The Govt' (Bureau of Land (Mis)Management) has long wanted our wild horses off of our public lands. The BLM originally started out as "The U.S. Grazing Service" and was created for the sole purpose of protecting the interest of the ranching industry. Ranchers have always hated wild horses. They look at them as competition for their cows forage. Nothing much has changed today. It is the ranchers pushing the BLM to get the wild horses off our public lands,..and they (as usual) are getting their way, at least on the state level.
The ranchers and the BLM like to blame "rangeland degradation" (over-grazing) on the wild horses, only they never mention that the privately owned cows that graze these same lands by govt permit outnumber the wild horses 200 to 1!! Nor do they mention the fact that these lands are permitted for other uses that also contribute to rangeland degradation like ATV / ORV use or big game that outnumber the wild horses 3 to 1. However, as it turns out more recently, it is not really about "rangeland degradation" anymore,....its about "land-swapping," special interest, development and "community building." Even the BLM is starting to admit that now,...how could they not? Its getting so obvious these days.
The Ely BLM District in Nevada is getting ready to round up and remove all of the wild horses in 11 "herd management areas.." These lands were legally designated to the wild horses by the provisions of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act of 1971.
Not only are the going to remove all 600 wild horses and burros roaming these lands, they are going to "zero-out" over one million acres of their lands. Not only are they stealing our wild horses, they are stealing their lands too!
Although the public comment period has "officially" ended, these offices listed below are the ones in charge of these removals, and will at least listen to your comments. You can call them and let them know that Americans wont sit still for them "erasing" our wild horse herds and taking away their lands.
Thanks again!
CJ/MK
----------
BLM Ely District Office
702 N. Industrial Way | HC 33 Box 33500 | Ely NV 89301
Phone: 775-289-1800 | Office Hours: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm M-F
Caliente Field Office
US Highway 93, Building #1 | P.O. Box 237 | Caliente NV 89008
Phone: 775-726-8100 | Office Hours: 7:30 am - 4:15 pm M-F
Americas wild horses really are in crisis today. What is happening in Nevada is happening all over our western states, but we ARE NOT powerless to stop it - we DO have powerful voices and, believe it or not, we have the law on our side. What the wild horse movement needs is some DAM good passionately committed to the cause legal experts (lawyers) on their side, working TOGETHER as a UNITED Front attacking the roots of this evil via one great big class-action lawsuit for the overall mis-managment of the wild horse and burro program....on a federal (not state-by-state) level, maybe even by request for an emergency Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States? Anyways, attacking ALL the removals at once in one court would be the lawsuit that should end the necessity of any further state litigation. Can we do it? Can we "get ourselves together" in a hurry to save our wild horse herds? Do we have any other choice? What will the consequences be if we dont attack these illegal removals "on the whole" in an effort to put a stop to them all? What other alternatives do we have? Close your eyes, what do you see? (nada, zero, zilch, nothing)The removals will go on as planned until and unless and ORDER is issued to cease and desist them all.
I would say people if you have a voice (and I know you do) to please use it to keep up our opposition to these removals. Meanwhile, if you know of any good lawyers you may want to talk to them about taking the case or at least becoming part of the legal team we will be trying to build to HALT all removals and ask for a "re-evaluation" of "the plans." Interested parties can contact me for more info by emailing: CJubic@nycap.rr.com or calling me directly at (518) 753 - 7791
All contacts and conversations will be kept confidental.
Thanks.
__._,_.___
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
BLM a Top Revenue Earner for the Gov't But No $$$ for Wild Horses
From the BLMs website;
The public lands provide significant economic benefits to the Nation and to states and counties where these lands are located. Revenues generated from public lands make BLM one of the top revenue-generating agencies in the Federal government. In 2007, for instance, BLM’s onshore mineral leasing activities will generate an estimated $4.5 billion in receipts from royalties, bonuses, and rentals that are collected by the Minerals Management Service. Approximately half of these revenues will be returned to the States where the mineral leasing occurred.
The Bureau administers about 57 million acres of commercial forests and woodlands through the Management of Lands and Resources and the Oregon and California Grant Lands appropriations. Timber receipts (including salvage) are estimated to be $55.4 million in fiscal year 2007, compared to estimated receipts of $33 million in Fiscal Year 2006 and actual receipts of $13.5 million in Fiscal Year 2005.
Click on title above to lean more about the BLM; http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/About_BLM.html
The public lands provide significant economic benefits to the Nation and to states and counties where these lands are located. Revenues generated from public lands make BLM one of the top revenue-generating agencies in the Federal government. In 2007, for instance, BLM’s onshore mineral leasing activities will generate an estimated $4.5 billion in receipts from royalties, bonuses, and rentals that are collected by the Minerals Management Service. Approximately half of these revenues will be returned to the States where the mineral leasing occurred.
The Bureau administers about 57 million acres of commercial forests and woodlands through the Management of Lands and Resources and the Oregon and California Grant Lands appropriations. Timber receipts (including salvage) are estimated to be $55.4 million in fiscal year 2007, compared to estimated receipts of $33 million in Fiscal Year 2006 and actual receipts of $13.5 million in Fiscal Year 2005.
Click on title above to lean more about the BLM; http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/About_BLM.html
STOP the Illegal Removals!! SOS for Clouds Herd
These Illegal Removals by the BLM are Happening All Over, despite our legal successes in various states; - Attention Wild-Horse Advocate Attorneys: NOW is the time for "The Big One" to stop all removals all-together all at once!
U.S. Citizens
v.
SALAZAR, Sec. of the Department of the Interior, Individually and in His Official Capacity, et. el.;
COUNT ONE: GROSS MIS-MANAGEMENT OF THE WILD HORSE & BURRO PROGRAM------------------------------------------------------------------
Plea from The Cloud Foundation....Please Spread The Word To Your Family, Friends and Co-Workers
Massive Roundup Still Planned for Cloud's Herd
Please act now to stop the destruction of this Unique Spanish Herd
Dear Friends of Cloud’s Herd in the Pryor Mountains;
We are doing everything we can through political and legal avenues to save Cloud’s herd but BLM is set on putting helicopters in the air starting around September 1st. They plan to roundup all the horses and remove over 70, including older horses, mares and foals.
The BLM and the Department of Interior are not listening to the public. They appear to be disregarding even Dr. Gus Cothran, a noted equine geneticist, who told the BLM, again, that this unique Spanish herd must be managed at minimum levels of 150-200 to keep the herd viable. Click on title above to go to the Cloud Foundations' website where you can read Dr. Cothran's letter there)(See also in the link below, a USGS Survey that supports Dr. Cothrans theory and concludes also that the management levels set by the BLM are "too low" to maintain a viable herd; http://wildhorsewarriors.blogspot.com/2009/08/usgs-report-finds-population-goals-for.html)
BLM's plan to remove to 70 horses is unnecessary and unwise. This places more horses in danger- few good homes are available in the currently flooded horse market. Older horses are at risk of being bought by killer buyers and others may end up in government holding at risk of being killed by the BLM. Watch my YouTube piece on this issue here. Some may even be put down after capture. This happened to horses during the recent Challis Herd round up and in the Sand Wash roundup last fall in October (view YouTube piece here).
Call and email President Obama and Vice President Biden and tell them that you do not want a misguided agency destroying Americas wild horses. 202-456-9000 or 202-456-1111 or write. Tell them to intervene on behalf of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd! The BLM appears to be on a rampage to manage wild horses to extinction.
Send this brief press release (copy and paste from below) to media and friends- we must stop this unnecessary roundup now. In the Challis round up in Idaho round up just last week six horses were killed, six foals were orphaned and the majority of the 400+ horses lost their freedom. All this destruction when the range looks the best it has in over 80 years according to local residents. Read more about the Challis herd round up here.
I'm pleased to share some good news! Judge Rules to Save West Douglas Herd in Colorado. After more than a decade of legal battles and BLM's efforts to zero out the West Douglas herd in western Colorado, a judge has ruled against the BLM and in favor of the horses. This ruling is due to the enormous efforts of attorney Valerie Stanley (The Cloud Foundation's attorney) and the Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, especially Toni Moore and Barb Flores and others on the western slope, who have worked for years to save this small, historically significant herd.
Never give up. Keep calling and writing.
Thank you and happy trails,
Ginger Kathrens
Volunteer Executive Director
The Cloud Foundation
Check out our new website at www.thecloudfoundation.org
A Stallion is rounded up in Challis, Idaho- photo by Elisa Kline. July 2009.
PRESS RELEASE
Bureau of Land Management on Rampage to Destroy Famous Wild Horse Herd
For Immediate Release August 10, 2009
Cloud and the wild horses of Montana’s PryorMountains are world famous but fame it appears is not going to protect the herd from a drastic government round up planned to begin September 1st in their spectacular wilderness home.
There are currently only 190 wild horses (one year and older) living in the PryorMountains. The BLM plans to remove 70 of them, plus foals. According to the foremost equine geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothran, 150-200 adult horses are needed in the herd to ensure their genetic diversity, which is vital to their long term survival.
