Aussie experiencing the same thing in his country;
The People's Treasure
by Michael Leunig
They're privatising things we own together. They're flogging off the people's common ground.
And though we're still connected by the weather They say that sharing things is now unsound.
They're lonelifying all the public spaces. They're rationalising swags and billabongs.
They're awfulising nature's lovely places, Dismantling the dreaming and the songs.
Their macho fear of flabby soft sensations Makes them pine for all things hard and lean.
They talk of foreign market penetrations And throbbing private sectors. It's obscene.
They're basically unloving types of creatures With demons lurking underneath their beds.
You'll notice that a necktie always features To keep their hearts quite separate from their heads. *
So if they steal away the people's treasure. And bring the jolly swagman to his knees.
They can't remove the simple common pleasure Of loathing public bastards such as these.
Click on title above to go to a wonderful, informative place concerning the privatization of public lands;
http://www.wildwilderness.org/wi/privatize.htm
The People's Treasure
by Michael Leunig
They're privatising things we own together. They're flogging off the people's common ground.
And though we're still connected by the weather They say that sharing things is now unsound.
They're lonelifying all the public spaces. They're rationalising swags and billabongs.
They're awfulising nature's lovely places, Dismantling the dreaming and the songs.
Their macho fear of flabby soft sensations Makes them pine for all things hard and lean.
They talk of foreign market penetrations And throbbing private sectors. It's obscene.
They're basically unloving types of creatures With demons lurking underneath their beds.
You'll notice that a necktie always features To keep their hearts quite separate from their heads. *
So if they steal away the people's treasure. And bring the jolly swagman to his knees.
They can't remove the simple common pleasure Of loathing public bastards such as these.
Click on title above to go to a wonderful, informative place concerning the privatization of public lands;
http://www.wildwilderness.org/wi/privatize.htm
Word & a Warning to the BLM from the Wild Horse Preservation Folk
As many of you may recall, last summer BLM announced it was considering putting to death thousands of wild horses in its care, as a way to balance the books. After a massive public outcry, the decision was postponed until the next Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting. The meeting took place this past Monday, following release of a long-awaited Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The GAO Report was a disappointment in that it failed to address the systemic problems associated with BLM's wild horse management policies, focusing instead on options available to address the glut of horses in government holding: 'euthanasia,' sale without limitation (i.e. slaughter), or release of the captive horses on some of the 19 million acres lost by the herds since passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. The GAO merely sent BLM and Congress back to the drawing board, while failing to investigate the underlying cause of the current crisis: the unnecessary removal of thousands upon thousands of wild horses from our public lands.
At Monday's meeting, BLM Deputy Director Henry Bisson announced that any decision regarding 'euthanasia' would be postponed for a year. In the meantime, BLM will be working with Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, as well as other private parties, who have offered to take thousands of horses off BLM's hands into privately-run sanctuaries. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Mrs. Pickens and the other good Samaritans offering their land in this 11th hour reprieve for the horses.
A looming crisis has been averted, but many concerns remain:
- More than ever, a moratorium on round-ups is in order until actual numbers of wild horses and burros on public lands have been independently assessed, and legally-mandated range studies have been conducted.
- The BLM 'bail-out' by private parties should come with strings attached to ensure that we are not just emptying government corrals so that BLM can continue rounding up more and more horses.
- At Monday?s meeting, the Advisory Board made some highly disturbing recommendations, including shipping horses abroad as 'foreign agricultural aid,' removing restrictions against slaughter for horses sold under the Burns Amendment, and extending Burns Amendment sales to younger horses and foreign markets. Death in a Canadian or Mexican slaughterhouse is no better, if not worse, than a government bullet to the head. WE MUST REMAIN VIGILANT.
The incoming Obama-Biden administration presents an opportunity toward a new beginning for the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program. Please contact the Office of the President-Elect and express your concerns and hopes for the future of our wild horses.
On behalf of America?s wild horses and burros, thank you for your support,
The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
Click here to join our email list and receive the latest updates.
