The mission of the Public Lands Foundation, according to the statement on the first page of their Summer 2019 Newsletter, is to keep America’s public lands in public hands, which, of course, means keeping them in the hands of the federal government.

The belief is explained in a position statement.  Political orientation: Liberal.

The organization has many members who have retired from the BLM, according to the page with other position statements.  Where do they come down on other issues?

Centralized Government – PLF opposes the relocation of the BLM headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction, CO, which is consistent with the principle of subsidiarity.  Political orientation: Liberal.

Climate Change – “…the warming of the Earth’s climate system is unequivocal as is now evident from observations of global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level,” according to their position statement.  Political orientation: Liberal.

Wind and Solar – PLF says they are needed to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions from traditional energy conversion technologies.  Political orientation: Liberal.

Illegal Immigration – PLF believes that policies should be changed so illegal aliens can enter the country legally “…through established ports of entry…instead of…crossing fragile public lands on foot and in vehicles.”  Political orientation: Liberal.

Public-Lands Ranching – PLF supports it.  They are as hostile to WHB as the ranchers, see item 7 on page 4 of their position statement.

Wild Horses and Burros – PLF believes the “WHB program is unsustainable” and that roundups should be increased “…to achieve AML as soon as practical, selling, without limitation, un-adopted WHBs that have been gathered.”

How would you classify the last two statements, given they were written by a left-leaning organization located just outside of Washington D.C.?  How closely do they correspond to the beliefs of current BLM administrators and staff?

Off-range corrals are flooded with wild horses and burros because the WHB Act no longer affords the protections sought by Velma.

The original Act, which passed unanimously in Congress, reflected the will of the American people.  The current Act reflects the will of the public-lands ranchers.

It’s time to boot the ranchers off public lands and restore the Act to its original form.

Let them buy their own land, like everybody else, pay market rates for grazing their livestock, and stop sucking on the government teat.

A story posted today by Oregon Public Broadcasting says it could happen as early as next month at the Off-Range Corrals in Hines.

“The BLM has long been under pressure to bring down horse herd numbers across 10 Western states,” according to the report, “without resorting to slaughter.”

So who’s applying the pressure?

Oil companies?

Mining companies?

Timber companies?

Nope, none of the above.  It’s all being done to please the public-lands ranchers, their overlords, cheerleaders and political allies.

RELATED: BLM Abandons Wild Horse Sterilization Research.

That’s what Ethan Lane, executive director of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council, told a Senate Subcommittee on 07/16/19.  Refer to this story in the Natural Resource Report.

He said public lands in the western U.S. can only support 26,000 wild horses and burros, compared to the current population of 88,000 animals.

If that’s true, how do you explain the millions of privately owned cattle and sheep on those same lands?

There is no wild horse population crisis on western rangelands, only deceit and greed of the public-lands ranchers, their cheerleaders and political allies.

RELATED: Executive Summary of Senate Hearing on WHB Program.

If $1.35 per AUM (4.5¢ per day) is a fair price to charge the public-lands ranchers, why is the BLM paying $60 per AUM ($2 per day) for horses in long-term holding?

Probably because $60 represents the market rate, which means the ranchers are getting a sweetheart deal.  That needs to change because many of those horses were forced off the range to pacify the ranchers.

Given that roughly nine million AUMs are sold to the ranchers annually, the additional revenue—at a fee of $60 per AUM—would amount to $528 million per year, a nice offset to the costs of the WHB program.

RELATED: 2019 Grazing Fee Announced.

Several Palestinian delegates were invited to speak before the Subcommittee about the future of the Jewish state.  They recommended the following actions:

1. Get the occupiers off the disputed territory.
2. Give their land to us.
3. Declare the Resolution of 1971 null and void.

Jewish delegates were excluded from the hearing.  Rebuttals were not allowed and policies that benefit the Palestinians were not discussed.

Where’s the thriving ecological balance and multiple-use relationship?

How many senators will fall on their swords to advance the Palestinian cause?

A better option from a political viewpoint—one that may win more voter support—is to put the Palestinians out of business: End public-lands ranching.

RELATED: Senate Hearing Today on Future of WHB Program.

The Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining will meet at 2:30 PM EDT to consider options for long-term management of wild horses and burros on public lands in the western U.S.

Proceedings will be livestreamed on the committee’s web site, starting at approximately 2:15 PM, according to the announcement.

The witness list suggests that testimony will be heard mostly from representatives of the public-lands ranchers and individuals with sympathies thereto.

A fine example of government catering to a special interest against the wishes of the American people.

UPDATE: The archived webcast can be found on this page, hearing begins at 17:25.

The meeting concluded today.  In a nutshell, the task before the Board was to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict by only sanctioning the Israelis.

Public comments were heard after lunch.  Notably absent were representatives of oil, mining and timber companies.

• There were no hikers or campers complaining about wild stallions coming into their camps to steal mares
• There were were no roughnecks or pipefitters demanding that wild horse numbers be reduced to AML immediately
• There were no backhoe operators and truck drivers suggesting that ovaries be ripped out of mares to control herd size
• There were no riggers and loggers pushing for alternatives to nonlethal methods if population control is not achieved in a reasonable timeframe

But shills for the public-lands ranchers did all of those things.

Where’s the common ground, the two-state solution?

There isn’t any.

RELATED: WHBAB Day 2: Faulty Premise.

Much of the discussion today focused on getting wild horses and burros off western rangelands and what to do with them once they’re gone: Achieving AML, adoptions, sales, off-range holding, training, partnerships, volunteering.