These 70 horses would be placed in jeopardy. Any horses over 10 years of age can be bought directly by killer buyers and transported over the Northern border to Canadian slaughterhouses or south into Mexico. Younger horses not adopted would be put into government holding with 33,000 others that the BLM has removed from the wild and has proposed killing because they can no longer afford to feed them.
BLM cites poor range condition as the reason to remove the horses but abundant snow and rain for the past two and a half years has produced wonderful range conditions according to all who have visited Cloud and his herd. The Agency is not listening to anyone. They want this herd gutted. Nearly all the mares returned to the range would be given an experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22.
This helicopter round up is just one among many that the BLM is trying to complete, perhaps before the Obama Administration can catch up with what is going on.
The PryorMountain wild horses are descendants of the Lewis and Clark horses who were stolen by the Crow Indians in the early 1800's. They can be traced further back to the horses brought over with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1500 making them one of the most Spanish of all wild horse herds in North America.
Please contact The Cloud Foundation for more information
www.thecloudfoundation.org, info@thecloudfoundation.org, 719-633-3842
You are receiving this email because you have asked to be on our e-mail list. If you have received this e-mail in error, please unsubscribe. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience!
Unsubscribe mustangalley@hotmail.com from this list.
Our mailing address is:
The Cloud Foundation 107 South 7th St Colorado Springs, CO 80905
Our telephone:
719-633-3842
Copyright (C) 2008 The Cloud Foundation All rights reserved.
Forward this email to a friend
Update your profile
This message was sent from Americans Against Horse Slaughter to redmm97@cox.net. It was sent from: Americans Against Horse Slaughter, 1551 Willow Pond Dr., Yardley, PA 19067.
-----------------------
Whenever people say 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it.
-Brigid Brophy
Friends of Equines FOES of Equine Slaughter
http://www.freewebs.com/friendsofequines
Wont You Join Our "Industry Accountability" Campaigns?
CJ
U.S. Citizens
v.
SALAZAR, Sec. of the Department of the Interior, Individually and in His Official Capacity, et. el.;
COUNT ONE: GROSS MIS-MANAGEMENT OF THE WILD HORSE & BURRO PROGRAM------------------------------------------------------------------
Plea from The Cloud Foundation....Please Spread The Word To Your Family, Friends and Co-Workers
Massive Roundup Still Planned for Cloud's Herd
Please act now to stop the destruction of this Unique Spanish Herd
Dear Friends of Cloud’s Herd in the Pryor Mountains;
We are doing everything we can through political and legal avenues to save Cloud’s herd but BLM is set on putting helicopters in the air starting around September 1st. They plan to roundup all the horses and remove over 70, including older horses, mares and foals.
The BLM and the Department of Interior are not listening to the public. They appear to be disregarding even Dr. Gus Cothran, a noted equine geneticist, who told the BLM, again, that this unique Spanish herd must be managed at minimum levels of 150-200 to keep the herd viable. Click on title above to go to the Cloud Foundations' website where you can read Dr. Cothran's letter there)(See also in the link below, a USGS Survey that supports Dr. Cothrans theory and concludes also that the management levels set by the BLM are "too low" to maintain a viable herd; http://wildhorsewarriors.blogspot.com/2009/08/usgs-report-finds-population-goals-for.html)
BLM's plan to remove to 70 horses is unnecessary and unwise. This places more horses in danger- few good homes are available in the currently flooded horse market. Older horses are at risk of being bought by killer buyers and others may end up in government holding at risk of being killed by the BLM. Watch my YouTube piece on this issue here. Some may even be put down after capture. This happened to horses during the recent Challis Herd round up and in the Sand Wash roundup last fall in October (view YouTube piece here).
Call and email President Obama and Vice President Biden and tell them that you do not want a misguided agency destroying Americas wild horses. 202-456-9000 or 202-456-1111 or write. Tell them to intervene on behalf of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd! The BLM appears to be on a rampage to manage wild horses to extinction.
Send this brief press release (copy and paste from below) to media and friends- we must stop this unnecessary roundup now. In the Challis round up in Idaho round up just last week six horses were killed, six foals were orphaned and the majority of the 400+ horses lost their freedom. All this destruction when the range looks the best it has in over 80 years according to local residents. Read more about the Challis herd round up here.
I'm pleased to share some good news! Judge Rules to Save West Douglas Herd in Colorado. After more than a decade of legal battles and BLM's efforts to zero out the West Douglas herd in western Colorado, a judge has ruled against the BLM and in favor of the horses. This ruling is due to the enormous efforts of attorney Valerie Stanley (The Cloud Foundation's attorney) and the Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, especially Toni Moore and Barb Flores and others on the western slope, who have worked for years to save this small, historically significant herd.
Never give up. Keep calling and writing.
Thank you and happy trails,
Ginger Kathrens
Volunteer Executive Director
The Cloud Foundation
Check out our new website at www.thecloudfoundation.org
A Stallion is rounded up in Challis, Idaho- photo by Elisa Kline. July 2009.
PRESS RELEASE
Bureau of Land Management on Rampage to Destroy Famous Wild Horse Herd
For Immediate Release August 10, 2009
Cloud and the wild horses of Montana’s PryorMountains are world famous but fame it appears is not going to protect the herd from a drastic government round up planned to begin September 1st in their spectacular wilderness home.
There are currently only 190 wild horses (one year and older) living in the PryorMountains. The BLM plans to remove 70 of them, plus foals. According to the foremost equine geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothran, 150-200 adult horses are needed in the herd to ensure their genetic diversity, which is vital to their long term survival.
These 70 horses would be placed in jeopardy. Any horses over 10 years of age can be bought directly by killer buyers and transported over the Northern border to Canadian slaughterhouses or south into Mexico. Younger horses not adopted would be put into government holding with 33,000 others that the BLM has removed from the wild and has proposed killing because they can no longer afford to feed them.
BLM cites poor range condition as the reason to remove the horses but abundant snow and rain for the past two and a half years has produced wonderful range conditions according to all who have visited Cloud and his herd. The Agency is not listening to anyone. They want this herd gutted. Nearly all the mares returned to the range would be given an experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22.
This helicopter round up is just one among many that the BLM is trying to complete, perhaps before the Obama Administration can catch up with what is going on.
The PryorMountain wild horses are descendants of the Lewis and Clark horses who were stolen by the Crow Indians in the early 1800's. They can be traced further back to the horses brought over with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1500 making them one of the most Spanish of all wild horse herds in North America.
Please contact The Cloud Foundation for more information
www.thecloudfoundation.org, info@thecloudfoundation.org, 719-633-3842
You are receiving this email because you have asked to be on our e-mail list. If you have received this e-mail in error, please unsubscribe. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience!
Unsubscribe mustangalley@hotmail.com from this list.
Our mailing address is:
The Cloud Foundation 107 South 7th St Colorado Springs, CO 80905
Our telephone:
719-633-3842
Copyright (C) 2008 The Cloud Foundation All rights reserved.
Forward this email to a friend
Update your profile
This message was sent from Americans Against Horse Slaughter to redmm97@cox.net. It was sent from: Americans Against Horse Slaughter, 1551 Willow Pond Dr., Yardley, PA 19067.
-----------------------
Whenever people say 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it.
-Brigid Brophy
Friends of Equines FOES of Equine Slaughter
http://www.freewebs.com/friendsofequines
Wont You Join Our "Industry Accountability" Campaigns?
CJ
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Another "Take" on The R.O.A.M. Act
COMMENTS and FYI...Re: UPDATE : S.1579 - Senate version of the Restore Our American Mustangs Act
8-11-2009 They've already eliminated "NATURAL thriving ecological balance". Looks like the public lands livestock industry has had a heavy hand in this and others who don't know the 1971 Act, etc. Good old NV Harry Reid and Ensign's marks are on this as well. Ensign is an obstructionist to any proposed protection and Harry gave MT Conrad Burn's his blessing to gut and allow slaughter of wild horses. Harry is a Mormon and the long time wealthy "family" Utah contractor, Cattoor***, is one as well. Harry is protecting his special interest non-profit wealthy religious group members. Ensign, a member of the Washington DC "Family" on C street is a buddy of now Gov. Gibbons and was part of the 7-13-98 Fed. subcommittee meeting in Reno to allow "sale authority" of wild horses and to repeal the 1971 Act. What's wrong with you people? No back bones! The 1971 Act is clear! You are playing right into the hands of these people at the expense of our wild horses/burros freedom and legal rights to their home ranges.
Betty
PS: ***
5-22-1992 Pleads guilty (plea bargaining): 3-11-1992
Yowell, Moss, Zabarte, Hicks, Cattoor and Heaverne
COUNT ONE of CONSPIRACY –to use an aircraft for purpose of capturing and killing wild, unbranded horses, mares and clots running at large on public land or range.
-the defendants were herded onto and held at the Duckwater Indian Reservation and caused the horses to be sold and shipped by truck to Great Western Meats in Morton, Texas to be slaughtered and processed.
COUNT TWO use of aircraft to capture wild horses; aiding and abetting on or about 8-11, 8-12-1990.