----------------------
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9367322&nav=8faO#poll77881
The GAO Report was a disappointment in that it failed to address the systemic problems associated with BLM's wild horse management policies, focusing instead on options available to address the glut of horses in government holding: 'euthanasia,' sale without limitation (i.e. slaughter), or release of the captive horses on some of the 19 million acres lost by the herds since passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. The GAO merely sent BLM and Congress back to the drawing board, while failing to investigate the underlying cause of the current crisis: the unnecessary removal of thousands upon thousands of wild horses from our public lands.
At Monday's meeting, BLM Deputy Director Henry Bisson announced that any decision regarding 'euthanasia' would be postponed for a year. In the meantime, BLM will be working with Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, as well as other private parties, who have offered to take thousands of horses off BLM's hands into privately-run sanctuaries. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Mrs. Pickens and the other good Samaritans offering their land in this 11th hour reprieve for the horses.
A looming crisis has been averted, but many concerns remain:
- More than ever, a moratorium on round-ups is in order until actual numbers of wild horses and burros on public lands have been independently assessed, and legally-mandated range studies have been conducted.
- The BLM 'bail-out' by private parties should come with strings attached to ensure that we are not just emptying government corrals so that BLM can continue rounding up more and more horses.
- At Monday?s meeting, the Advisory Board made some highly disturbing recommendations, including shipping horses abroad as 'foreign agricultural aid,' removing restrictions against slaughter for horses sold under the Burns Amendment, and extending Burns Amendment sales to younger horses and foreign markets. Death in a Canadian or Mexican slaughterhouse is no better, if not worse, than a government bullet to the head. WE MUST REMAIN VIGILANT.
The incoming Obama-Biden administration presents an opportunity toward a new beginning for the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program. Please contact the Office of the President-Elect and express your concerns and hopes for the future of our wild horses.
On behalf of America?s wild horses and burros, thank you for your support,
The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
Click here to join our email list and receive the latest updates.
----------------------
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9367322&nav=8faO#poll77881
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Big Oil $$$ to Bail Out 33,000 Wild Horses
Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens' wife proposes way to save wild horses
11/18/2008
By JAMIE STENGLE / Associated Press
The wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday that she'll create a massive refuge for thousands of wild horses, after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it was considering euthanizing some of the animals.
About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states. In order to protect the herd, the range and other foraging animals, the BLM wants to have about 27,000 horses and burros in the wild. So those too old or considered unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities.
The agency now has about the same number of the animals in holding facilities as on the range. An agency spokesman said the costs of keeping animals in the holding facilities has caused them to consider euthanasia.
Madeleine Pickens told The Associated Press that she has proposed purchasing around 1 million acres to serve as a refuge for the around 30,000 horses that are being kept in holding facilities and the BLM has agreed to give her the horses once she has the land.
"I started to think there must be a solution — something that would work and make everybody happy," she said.
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said the agency welcomes the offer.
"Right now we couldn't be more pleased with her interest and we hope that materializes so that we can get many of these horses out of holding," he said.
Pickens said animals brought to the refuge will be sterilized and she will be able to take the extra horses the BLM takes out of the wild each year as well.
"We will never turn an animal down," Pickens said.
Pickens said she is in the process of negotiating the purchase of the land so she would not say what state the refuge will be in.
"I feel this tremendous relief," she said. "I feel like the wagon is surrounded and instead of being surrounded by evil, it's surrounded by people who are willing to help."
She said she envisions the refuge also becoming an eco-resort, a place where people could come and watch the wild horses.
"We'll have enough land and property to pretty much do everything," she said.
She's also creating a foundation to help with the project.
Gorey said that while they have authority to euthanize the surplus horses, it's an option they did not want to have to exercise.