8-11-2009 They've already eliminated "NATURAL thriving ecological balance". Looks like the public lands livestock industry has had a heavy hand in this and others who don't know the 1971 Act, etc. Good old NV Harry Reid and Ensign's marks are on this as well. Ensign is an obstructionist to any proposed protection and Harry gave MT Conrad Burn's his blessing to gut and allow slaughter of wild horses. Harry is a Mormon and the long time wealthy "family" Utah contractor, Cattoor***, is one as well. Harry is protecting his special interest non-profit wealthy religious group members. Ensign, a member of the Washington DC "Family" on C street is a buddy of now Gov. Gibbons and was part of the 7-13-98 Fed. subcommittee meeting in Reno to allow "sale authority" of wild horses and to repeal the 1971 Act. What's wrong with you people? No back bones! The 1971 Act is clear! You are playing right into the hands of these people at the expense of our wild horses/burros freedom and legal rights to their home ranges.
Betty
PS: ***
5-22-1992 Pleads guilty (plea bargaining): 3-11-1992
Yowell, Moss, Zabarte, Hicks, Cattoor and Heaverne
COUNT ONE of CONSPIRACY –to use an aircraft for purpose of capturing and killing wild, unbranded horses, mares and clots running at large on public land or range.
-the defendants were herded onto and held at the Duckwater Indian Reservation and caused the horses to be sold and shipped by truck to Great Western Meats in Morton, Texas to be slaughtered and processed.
COUNT TWO use of aircraft to capture wild horses; aiding and abetting on or about 8-11, 8-12-1990.
Monday, August 10, 2009
The DOI: A Long History of Politics & Corruption
Excerpt;
Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1921. He was convicted of bribery in 1929 for his part in the controversy. A major factor in the scandal was a transfer of certain oil leases from the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy to that of the Department of the Interior, at Fall's behest.
Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt — already facing criticism related to his alleged hostility to environmentalism and his support of the development and use of federal lands by foresting, ranching, and other commercial interests, and for banning The Beach Boys from playing a 1983 Independence Day concert on the National Mall out of concerns of attracting "an undesirable element" — resigned abruptly after a September 21, 1983, speech in which he said about his staff: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."[1] Within weeks of making this statement, Watt submitted his resignation letter.[1][2]
Under the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Interior Department's maintenance backlog climbed from $5 billion to $8.7 billion, despite Bush's campaign pledges to eliminate it completely. Of the agency under Bush's leadership, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney has cited a "culture of fear" and of "ethical failure." Devaney has also said, "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior."[3]
Gale Norton, Interior Secretary under George W. Bush from 2001-2006, resigned due to connections with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department appointed by Norton in 2002, also resigned after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry.[4][5] On July 20, 2007, MacDonald's "inappropriate influence" led H. Dale Hall, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to order a review of eight endangered species decisions in which the former deputy assistant secretary was involved. Hall has called MacDonald's disputed decisions "a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior."[6] On 17 September 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to more than triple the habitat of the California red-legged frog, citing political manipulation by Julie MacDonald.[7] In a government report released in December 2008,[8] Inspector General Devaney called MacDonald's management "abrupt and abrasive, if not abusive,"[9] and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who commissioned the report, attributed the "untold waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars" to MacDonald's actions.[10]
On September 10, 2008, Inspector General Devaney found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service. In a cover memo, Devaney wrote “A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency. According to the report, eight officials accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski, and paintball outings; meals; drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game, and a Colorado Rockies baseball game. The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.” According to the New York Times, "The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch."[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]
This article may need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information.
The previous Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is criticized for not placing any plants or animals on the federal endangered species list since his confirmation on May 26, 2006, until September 2007. As of that date, Kempthorne held the record for protecting fewer species over his tenure than any Interior Secretary in United States history, a record previously held by James G. Watt for over 20 years.[21]
On December 16, 2008, the Center for Biological Diversity announced intent to sue the Interior Department under Kempthorne for introducing "regulations...that would eviscerate our nation’s most successful wildlife law by exempting thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act." The lawsuit, which is critical of policy advocated by Kempthorne and President George W. Bush, was filed in the Northern District of California by the CBD, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife. According to the CBD, "The lawsuit argues that the regulations violate the Endangered Species Act and did not go through the required public review process. The regulations, first proposed on August 11th, were rushed by the Bush administration through an abbreviated process in which more than 300,000 comments from the public were reviewed in 2-3 weeks, and environmental impacts were analyzed in a short and cursory environmental assessment, rather than a fuller environmental impact statement."[22]
[edit] References
^ a b 556. James G Watt, US Secretary of the Interior. Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations. 1988
^ RMOA - Document
^ Bush legacy leaves uphill climb for U.S. parks
^ Matthew Daly (May 1, 2007). "Embattled Interior official resigns post". Associated Press. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/01/interior_official_quits_ahead_of_hearing/.
^ New York Times, "U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife", July 21, 2007.
^ Broder, John M (2007-07-21). "U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21interior.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin.
^ A California frog may be about to get room to stretch its red legs
^ Report Finds Meddling in Interior Dept. Actions
^ Investigative Report of the Endangered Species Act and the Conflict Between Science and Policy Redacted
^ Wyden-Requested IG Report on Interior Corruption Uncovers "Contempt for the Public Trust" and "Untold Waste" - Senator praises Devaney's investigation into political interference in ESA decisions.
^ Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department
^ "Report Says Oil Agency Ran Amok: Interior Dept. Inquiry Finds Sex, Corruption". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091001829.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Oil companies gave sex, drinks, gifts to federal overseers". McClatchy Newspapers. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/52243.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Memorandum [cover letter by inspector general]". http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/09/10/18/Gordon-OIG-Cover-Letter.source.prod_affiliate.91.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Investigative Report of Gregory W. Smith (Redacted)". http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/investigative/documents/smith-080708.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Investigative Report of MMS Oil Marketing Group - Lakewood (Redacted)". http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/investigative/documents/mmsoil-081908.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Government Officials Tried To Rewrite Ethics Rules To Accommodate Their Partying". http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/rik-ethics-rules. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Official increased employee’s ‘performance award’ for providing him with cocaine". http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/smith-cocaine. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ Simon, Dan; David Fitzpatrick (October 14 2008). "Whistleblower: Oil watchdog agency 'cult of corruption'". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/oil.whistleblower/index.html.
^ Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award: Protects Fewer Species Than Any Interior Secretary in History
^ Bush Administration Regulations Gutting Protections for Nation's Endangered Species Published Today - Conservation Groups' Challenge to 11th Hour Reductions in Protections for Nation’s Wildlife Moves ForwarD
[edit] Further reading
Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (2004)
Utley, Robert M. and Barry Mackintosh; The Department of Everything Else, Highlights of Interior History; Dept of the Interior, Washington, D.C.; 1989
[external links, click on title above to get to them)
United States Department of the Interior Official Website
The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History
Indian Trust: Cobell V. Kempthorne
Department Of The Interior Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
Sex, Drug Use and Graft cited in Interior Department New York Times, September 10, 2008
Center for Biological Diversity v Dept of the Interior April 17, 2009 DC Appellate Decision stopping offshore Alaska Oil Leases.
Click on title above for full story; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Department_of_Interior
Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1921. He was convicted of bribery in 1929 for his part in the controversy. A major factor in the scandal was a transfer of certain oil leases from the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy to that of the Department of the Interior, at Fall's behest.
Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt — already facing criticism related to his alleged hostility to environmentalism and his support of the development and use of federal lands by foresting, ranching, and other commercial interests, and for banning The Beach Boys from playing a 1983 Independence Day concert on the National Mall out of concerns of attracting "an undesirable element" — resigned abruptly after a September 21, 1983, speech in which he said about his staff: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."[1] Within weeks of making this statement, Watt submitted his resignation letter.[1][2]
Under the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Interior Department's maintenance backlog climbed from $5 billion to $8.7 billion, despite Bush's campaign pledges to eliminate it completely. Of the agency under Bush's leadership, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney has cited a "culture of fear" and of "ethical failure." Devaney has also said, "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior."[3]
Gale Norton, Interior Secretary under George W. Bush from 2001-2006, resigned due to connections with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department appointed by Norton in 2002, also resigned after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry.[4][5] On July 20, 2007, MacDonald's "inappropriate influence" led H. Dale Hall, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to order a review of eight endangered species decisions in which the former deputy assistant secretary was involved. Hall has called MacDonald's disputed decisions "a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior."[6] On 17 September 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to more than triple the habitat of the California red-legged frog, citing political manipulation by Julie MacDonald.[7] In a government report released in December 2008,[8] Inspector General Devaney called MacDonald's management "abrupt and abrasive, if not abusive,"[9] and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who commissioned the report, attributed the "untold waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars" to MacDonald's actions.[10]
On September 10, 2008, Inspector General Devaney found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service. In a cover memo, Devaney wrote “A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency. According to the report, eight officials accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski, and paintball outings; meals; drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game, and a Colorado Rockies baseball game. The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.” According to the New York Times, "The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch."[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]
This article may need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information.
The previous Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is criticized for not placing any plants or animals on the federal endangered species list since his confirmation on May 26, 2006, until September 2007. As of that date, Kempthorne held the record for protecting fewer species over his tenure than any Interior Secretary in United States history, a record previously held by James G. Watt for over 20 years.[21]
On December 16, 2008, the Center for Biological Diversity announced intent to sue the Interior Department under Kempthorne for introducing "regulations...that would eviscerate our nation’s most successful wildlife law by exempting thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act." The lawsuit, which is critical of policy advocated by Kempthorne and President George W. Bush, was filed in the Northern District of California by the CBD, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife. According to the CBD, "The lawsuit argues that the regulations violate the Endangered Species Act and did not go through the required public review process. The regulations, first proposed on August 11th, were rushed by the Bush administration through an abbreviated process in which more than 300,000 comments from the public were reviewed in 2-3 weeks, and environmental impacts were analyzed in a short and cursory environmental assessment, rather than a fuller environmental impact statement."[22]
[edit] References
^ a b 556. James G Watt, US Secretary of the Interior. Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations. 1988
^ RMOA - Document
^ Bush legacy leaves uphill climb for U.S. parks
^ Matthew Daly (May 1, 2007). "Embattled Interior official resigns post". Associated Press. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/01/interior_official_quits_ahead_of_hearing/.
^ New York Times, "U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife", July 21, 2007.
^ Broder, John M (2007-07-21). "U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21interior.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin.
^ A California frog may be about to get room to stretch its red legs
^ Report Finds Meddling in Interior Dept. Actions
^ Investigative Report of the Endangered Species Act and the Conflict Between Science and Policy Redacted
^ Wyden-Requested IG Report on Interior Corruption Uncovers "Contempt for the Public Trust" and "Untold Waste" - Senator praises Devaney's investigation into political interference in ESA decisions.
^ Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department
^ "Report Says Oil Agency Ran Amok: Interior Dept. Inquiry Finds Sex, Corruption". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091001829.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Oil companies gave sex, drinks, gifts to federal overseers". McClatchy Newspapers. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/52243.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Memorandum [cover letter by inspector general]". http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2008/09/10/18/Gordon-OIG-Cover-Letter.source.prod_affiliate.91.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Investigative Report of Gregory W. Smith (Redacted)". http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/investigative/documents/smith-080708.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Investigative Report of MMS Oil Marketing Group - Lakewood (Redacted)". http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/investigative/documents/mmsoil-081908.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Government Officials Tried To Rewrite Ethics Rules To Accommodate Their Partying". http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/rik-ethics-rules. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ "Official increased employee’s ‘performance award’ for providing him with cocaine". http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/smith-cocaine. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
^ Simon, Dan; David Fitzpatrick (October 14 2008). "Whistleblower: Oil watchdog agency 'cult of corruption'". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/oil.whistleblower/index.html.
^ Kempthorne Wins 2007 Rubber Dodo Award: Protects Fewer Species Than Any Interior Secretary in History
^ Bush Administration Regulations Gutting Protections for Nation's Endangered Species Published Today - Conservation Groups' Challenge to 11th Hour Reductions in Protections for Nation’s Wildlife Moves ForwarD
[edit] Further reading
Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (2004)
Utley, Robert M. and Barry Mackintosh; The Department of Everything Else, Highlights of Interior History; Dept of the Interior, Washington, D.C.; 1989
[external links, click on title above to get to them)
United States Department of the Interior Official Website
The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History
Indian Trust: Cobell V. Kempthorne
Department Of The Interior Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
Sex, Drug Use and Graft cited in Interior Department New York Times, September 10, 2008
Center for Biological Diversity v Dept of the Interior April 17, 2009 DC Appellate Decision stopping offshore Alaska Oil Leases.
Click on title above for full story; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Department_of_Interior
Remembering Frantz Dantzler & The Howe / Rancher Wild Horse Massacre of 1973, Id.
Dantzler: Big Man, Big Heart, Big Legacy
Frantz Dantzler (1938-2005)
Years at HSUS: 1962-2005
Major Accomplishments: Ran two affiliates and three regional offices, director of Field Services and Investigations. Investigated and broke national stories on the cruelties of wild horse roundups and greyhound racing. Testified before state and federal legislatures on cruelty to animals. Skilled photographer and innovator who transformed The HSUS's investigation capacities.
By Bernard Unti
Effective humane investigators can't be faint of heart, it's been said, but they must be kind-hearted. For more than four decades, no HSUS staff member better exemplified this essential character symmetry than Frantz Dantzler. In Dantzler's 43-year career with The HSUS, he confronted the stark cruelties of animal fighting, seal hunting, puppy mills, wild horse roundups, predator control, animal auctions, the exotic bird trade, and more. No matter what he witnessed, however, Dantzler retained a fundamental optimism about human nature that matched his deep regard for animals.
To an unparalleled degree, Dantzler's professional progress mirrored the evolution of The HSUS itself. He worked at two HSUS state branch affiliates, in Colorado and Utah, served as a regional director in three different locations, spent almost ten years in Washington D.C. as the head of The HSUS's Field Services and Investigations division, and, in the last stage of his career, supported ongoing investigations by managing videotape evidence and maintaining equipment used by colleagues all over the United States.
In particular, Dantzler's investigative work in the 1970s helped to solidify The HSUS's reputation as the nation's leading humane organization. As its chief investigator, he spearheaded efforts to expose the mismanagement of the Bureau of Land Management’s Adopt-a-Horse program, to compel the National Greyhound Association to prohibit the use of live rabbits as lures in meets, and to criminalize dog theft as a felony offense. In short, Dantzler's reputation as an investigator was as large as his own physical frame; he was a man who stood six feet, six inches tall and had a long list of accomplishments to match his size.
Dantzler, who died in a South Bend, Indiana hospital on June 18, 2005 after an accidental fall at his home, was the longest-serving employee in The HSUS's history, and the only one to have worked under all six HSUS chief executives. From Fred Myers to Wayne Pacelle, Dantzler knew them all.
"Frantz dedicated his life to humane work long before animal protection concerns gained mainstream status. Whether it was wild horses, animal fighting, seal slaughter, greyhound racing or puppy mills—you name the issue—those of us who act on these concerns today are standing on his broad shoulders," Pacelle said shortly after Dantzler's passing. "His legacy to The HSUS and the world is that of a true friend and champion of animals."
Our Man in Transition
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1938, Dantzler traced his epiphany concerning animals to an incident that occurred at age 14, when he shot a squirrel out of a tree. Forty years later, he could still recall the moment with crystalline clarity. "This was dumb," he remembered thinking, "Why did I do this? I realized then that it would be the last time I'd shoot squirrels, and it was. There was no lightning bolt or anything. It just suddenly seemed senseless."
In the early 1960s, Dantzler, an aerospace electronics technician, was living in Colorado. His neighbor happened to be Belton P. Mouras, head of The HSUS's livestock department and Rocky Mountain branch. It was Mouras who recruited Dantzler to work at the Boulder County Humane Society, then a special affiliate of The HSUS, and it was there, in a small-scale shelter, that Dantzler first learned the techniques of animal care and cruelty investigation that he would later bring to bear on a national level. It was also at Boulder County Humane that Dantzler met HSUS founder Myers, who paid a visit to the shelter in spring 1963, soon after Dantzler began working there.
In July 1964, Dantzler left Colorado to take the position of supervisor at the Salt Lake City shelter operated by The HSUS's Utah State Branch. Led by longtime HSUS board member Hal Gardiner, the Utah shelter was a model for its time, handling an average of 35,000 animals annually, adopting no animals out unless spayed or neutered, and using sodium pentobarbital as a means of euthanasia.
In addition to managing the shelter, Dantzler conducted cruelty investigations throughout the state, and became a deputy officer for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department. He first received mention as a staff member of The HSUS in the May 1965 issue of HSUS News, attended his first annual conference later that year, and by 1967 was on the program as a presenter.
Dantzler was appointed director of the HSUS Utah State Branch in 1970, the same year that John Hoyt came to The HSUS as president. In 1972, when The HSUS shifted to a regional office system, Dantzler, like Gardiner, supported the decision. The branch's shelter operation became the Utah Humane Society, while Dantzler became director of The HSUS's Rocky Mountain Regional Office. A year later, he moved to Sacramento, California, to head the HSUS West Coast Regional Office.
Our Man in the Saddle
For humane workers in the western states in the early 1970s, the fate of America's wild horses was a flashpoint issue, and, after passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971, Dantzler became The HSUS's point man in the fight to protect mustangs. Together with field representative Hal Perry, he brought to light one of the most haunting cruelty cases of the era, the so-called "Howe Massacre" of 1973, an incident in which ranchers, acting without authority, rounded up and slaughtered a herd of wild horses in the rugged territory of southeastern Idaho.
Acting on a tip from Joseph Wood Krutch Medalist Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston, Dantzler and Perry found a scene of unprecedented carnage: Ranchers had forced hog rings into horses' noses, slit the throats and cut off the legs of horses whose hooves got caught among the rocks, and had driven uncooperative animals over a cliff. At the foot of the cliff, Dantzler and Perry came across the cadavers of seven horses, five of whom had been "choked down" through the insertion of C-shaped hog rings into their nostrils, which reduced their breathing capacity by 80% to 90%.