The BLM has a program for people to adopt the surplus animals, but Gorey said that the adoptions of the wild horses has been dropping, going from 5,700 in fiscal year 2005 to 3,700 in fiscal year 2008. Since 2005, they've sold about 2,900 under a law that allows them to sell "without limitation" animals that are older than 10 or have been passed over for adoption three times. Gorey said they won't sell to slaughterhouses.
Pickens, the child of British father and Lebanese mother who grew up in the Middle East and went to school in England and France, said she always had a love for the West and wild horses.
"It's such a beautiful sight to see," Pickens said. "This is our national heritage and it needs to be preserved."
11/18/2008
By JAMIE STENGLE / Associated Press
The wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday that she'll create a massive refuge for thousands of wild horses, after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it was considering euthanizing some of the animals.
About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states. In order to protect the herd, the range and other foraging animals, the BLM wants to have about 27,000 horses and burros in the wild. So those too old or considered unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities.
The agency now has about the same number of the animals in holding facilities as on the range. An agency spokesman said the costs of keeping animals in the holding facilities has caused them to consider euthanasia.
Madeleine Pickens told The Associated Press that she has proposed purchasing around 1 million acres to serve as a refuge for the around 30,000 horses that are being kept in holding facilities and the BLM has agreed to give her the horses once she has the land.
"I started to think there must be a solution — something that would work and make everybody happy," she said.
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said the agency welcomes the offer.
"Right now we couldn't be more pleased with her interest and we hope that materializes so that we can get many of these horses out of holding," he said.
Pickens said animals brought to the refuge will be sterilized and she will be able to take the extra horses the BLM takes out of the wild each year as well.
"We will never turn an animal down," Pickens said.
Pickens said she is in the process of negotiating the purchase of the land so she would not say what state the refuge will be in.
"I feel this tremendous relief," she said. "I feel like the wagon is surrounded and instead of being surrounded by evil, it's surrounded by people who are willing to help."
She said she envisions the refuge also becoming an eco-resort, a place where people could come and watch the wild horses.
"We'll have enough land and property to pretty much do everything," she said.
She's also creating a foundation to help with the project.
Gorey said that while they have authority to euthanize the surplus horses, it's an option they did not want to have to exercise.
The BLM has a program for people to adopt the surplus animals, but Gorey said that the adoptions of the wild horses has been dropping, going from 5,700 in fiscal year 2005 to 3,700 in fiscal year 2008. Since 2005, they've sold about 2,900 under a law that allows them to sell "without limitation" animals that are older than 10 or have been passed over for adoption three times. Gorey said they won't sell to slaughterhouses.
Pickens, the child of British father and Lebanese mother who grew up in the Middle East and went to school in England and France, said she always had a love for the West and wild horses.
"It's such a beautiful sight to see," Pickens said. "This is our national heritage and it needs to be preserved."
USA Today Covers Wild Horse Crisis
USA Today;
Wild Horses a Tax Burden, face slaughter.
Wild horses have been living in the West for centuries, but their ever-growing numbers have led to many being fenced in. A recent government review of the cost of corralling them now has their admirers frantic that a slaughter is imminent.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) says slaughter remains a possibility for some of the more than 30,000 wild horses and burros being cared for in government-run pens.
A Government Accountability Office report issued last week lent support to the agency's assertion in June that the costs of caring for the animals have skyrocketed. The GAO said the agency should consider euthanizing some horses or selling them, likely to a slaughterhouse, as an alternative to keeping them in long-term holding pens for their entire lives.
"We don't want to do euthanasia … but we are up against the wall on our budget," says BLM spokesman Tom Gorey in Washington.
Gorey says the BLM needs no further authority from Congress to take the steps but has made no final decision. On Monday, agency Deputy Director Henri Bisson said the agency would make no decision this year.
Symbol of the Old West
Advocates for animals say a slaughter is unnecessary and an ignominious end for thousands of descendants of animals that arrived with Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century and who are living symbols of the nation's once-wild Western frontier.
"The GAO report has provided adequate cover for the BLM to begin euthanizing horses," says Jerry Reynoldson, head of Wild Horses 4 Ever.