The 29 horses who survived the Howe Massacre were sold for dog food. The HSUS traced them to a cannery in North Platte, Nebraska, where they remained during the course of a government investigation initiated under pressure from HSUS Chief Investigator Frank McMahon. The HSUS and the American Horse Protection Association also filed suit against the Department of the Interior for allowing illegal roundups that violated the 1971 Act.
Dantzler was able to visit and care for the animals during the course of the investigation and legal proceedings, but the case took a bad turn. Despite The HSUS's efforts, the horses were returned to the very ranchers responsible for the grisly roundup. Even so, for several years, the furious protests that followed prevented further roundups.
His experience at Howe made Dantzler a determined critic of the roundup and slaughter of wild horses. His efforts to develop evidence concerning the Bureau of Land Management's poor management of the roundups and the Adopt-a-Horse program continued throughout the 1970s. As an expert fact witness, he played an essential role in several lawsuits filed by The HSUS in support of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, and in 1977, he testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Resources in efforts to protect the gains embodied in the act.
In January 1979 he provided information to ABC-TV's 20/20 news magazine for a feature segment on the BLM's mismanagement of the Adopt-a-Horse program. Geraldo Rivera's reporting gave the wild horse issue unprecedented coverage, and Senate oversight hearings to explore the BLM's ineptitude followed.
Our Man in Washington
In November 1975, a few months after McMahon's death, Dantzler came to Washington to serve as director of Field Services and Investigations, a role in which he said he hoped to reinforce The HSUS's position as "the conscience of the American people with respect to animal cruelty." By every indication, he hit the ground running. With his first-hand knowledge of cruelty investigations, and his talent for documenting evidence through photography and other techniques, Dantzler was a man in demand, frequently representing The HSUS in media and other public appearances.
HSUS President Emeritus Hoyt, who brought Dantzler to Washington, recalled that "Frantz was a reliable and innovative investigator, who dared to go where no one else would go. His use of instrumentation and professional techniques allowed us to document cruelty in ways that had eluded us before he came on board."
To a great extent, the emergent cruelties of the decade determined the course of Dantzler's investigative agenda. In the mid-1970s, he went into the field with other staff to document the deplorable conditions of Midwestern puppy mills, just as America's heartland was being transformed into the center of a miserable industry. The work he did with Ann Gonnerman provided the background for Roger Caras's 1976 ABC-TV news feature report on this nascent cruelty.
At a time when prospects for a federal ban on dogfighting seemed good, Dantzler testified before a congressional committee in 1976, pushing for enforcement of animal fighting provisions in the Animal Welfare Act. Dantzler and his colleagues made The HSUS the nation's foremost authority on the nationwide network of illegal animal fighting enterprises.
Dantzler was also very active on the greyhound racing issue during a decade of aggressive expansion by that industry. In 1978 Frantz took Rivera to Kansas to film a greyhound racing meet. The footage they procured appeared on the premiere episode of 20/20, and underpinned a drive for proposed federal legislation, which, though unsuccessful, led the National Greyhound Association to outlaw the use of live rabbits at coursing events.
In the mid-1980s, Dantzler worked with other HSUS investigators in a complex surveillance operation that targeted a notorious high-volume animal dealer who carried dogs across state lines—without the required vaccination certificates—to deliver them to major laboratories in his home state. Although the dealer was tipped off by someone in law enforcement, Dantzler and Bob Baker were able to procure some damaging footage of sick and crowded animals in the dealer's transport vehicle. This video footage later was crucial to the designation of dog theft as a felony in Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Dantzler was also known to lend a hand when disasters struck. In 1976, when the Teton Dam collapsed, he went to southeastern Idaho to support regional agencies in their efforts to safeguard animals. And in 1980, he joined colleague Eric Sakach in Washington State after the eruption at Mount St. Helens, working with humane society personnel to rescue and shelter shocked and injured animals within the devastated zone.
Our Man, The Mentor
In 1984, Dantzler left his position as director of investigations to open The HSUS's new North Central Office in the Chicago area. He would later assume the role of senior investigator, operating from his home in Indiana, where he put his considerable technical talents to use in the support of other HSUS staff members' work.
Dantzler continued to participate in HSUS investigations into the mid-1990s, helping to extend the organization's undercover work abroad. He went several times to Honduras to document the miseries of the illegal trade in imperiled wildlife, checking out suspected poaching operations and finding more than 1,000 illegally captured parrots and macaws destined for the pet trade.
Dantzler was an award-winning photographer whose photo credits were a fixture in HSUS publications. In 2002, he did the digital photography for The Humane Society of the United States Complete Guide to Cat Care, his own cat posing as a model. His dogs, Hercules and Apollo, provided inspiration and examples for his monthly column, "For Pet's Sake," in the South Bend Tribune.
The news of Dantzler's passing fell hard on the many HSUS staff members, past and current, who loved and admired him. "In 1975, before I came to The HSUS, Frantz Dantzler came to Massachusetts to brief me on the organization’s activity," recalled Paul Irwin, who retired as HSUS president and CEO in 2004. "That meeting solidified my decision to join The HSUS, and it was the start of a warm and cordial relationship that profoundly influenced my life and my understanding of humane work once we became colleagues."
"He was a man's man, yet he had a very gentle, kind side," said Sakach, director of the HSUS West Coast Regional Office, who worked alongside Dantzler in a number of investigations and considered him a mentor. "He was a giant of man, physically and figuratively."
Bernard Unti received his doctorate in U.S. history in 2002 from American University. His book, Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of The Humane Society of the United States, is available from Humane Society Press.
http://www.hsus.org/about_us/accomplishments/the_people_who_have_shaped_the_hsus/frantz_dantzler_big_man_big_heart_big_legacy.html
Frantz Dantzler (1938-2005)
Years at HSUS: 1962-2005
Major Accomplishments: Ran two affiliates and three regional offices, director of Field Services and Investigations. Investigated and broke national stories on the cruelties of wild horse roundups and greyhound racing. Testified before state and federal legislatures on cruelty to animals. Skilled photographer and innovator who transformed The HSUS's investigation capacities.
By Bernard Unti
Effective humane investigators can't be faint of heart, it's been said, but they must be kind-hearted. For more than four decades, no HSUS staff member better exemplified this essential character symmetry than Frantz Dantzler. In Dantzler's 43-year career with The HSUS, he confronted the stark cruelties of animal fighting, seal hunting, puppy mills, wild horse roundups, predator control, animal auctions, the exotic bird trade, and more. No matter what he witnessed, however, Dantzler retained a fundamental optimism about human nature that matched his deep regard for animals.
To an unparalleled degree, Dantzler's professional progress mirrored the evolution of The HSUS itself. He worked at two HSUS state branch affiliates, in Colorado and Utah, served as a regional director in three different locations, spent almost ten years in Washington D.C. as the head of The HSUS's Field Services and Investigations division, and, in the last stage of his career, supported ongoing investigations by managing videotape evidence and maintaining equipment used by colleagues all over the United States.
In particular, Dantzler's investigative work in the 1970s helped to solidify The HSUS's reputation as the nation's leading humane organization. As its chief investigator, he spearheaded efforts to expose the mismanagement of the Bureau of Land Management’s Adopt-a-Horse program, to compel the National Greyhound Association to prohibit the use of live rabbits as lures in meets, and to criminalize dog theft as a felony offense. In short, Dantzler's reputation as an investigator was as large as his own physical frame; he was a man who stood six feet, six inches tall and had a long list of accomplishments to match his size.
Dantzler, who died in a South Bend, Indiana hospital on June 18, 2005 after an accidental fall at his home, was the longest-serving employee in The HSUS's history, and the only one to have worked under all six HSUS chief executives. From Fred Myers to Wayne Pacelle, Dantzler knew them all.
"Frantz dedicated his life to humane work long before animal protection concerns gained mainstream status. Whether it was wild horses, animal fighting, seal slaughter, greyhound racing or puppy mills—you name the issue—those of us who act on these concerns today are standing on his broad shoulders," Pacelle said shortly after Dantzler's passing. "His legacy to The HSUS and the world is that of a true friend and champion of animals."
Our Man in Transition
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1938, Dantzler traced his epiphany concerning animals to an incident that occurred at age 14, when he shot a squirrel out of a tree. Forty years later, he could still recall the moment with crystalline clarity. "This was dumb," he remembered thinking, "Why did I do this? I realized then that it would be the last time I'd shoot squirrels, and it was. There was no lightning bolt or anything. It just suddenly seemed senseless."
In the early 1960s, Dantzler, an aerospace electronics technician, was living in Colorado. His neighbor happened to be Belton P. Mouras, head of The HSUS's livestock department and Rocky Mountain branch. It was Mouras who recruited Dantzler to work at the Boulder County Humane Society, then a special affiliate of The HSUS, and it was there, in a small-scale shelter, that Dantzler first learned the techniques of animal care and cruelty investigation that he would later bring to bear on a national level. It was also at Boulder County Humane that Dantzler met HSUS founder Myers, who paid a visit to the shelter in spring 1963, soon after Dantzler began working there.
In July 1964, Dantzler left Colorado to take the position of supervisor at the Salt Lake City shelter operated by The HSUS's Utah State Branch. Led by longtime HSUS board member Hal Gardiner, the Utah shelter was a model for its time, handling an average of 35,000 animals annually, adopting no animals out unless spayed or neutered, and using sodium pentobarbital as a means of euthanasia.
In addition to managing the shelter, Dantzler conducted cruelty investigations throughout the state, and became a deputy officer for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department. He first received mention as a staff member of The HSUS in the May 1965 issue of HSUS News, attended his first annual conference later that year, and by 1967 was on the program as a presenter.
Dantzler was appointed director of the HSUS Utah State Branch in 1970, the same year that John Hoyt came to The HSUS as president. In 1972, when The HSUS shifted to a regional office system, Dantzler, like Gardiner, supported the decision. The branch's shelter operation became the Utah Humane Society, while Dantzler became director of The HSUS's Rocky Mountain Regional Office. A year later, he moved to Sacramento, California, to head the HSUS West Coast Regional Office.
Our Man in the Saddle
For humane workers in the western states in the early 1970s, the fate of America's wild horses was a flashpoint issue, and, after passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971, Dantzler became The HSUS's point man in the fight to protect mustangs. Together with field representative Hal Perry, he brought to light one of the most haunting cruelty cases of the era, the so-called "Howe Massacre" of 1973, an incident in which ranchers, acting without authority, rounded up and slaughtered a herd of wild horses in the rugged territory of southeastern Idaho.
Acting on a tip from Joseph Wood Krutch Medalist Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston, Dantzler and Perry found a scene of unprecedented carnage: Ranchers had forced hog rings into horses' noses, slit the throats and cut off the legs of horses whose hooves got caught among the rocks, and had driven uncooperative animals over a cliff. At the foot of the cliff, Dantzler and Perry came across the cadavers of seven horses, five of whom had been "choked down" through the insertion of C-shaped hog rings into their nostrils, which reduced their breathing capacity by 80% to 90%.
The 29 horses who survived the Howe Massacre were sold for dog food. The HSUS traced them to a cannery in North Platte, Nebraska, where they remained during the course of a government investigation initiated under pressure from HSUS Chief Investigator Frank McMahon. The HSUS and the American Horse Protection Association also filed suit against the Department of the Interior for allowing illegal roundups that violated the 1971 Act.
Dantzler was able to visit and care for the animals during the course of the investigation and legal proceedings, but the case took a bad turn. Despite The HSUS's efforts, the horses were returned to the very ranchers responsible for the grisly roundup. Even so, for several years, the furious protests that followed prevented further roundups.
His experience at Howe made Dantzler a determined critic of the roundup and slaughter of wild horses. His efforts to develop evidence concerning the Bureau of Land Management's poor management of the roundups and the Adopt-a-Horse program continued throughout the 1970s. As an expert fact witness, he played an essential role in several lawsuits filed by The HSUS in support of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, and in 1977, he testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Resources in efforts to protect the gains embodied in the act.
In January 1979 he provided information to ABC-TV's 20/20 news magazine for a feature segment on the BLM's mismanagement of the Adopt-a-Horse program. Geraldo Rivera's reporting gave the wild horse issue unprecedented coverage, and Senate oversight hearings to explore the BLM's ineptitude followed.
Our Man in Washington
In November 1975, a few months after McMahon's death, Dantzler came to Washington to serve as director of Field Services and Investigations, a role in which he said he hoped to reinforce The HSUS's position as "the conscience of the American people with respect to animal cruelty." By every indication, he hit the ground running. With his first-hand knowledge of cruelty investigations, and his talent for documenting evidence through photography and other techniques, Dantzler was a man in demand, frequently representing The HSUS in media and other public appearances.
HSUS President Emeritus Hoyt, who brought Dantzler to Washington, recalled that "Frantz was a reliable and innovative investigator, who dared to go where no one else would go. His use of instrumentation and professional techniques allowed us to document cruelty in ways that had eluded us before he came on board."
To a great extent, the emergent cruelties of the decade determined the course of Dantzler's investigative agenda. In the mid-1970s, he went into the field with other staff to document the deplorable conditions of Midwestern puppy mills, just as America's heartland was being transformed into the center of a miserable industry. The work he did with Ann Gonnerman provided the background for Roger Caras's 1976 ABC-TV news feature report on this nascent cruelty.
At a time when prospects for a federal ban on dogfighting seemed good, Dantzler testified before a congressional committee in 1976, pushing for enforcement of animal fighting provisions in the Animal Welfare Act. Dantzler and his colleagues made The HSUS the nation's foremost authority on the nationwide network of illegal animal fighting enterprises.
Dantzler was also very active on the greyhound racing issue during a decade of aggressive expansion by that industry. In 1978 Frantz took Rivera to Kansas to film a greyhound racing meet. The footage they procured appeared on the premiere episode of 20/20, and underpinned a drive for proposed federal legislation, which, though unsuccessful, led the National Greyhound Association to outlaw the use of live rabbits at coursing events.
In the mid-1980s, Dantzler worked with other HSUS investigators in a complex surveillance operation that targeted a notorious high-volume animal dealer who carried dogs across state lines—without the required vaccination certificates—to deliver them to major laboratories in his home state. Although the dealer was tipped off by someone in law enforcement, Dantzler and Bob Baker were able to procure some damaging footage of sick and crowded animals in the dealer's transport vehicle. This video footage later was crucial to the designation of dog theft as a felony in Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Dantzler was also known to lend a hand when disasters struck. In 1976, when the Teton Dam collapsed, he went to southeastern Idaho to support regional agencies in their efforts to safeguard animals. And in 1980, he joined colleague Eric Sakach in Washington State after the eruption at Mount St. Helens, working with humane society personnel to rescue and shelter shocked and injured animals within the devastated zone.
Our Man, The Mentor
In 1984, Dantzler left his position as director of investigations to open The HSUS's new North Central Office in the Chicago area. He would later assume the role of senior investigator, operating from his home in Indiana, where he put his considerable technical talents to use in the support of other HSUS staff members' work.
Dantzler continued to participate in HSUS investigations into the mid-1990s, helping to extend the organization's undercover work abroad. He went several times to Honduras to document the miseries of the illegal trade in imperiled wildlife, checking out suspected poaching operations and finding more than 1,000 illegally captured parrots and macaws destined for the pet trade.
Dantzler was an award-winning photographer whose photo credits were a fixture in HSUS publications. In 2002, he did the digital photography for The Humane Society of the United States Complete Guide to Cat Care, his own cat posing as a model. His dogs, Hercules and Apollo, provided inspiration and examples for his monthly column, "For Pet's Sake," in the South Bend Tribune.
The news of Dantzler's passing fell hard on the many HSUS staff members, past and current, who loved and admired him. "In 1975, before I came to The HSUS, Frantz Dantzler came to Massachusetts to brief me on the organization’s activity," recalled Paul Irwin, who retired as HSUS president and CEO in 2004. "That meeting solidified my decision to join The HSUS, and it was the start of a warm and cordial relationship that profoundly influenced my life and my understanding of humane work once we became colleagues."
"He was a man's man, yet he had a very gentle, kind side," said Sakach, director of the HSUS West Coast Regional Office, who worked alongside Dantzler in a number of investigations and considered him a mentor. "He was a giant of man, physically and figuratively."
Bernard Unti received his doctorate in U.S. history in 2002 from American University. His book, Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of The Humane Society of the United States, is available from Humane Society Press.
http://www.hsus.org/about_us/accomplishments/the_people_who_have_shaped_the_hsus/frantz_dantzler_big_man_big_heart_big_legacy.html
Presented to the Wild Horse and Burro BrainStorming Session put on last July by the HSUS; Presented by:
WYOMING WILD HORSE COALITION
607 Eleventh Street #2
Cody, Wyoming 82414-3064
Phone: (307) 587-3353
patricia.m.fazio@bresnan.net
July 15, 2008
Wild Horse and Burro Brainstorming Session
HSUS Conference Room
2100 L Street, N.W., 5th Floor
Washington, DC
Brainstorming Session Participants:
The gravity of the current situation for federal wild horses and burros leads me to write candidly. I hope that those of you who are earnestly trying to mend a broken agency and a dysfunctional program, from the inside, will forgive me. However, since we are limited to one comment and one idea, I shall ask you to consider an entirely new vision for the Wild Horse and Burro Program, currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
My one principal suggestion is to reorganize this program under an entirely new agency or sub-agency, that is, displacing the BLM but retaining employees, from within, who have shown a particularly high quality of professional performance and humaneness. In general, however, the BLM, with its utilitarian leanings, has been the wrong agency for the job, from Day One, with internal conflict of interest that has lingered for 37 years, and mounting contamination from special interests and commercial enterprises. In the process, wild horses and burros became the last consideration, not a mix of considerations. Long-term holding and suggestions of euthanasia and gelding are at the pinnacle of agency failures… disregarding scientific application of immunocontraceptive control (native porcine zona pellucida) and showing no respect for wild free-roaming horses as a native wildlife species… now irrefutably proven to be the case. Why is it that the National Park Service can safely and effectively control wild horse populations, with PZP, in balance with their ecosystems, and the BLM cannot? The answer is “agency culture.” The BLM works closely with USDA-APHIS, an agency that considers wild horses pests… ripe for removal or eradication. PZP use is far too gentile a practice for population management. Thus, it is unfairly ridiculed. Recently, the BLM put out Web pages on wild horse and burro fertility control, overflowing with numerous factual errors: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/fertility_control.html.