Chris Heyde, deputy director and lobbyist for the Animal Welfare Institute, says his group hopes opposition to slaughter in Congress and a sympathetic Obama administration will cause the BLM to drop euthanasia and slaughter sales.
As a senator, Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation to protect wild horses, Heyde says.
A 1971 law gives the BLM the authority to euthanize animals to manage herds in designated areas. The agency calculates that land set aside for the animals across the West can support 27,500 horses, with more than 16,000 of them in Nevada. There are 33,100 wild horses and burros in 199 herds across 10 Western states, the GAO report said.
To keep the horses from starving to death or from crowding out other species, the BLM uses low-flying helicopters each year to corral enough horses to keep the herds at target populations.
Those horses basically live out their lives in large pens, some for 20 years or more. Today 33,088 horses are being fed and maintained by taxpayers, just as many as roam in the wild.
The GAO report said that rising costs of feed and transportation, combined with lower interest in adopting the wild horses by the public, are pressuring the program.
The BLM offers the horses for $125 to people with the means to care for them, but the number of adoptions has been falling. Last year, 4,772 wild horses were adopted, half the number in 1995, and the number was far outpaced by the 7,726 horses removed from the range in fiscal 2007.
Since 2001, more than 74,000 animals have been removed from the range, and 46,400 of them have been adopted or sold, the report said.
Takes a lot of hay to manage herds
Meanwhile, the cost to care for the animals for life rose from $7 million in 2000 to $21 million in 2007.
Critics accuse the agency of mismanaging the horse program and say the roundup is only made necessary because the BLM favors cattle ranching over wild animals in the competition for water and graze land.
"This isn't the way to do things," says Dawn Lappin, a leader of Wild Horse Organized Assistance, a Nevada group that aids horses.
The critics demand the BLM do more to have horses adopted; the agency says that is not realistic.
After being passed up for adoption three times, horses are sent to long-term holding pens where they may live to as old as 25, far longer than they would in the wild, BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington says.
"As horses get older, they are extremely challenging if not impossible to gentle," she says.
In the wild, the horses reproduce at a rate high enough to double the herd in four or five years, the BLM says. With drought conditions in parts of the West, the agency says it cannot allow the herds to grow unchecked.
"That would be an environmental disaster," Boddington says.
Turf wars with cattle, mankind
Advocates say that if horses were allowed access to more land and water, more of them could survive.
Deanne Stillman, author of the recently published book Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, says there are 3 million to 4 million cattle on Western public lands.
"It seems peculiar that our public lands can support that many cattle, but there's a problem with 20-some thousand wild horses," she says.
Boddington says the BLM must consider the entire nation in managing the land of the public. "Conservation, mining, oil and gas, grazing, forestry, recreation — it's very difficult to balance all those interests," she says.
See USA Today Article, and place to leave comments by clicking on title above;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-17-wildhorses_N.htm
BLM: All About "Resource Development"
Well we all know its not about cows anymore,....but here it is straight "from the horses mouth," so to speak,..no pun intended;
“Whether or not cattle are there, those horses are causing damage to our wetlands, impacting our native species and wildlife,” Steblein said,project manager at the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge
However, despite Mr. Stebleins' apparent concern over the "flaura & fauna" of Nevadas Rangelands and its wildlife,.. after viewing yesterdays WH&B Advisory Committee Meeting, it is apparent that its not REALLY about "protecting the land" anymore either, but about "resource development." The BLM does NOT consider our wild horses as resources. Therein lies the problem. The BLM is ALL ABOUT LAND and "resource development," and what is land these days but a "rescource" and a very valuable one at that. The wild horses are a liability to the BLM and its plan for "resource development." Not only are the horses in the way of the six-million cows that are grazing on their lands (for a measley $18. per year!) but they are also in the way of mining permits and operations, BIG Game Hunting and permits, but now they are in the way of "resource developmemt." And just what is "resource development," you may ask?