The ability of the BLM to protect and manage these animals is corroded beyond repair. If the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program is to continue, this agency must be removed. This transformation would require an amended federal statute (the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 1971) and a reformed Code of Federal Regulations under Title 43: Public Lands: Interior, PART 4700-PROTECTION, MANAGEMENT, AND CONTROL OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS. The BLM has abused its right, for far too many years, to protect and manage this nation’s wild horses and burros. Control, and now lethal methodologies, are on its list of priorities. It has abused animals, under its care, by population mismanagement, excessive gathers, holding, and the failed adoption program; allowed its own employees to be harassed and maligned; ignored illegal behavior within the agency; bowed to commercial agricultural and extractive industry interests; and turned its head when its own scientists and wild horse specialists have pleaded for a better means of population control and humane treatment.
The only way to save this program is to return currently impounded wild horses and burros to original home ranges (Herd Areas), where feasible… given to them by federal statute, within the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. However, I see the BLM fighting this until the cows come home. The agency rarely supports its own wild horses and burros but cooperates with those holding a negative attitude. It disregards the unlawful domination and control of politically muscular individuals, like Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, who forced through a consent decree to bring Wyoming herds down to AML, when holding facilities were already bulging. Kleppe v. New Mexico (1976) thwarted states’ rights over wild horse ownership and management (as determined through case law by the U.S. Supreme Court), but the BLM allowed this action to proceed.
In blunt terms, the BLM does not “get it,” never will “get it,” and, under its supervision, the program will simply disintegrate and die, without intervention by Congress and amended wild horse law. I do not believe that continued BLM management is what the American people wish for its wild free-roaming horses and burros. Wild horses are a reintroduced native wildlife species but are being treated (herded/impounded) like livestock, with no consideration for their wildness and evolutionarily crafted behavior as a sensitive prey species.
My one suggestion… in summary? Save these animals from the BLM, NOW, by legally removing them from this agency’s egregious management and questionable behavior, and setting up a whole new, creative style of management, protection, and control in a free-roaming state, under new management. ALL (or most) of the current problems would be solved by this one mega-shift… combined with an entirely new organizational and legal structure under alternative agency oversight. IT IS POSSIBLE. Failure should never be rewarded with simply more funding, to patch up an agency’s past mistakes and miscalculations. It is time for the BLM to go…
Thank you for the opportunity to give you my point of view. This is an open document and may be shared freely.
With Best Regards,
Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D.
Statewide Coordinator
WYOMING WILD HORSE COALITION
607 Eleventh Street #2
Cody, Wyoming 82414-3064
Phone: (307) 587-3353
patricia.m.fazio@bresnan.net
July 15, 2008
Wild Horse and Burro Brainstorming Session
HSUS Conference Room
2100 L Street, N.W., 5th Floor
Washington, DC
Brainstorming Session Participants:
The gravity of the current situation for federal wild horses and burros leads me to write candidly. I hope that those of you who are earnestly trying to mend a broken agency and a dysfunctional program, from the inside, will forgive me. However, since we are limited to one comment and one idea, I shall ask you to consider an entirely new vision for the Wild Horse and Burro Program, currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
My one principal suggestion is to reorganize this program under an entirely new agency or sub-agency, that is, displacing the BLM but retaining employees, from within, who have shown a particularly high quality of professional performance and humaneness. In general, however, the BLM, with its utilitarian leanings, has been the wrong agency for the job, from Day One, with internal conflict of interest that has lingered for 37 years, and mounting contamination from special interests and commercial enterprises. In the process, wild horses and burros became the last consideration, not a mix of considerations. Long-term holding and suggestions of euthanasia and gelding are at the pinnacle of agency failures… disregarding scientific application of immunocontraceptive control (native porcine zona pellucida) and showing no respect for wild free-roaming horses as a native wildlife species… now irrefutably proven to be the case. Why is it that the National Park Service can safely and effectively control wild horse populations, with PZP, in balance with their ecosystems, and the BLM cannot? The answer is “agency culture.” The BLM works closely with USDA-APHIS, an agency that considers wild horses pests… ripe for removal or eradication. PZP use is far too gentile a practice for population management. Thus, it is unfairly ridiculed. Recently, the BLM put out Web pages on wild horse and burro fertility control, overflowing with numerous factual errors: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/fertility_control.html.
The ability of the BLM to protect and manage these animals is corroded beyond repair. If the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program is to continue, this agency must be removed. This transformation would require an amended federal statute (the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 1971) and a reformed Code of Federal Regulations under Title 43: Public Lands: Interior, PART 4700-PROTECTION, MANAGEMENT, AND CONTROL OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS. The BLM has abused its right, for far too many years, to protect and manage this nation’s wild horses and burros. Control, and now lethal methodologies, are on its list of priorities. It has abused animals, under its care, by population mismanagement, excessive gathers, holding, and the failed adoption program; allowed its own employees to be harassed and maligned; ignored illegal behavior within the agency; bowed to commercial agricultural and extractive industry interests; and turned its head when its own scientists and wild horse specialists have pleaded for a better means of population control and humane treatment.
The only way to save this program is to return currently impounded wild horses and burros to original home ranges (Herd Areas), where feasible… given to them by federal statute, within the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. However, I see the BLM fighting this until the cows come home. The agency rarely supports its own wild horses and burros but cooperates with those holding a negative attitude. It disregards the unlawful domination and control of politically muscular individuals, like Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, who forced through a consent decree to bring Wyoming herds down to AML, when holding facilities were already bulging. Kleppe v. New Mexico (1976) thwarted states’ rights over wild horse ownership and management (as determined through case law by the U.S. Supreme Court), but the BLM allowed this action to proceed.
In blunt terms, the BLM does not “get it,” never will “get it,” and, under its supervision, the program will simply disintegrate and die, without intervention by Congress and amended wild horse law. I do not believe that continued BLM management is what the American people wish for its wild free-roaming horses and burros. Wild horses are a reintroduced native wildlife species but are being treated (herded/impounded) like livestock, with no consideration for their wildness and evolutionarily crafted behavior as a sensitive prey species.
My one suggestion… in summary? Save these animals from the BLM, NOW, by legally removing them from this agency’s egregious management and questionable behavior, and setting up a whole new, creative style of management, protection, and control in a free-roaming state, under new management. ALL (or most) of the current problems would be solved by this one mega-shift… combined with an entirely new organizational and legal structure under alternative agency oversight. IT IS POSSIBLE. Failure should never be rewarded with simply more funding, to patch up an agency’s past mistakes and miscalculations. It is time for the BLM to go…
Thank you for the opportunity to give you my point of view. This is an open document and may be shared freely.
With Best Regards,
Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D.
Statewide Coordinator
Riding into the sunset: BLM Working 'Tang & Rider Retire
By Geoff Dornan
gdornan@nevadaappeal.com
Koal nuzzles Ranger Stan Zuber as BLM's Desna Young conducts the patrol horse's retirement ceremony Friday at Silver Saddle Ranch. Zuber and Koal have been partners patrolling BLM lands primarily in western Nevada since 2002.
BLM ranger and his steed both hang up their hats to enjoy retirement together
Partners since 2002, BLM Ranger Stan Zuber and his horse Koal are retiring together this month.
Zuber turns 57 this month and, under BLM policy, that means he must retire from the bureau's law enforcement team. He said Koal will go home with him.
“We're a team,” said Zuber at Friday's ceremony retiring his mount. “It's been quite an adventure.”
Koal was captured in the Buffalo Hills near Gerlach. Because of his excellent conformation, he was transferred to the Nevada Department of Corrections wild horse gentling program in Carson City.
Zuber was paired up with him during that training. He said Koal was the first saddle-trained wild horse to be trained for law enforcement. The team has conducted more than 200 mounted patrols of BLM lands in Nevada. Since Koal has an agreeable temperament, he and Zuber were also popular ambassador at local school programs, 4-H fairs and other events.
At the ceremony, Zuber removed the animal's bridle, saddle and blanket as well as the symbolic horseshoe representing his retirement from the BLM Mounted Patrol.
The horseshoe was put on just days ago for the ceremony. Since he spent his first three years in the wild, Koal has “very tough feet” and never needed shoes.
Zuber said most of their patrol duty was in the Carson area urban interface, but they've also done work in the Ely and Winnemucca areas as well as Spanish Springs.
“We can get into areas vehicles can't get into,” he said.
Most of the work involved looking for off-road vehicles in places they don't belong, and helping people who have had accidents or needed help.
Desna Young, the district's planning and environmental coordinator, said that on one occasion, in a white-out blizzard, it was Koal's wild instincts that enabled him to back-track to safety.
Over the years, Zuber said, the backcountry has gotten a lot more crowded.
“We've got more people and when you start getting more people, they need more attention,” he said.
Tim Bryant, who runs the prison horse gentling program with Hank Curry, said they have trained nearly 600 horses since the program started in 2000. Koal, named for his nearly black color, was one of the first program horses they trained. They have since trained horses for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police as well as numerous horses for other programs.
Zuber said fortunately his family home on Prison Hill is zoned for horses.
“We're working on the backyard,” he said.
----------------------
Click on title above to go to original article where you can leave a commet. I am.
I am wondering how many BLM employee horses are ex-wild ones. The only reason I am wondering is because I have learned that the BLM has a program whereby if an employee uses his own horse while on the job for BLM, the BLM will reimburse that horse-owner so much a day, plus cost of tack and gear and even vet care! So I am wondering why they would have to pay anyone to use their own (private) horse when the BLM can have its pick of the young wild ones to use as BLM service horses. Wouldnt they save money that way? And look how good "Koal" turned out. Why wouldnt they want to promote the use of wild horses by the dept more by using only the mustangs and FORBIDDING the use of privately owned horses while on the job? It would be interesting to know the annual expenditures the BLM puts out paying for privately owned horses whos owners use them during their employment with the agency. Reasearch project, anyone?
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20090808/NEWS/908089984/1070&ParentProfile=1058
Ranchers Worry Over Water Rights / What Else is New?
WINDMILL: Ranchers concerned with new language in water restoration act
By Jerry Lackey (Contact)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Although most ranchers have come to terms with the Clean Water Restoration Act being debated in the U.S. Senate, they have deep concerns about the word “navigable” in the document being replaced with “waters of the United States,” said Eldon J. White, executive vice president and CEO of the Fort Worth-based Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
“Taking out the word ‘navigable’ would give the federal government regulatory authority over stock tanks, drainage ditches and any water features found on family ranches despite large opposition from cattle raisers across the country,” White said.
Under the seemingly minor change in language, the federal government would be able to control mud holes in the middle of private property, he said. The legislation would result in a major decrease in authority from state governments and private property owners across the nation.
If the measure became law, ranchers would be required to manage around mud puddles in the middle of pastures. If they were found not to demonstrate proper management, the federal government could require they get a permit.
“The inspection and monitoring of stock tanks would fall to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and they don’t have the staff nor the budget to do that, particularly visiting all the stock tanks in the state,” White said in a recent interview. “So the impracticality of it to begin with is an issue, but the basic rights of an individual and the ownership of a piece of land and the water that’s on the surface of that land for the benefit of that rancher has nothing to do with municipality water supplies or runoff or anything else becomes a greater issue.”
“All waters are not equal in terms of their environmental function and value, and they should not be regulated in the same way,” said TSCRA President Dave Scott, a rancher from Richmond. “If this bill passes in Congress, ranchers across the U.S. will be forced to get a permit to continue everyday operations on their own land.
“The federal government already struggles to handle the backlog of 15,000 existing permit requests; how it plans to deal with the massive amount of new permitting requirements and litigation this bill will surely create is beyond reason,” Scott said. “There is no doubt ranchers like me will be the ones forced to cover the costs, not to mention the huge administrative burdens of endless government red tape.”
Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher from southeastern Arizona, testified July 22 on behalf of National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council during a House Committee on Small Business hearing on the CWRA.
The proposed Act — which passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last month — would drastically expand the Clean Water Act, giving the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency control over all watersheds in the nation, and all “activities affecting these water,” Chilton said.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the average applicant for an individual Clean Water Act permit spends 788 days and $271,596 in complying with the current process, and the average applicant for a nationwide permit spends 313 days and $28,915 — not counting the substantial costs of mitigation or design changes (Rapanos, 447 U.S. at 719, plurality opinion), Chilton said.
Considering U.S. farmers and ranchers own and manage approximately 666.4 million acres of the 1.938 billion acres of the contiguous U.S., the permitting requirements under this act would be an unmanageable burden for the government and could bring farming operations to a standstill.
“As a rancher, I wholeheartedly understand the critical importance of a clean water supply; it’s necessary for the health of my animals and my land,” Chilton said.
“Federal agencies have ample authority under existing law to protect water quality, and it’s essential that the partnership between the federal and state levels of government be maintained so states can continue to have the essential flexibility to do their own land and water use planning.”
Jerry Lackey writes about agriculture. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net or 949-2291
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/aug/08/ranchers-concerned-with-new-language-in-water/
By Jerry Lackey (Contact)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Although most ranchers have come to terms with the Clean Water Restoration Act being debated in the U.S. Senate, they have deep concerns about the word “navigable” in the document being replaced with “waters of the United States,” said Eldon J. White, executive vice president and CEO of the Fort Worth-based Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
“Taking out the word ‘navigable’ would give the federal government regulatory authority over stock tanks, drainage ditches and any water features found on family ranches despite large opposition from cattle raisers across the country,” White said.
Under the seemingly minor change in language, the federal government would be able to control mud holes in the middle of private property, he said. The legislation would result in a major decrease in authority from state governments and private property owners across the nation.
If the measure became law, ranchers would be required to manage around mud puddles in the middle of pastures. If they were found not to demonstrate proper management, the federal government could require they get a permit.
“The inspection and monitoring of stock tanks would fall to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and they don’t have the staff nor the budget to do that, particularly visiting all the stock tanks in the state,” White said in a recent interview. “So the impracticality of it to begin with is an issue, but the basic rights of an individual and the ownership of a piece of land and the water that’s on the surface of that land for the benefit of that rancher has nothing to do with municipality water supplies or runoff or anything else becomes a greater issue.”
“All waters are not equal in terms of their environmental function and value, and they should not be regulated in the same way,” said TSCRA President Dave Scott, a rancher from Richmond. “If this bill passes in Congress, ranchers across the U.S. will be forced to get a permit to continue everyday operations on their own land.
“The federal government already struggles to handle the backlog of 15,000 existing permit requests; how it plans to deal with the massive amount of new permitting requirements and litigation this bill will surely create is beyond reason,” Scott said. “There is no doubt ranchers like me will be the ones forced to cover the costs, not to mention the huge administrative burdens of endless government red tape.”
Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher from southeastern Arizona, testified July 22 on behalf of National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council during a House Committee on Small Business hearing on the CWRA.
The proposed Act — which passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last month — would drastically expand the Clean Water Act, giving the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency control over all watersheds in the nation, and all “activities affecting these water,” Chilton said.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the average applicant for an individual Clean Water Act permit spends 788 days and $271,596 in complying with the current process, and the average applicant for a nationwide permit spends 313 days and $28,915 — not counting the substantial costs of mitigation or design changes (Rapanos, 447 U.S. at 719, plurality opinion), Chilton said.
Considering U.S. farmers and ranchers own and manage approximately 666.4 million acres of the 1.938 billion acres of the contiguous U.S., the permitting requirements under this act would be an unmanageable burden for the government and could bring farming operations to a standstill.
“As a rancher, I wholeheartedly understand the critical importance of a clean water supply; it’s necessary for the health of my animals and my land,” Chilton said.
“Federal agencies have ample authority under existing law to protect water quality, and it’s essential that the partnership between the federal and state levels of government be maintained so states can continue to have the essential flexibility to do their own land and water use planning.”
Jerry Lackey writes about agriculture. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net or 949-2291
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/aug/08/ranchers-concerned-with-new-language-in-water/
Rally to Take Back Utah
Rally to Take Back Utah
Last Update: 8/08 6:05 pm
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A rally at Utah's State Capitol Saturday was designed to Take Back Utah.
People gathered were concerned about public land management. Specifically federal rules and regulations that threaten access to those lands.
"I think people are waking up across the country to this very type of thing," said Larry Sorrell. "I think they're waking up to the face that they're going to have to stand up and not be the silent majority anymore."
Both of Utah's Senators, Representative Rob Bishop, and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff all spoke at the rally.
The rally was reminiscent of the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970's and 1980's when county officials would take bulldozers and reopen roads on public lands that had been closed by the Bureau of Land Management.
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/slc/story/Rally-to-Take-Back-Utah/cZUrYS71HkipeM7vsOhtLg.cspx
Last Update: 8/08 6:05 pm
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A rally at Utah's State Capitol Saturday was designed to Take Back Utah.
People gathered were concerned about public land management. Specifically federal rules and regulations that threaten access to those lands.
"I think people are waking up across the country to this very type of thing," said Larry Sorrell. "I think they're waking up to the face that they're going to have to stand up and not be the silent majority anymore."
Both of Utah's Senators, Representative Rob Bishop, and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff all spoke at the rally.
The rally was reminiscent of the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970's and 1980's when county officials would take bulldozers and reopen roads on public lands that had been closed by the Bureau of Land Management.
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/slc/story/Rally-to-Take-Back-Utah/cZUrYS71HkipeM7vsOhtLg.cspx
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