One of the speakers at yesterdays meetings admitted that "its all about" resource development. She said that some of the ranchers are giving up trying to eek out a living ranching and are selling off their privately owned lands to developers. The speaker boldly stated that the surrounding lands nearby these new development areas are worth "far more" for development than could ever be worth for ranching! So the BLM is into "building communities" now, or would like to be? How nice for the Powers-That-Be, (PTB) but not so nice for the American public or the horses.
November 18, 2008 9:31 AM
“Whether or not cattle are there, those horses are causing damage to our wetlands, impacting our native species and wildlife,” Steblein said,project manager at the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge
However, despite Mr. Stebleins' apparent concern over the "flaura & fauna" of Nevadas Rangelands and its wildlife,.. after viewing yesterdays WH&B Advisory Committee Meeting, it is apparent that its not REALLY about "protecting the land" anymore either, but about "resource development." The BLM does NOT consider our wild horses as resources. Therein lies the problem. The BLM is ALL ABOUT LAND and "resource development," and what is land these days but a "rescource" and a very valuable one at that. The wild horses are a liability to the BLM and its plan for "resource development." Not only are the horses in the way of the six-million cows that are grazing on their lands (for a measley $18. per year!) but they are also in the way of mining permits and operations, BIG Game Hunting and permits, but now they are in the way of "resource developmemt." And just what is "resource development," you may ask?
One of the speakers at yesterdays meetings admitted that "its all about" resource development. She said that some of the ranchers are giving up trying to eek out a living ranching and are selling off their privately owned lands to developers. The speaker boldly stated that the surrounding lands nearby these new development areas are worth "far more" for development than could ever be worth for ranching! So the BLM is into "building communities" now, or would like to be? How nice for the Powers-That-Be, (PTB) but not so nice for the American public or the horses.
November 18, 2008 9:31 AM
GAO Wants to Know "Why Hasent the Killing Begun?"
Well we all know the BLM has ALWAYS had the discretionary power to euthanise any horses they deem "unadoptable," and they only reason that the BLM hasent exersized the discretionary "power to kill" healthy horses is because of PUBLIC OUTRAGE. They know that most Americans can see through the BS and will not stand quietly by while our big-whig politicians & bureaucrats carry out their expermination plan for Americas wild horses for the sake of special interest, or those who will line their pockets the most or suck their u no whats the best) They know America simply WONT HAVE IT and that is why "the mass killing" has not begun. They are smart to fear the truth cause it wont make any of em look 2 good.
From the BLMs Report on the Government Accountability Office Report;
"The report correctly notes that the BLM has limited options for dealing with unadopted and unsold animals within its finite budget. One option is to humanely put down animals for which no adoption demand exists, as directed by the 1978 amendments to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act; another option is to sell "without limitation" horses older than 10 and those younger that have been passed over for adoption at least three times, as directed by a December 2004 amendment to the 1971 law. The GAO recommends -- and the Department of the Interior and the BLM agree -- that the Bureau should initiate discussions with Congress on addressing the BLM's noncompliance with these directives in the 1971 law, as amended."
The GAO whats to know, "why hasent the killing begun?"
Click on title above for BLM Commentary on the GAO Report;
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/november/NR_10_11_2008.html
From the BLMs Report on the Government Accountability Office Report;
"The report correctly notes that the BLM has limited options for dealing with unadopted and unsold animals within its finite budget. One option is to humanely put down animals for which no adoption demand exists, as directed by the 1978 amendments to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act; another option is to sell "without limitation" horses older than 10 and those younger that have been passed over for adoption at least three times, as directed by a December 2004 amendment to the 1971 law. The GAO recommends -- and the Department of the Interior and the BLM agree -- that the Bureau should initiate discussions with Congress on addressing the BLM's noncompliance with these directives in the 1971 law, as amended."
The GAO whats to know, "why hasent the killing begun?"
Click on title above for BLM Commentary on the GAO Report;
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/november/NR_10_11_2008.html
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