Nobody wanted to talk about the driver of these things, namely, public-lands ranching, as if it was a given, self evident, unchanging.

Figures were presented on the land available to wild horses and burros and the number of them that it can support, but nobody could provide the number of AUMs allocated to domestic livestock on those same lands.

You can’t have a conversation about wild horses and burros on public lands without having a conversation about privately owned cattle and sheep.

This is the problem with the WHB program: Too many administrators have bought into the overpopulation narrative, not because it’s true but because they believe land set aside for horses and burros should be managed primarily for cattle and sheep.

RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Starts Today.

UPDATE: This syndicated report by AP News shows what’s being fed to the public.

News outlets are reporting a magnitude 7.1 earthquake—about five times stronger than the one that occurred yesterday—near Ridgecrest, CA, location of BLM’s Regional Wild Horse and Burro Corrals.

Earthquake scales are logarithmic.  Magnitude 7 is ten times stronger than magnitude 6 and 100 times stronger than magnitude 5.  The earthquake of July 4th had a magnitude of 6.4 (scale unknown) and the one on July 5th was reported as 7.1.  To compute the strength ratio, take the difference in magnitude and use it as an exponent of ten:

10 ^ (7.1 – 6.4) = 5.0

Note that the ‘strength’ of an earthquake depends on the method of measurement.

Same for any other physical quantity, such as global temperature, or the number of wild horses in the Twin Peaks HMA.

This is very important if you have an agenda: Change the method, get a new number.

RELATED: Earthquake Near WHB Corrals?

That’s what a public-lands rancher pays the federal government to graze a cow-calf pair on western rangelands for six months.

Try feeding your horse for that, or your cat.

The State Director in Utah for the Humane Society of the United States responded on Sunday to a critique in Deseret News about the ‘forward-thinking’ management plan for wild horses announced on 04/22/19.

It’s a win-win according to the letter:

• Large-scale roundups will be phased out in ten years
• Off-range corrals will be emptied
• Slaughter will be avoided

Yeah, because most of the horses will be gone and the remaining herds will be sterilized, temporarily or permanently.

Surrender to the cattlemen.  It’s the only viable solution, given the political realities.

Horse feathers!

Velma saved the mustangs.  It’s time to finish the job by saving their land.

End public-lands ranching, along with the massive bureaucracy that supports it.

RELATED: Save a Wild Horse: Don’t Give the ASPCA or HSUS a Penny.

A letter to the editor of High Country News, posted 06/24/19, says livelihoods are at risk because of unmanaged heavy grazing of wild horses and burros on public lands.

The process is turning them into deserts according to the writer.

Yep, it’s getting harder and harder to make a living off public lands in the western U.S., especially when the government spends tens of millions of dollars every year to make you as successful as possible on land you don’t own, almost as if you’re an illegal alien.

Livestock grazing on public lands is the most cost-effective wildfire prevention tool, according to Ethan Lane, executive director of the Public Lands Council and guest speaker at the mid-year conference of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

He noted that livestock consume large amounts of highly combustible grass and other forage at no cost to the taxpayers, but gave no indication that they might be a factor in overgrazing and rangeland degradation…at least not in the report by Capital Press.

You see, wild horses and burros are responsible for that.

Lane said that cattle grazing was not a significant contributor to global warming, suggesting that he believes in the hoax but doesn’t think the industry should be a target of the emissions police.

He indicated that there were 88,000 wild horses and burros on western rangelands and 50,000 in off-range facilities but did not mention they were outnumbered twenty to one by domestic livestock.

The forage allocated to privately owned cattle and sheep on public lands in the western U.S. (about nine million AUMs annually) would support at least 750,000 wild horses and burros, enough to empty all of those off-range facilities fifteen times over.

You want cost savings?  End public-lands ranching.

Legislation that would permanently end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption has reappeared in Congress, according to a press release in PR Newswire dated 06/27/19.  Sponsors of the bill are liberals, every one of them received a failing grade from Conservative Review.

• Bob Menendez, D-NJ, F (6%)
• Lindsey Graham, R-SC, F (31%)
• Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, F (4%)
• Susan Collins, R-ME, F (2%)

Many of their big-name supporters are the same jackals who signed on to the Wild Horse Management Plan announced 04/22/19: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, and Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation.

You see, horse slaughter might undermine their sanctuary and fertility control ventures.

It’s okay to force wild horses off public lands so their food can be sold to privately owned livestock, just don’t ship them to slaughter for human consumption.

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of her passing.

The wild horse preservation movement started in this area nearly 70 years ago.

In her first encounter with the horse runners in 1950, Velma Johnston followed a livestock truck into a stockyard in Sparks, NV.  The vehicle contained mangled horses that were forced off their home range, destined for slaughter.

A colt on the floor, trampled.  A stallion with eyes gouged out to subdue him.  Other mustangs with portions of their hooves torn off and hides shredded by buckshot.

When she asked the driver where they came from, he pointed to the hills of the Comstock Lode, the Virginia Range.  (Source: Page 43 in Wild Horse Annie — The Last of the Mustangs, hardcover edition.)

This is the history of cattle ranching in the American west and the basis of the Wild Horse and Burro Act.

The sign at 0:07 says No Dumping but the horses ignore it.

Refer to this guest column, posted today by Deseret News of Salt Lake City.

RELATED: The Big-Name Advocacy Groups Have Lost Their Way.

The spending authorization for the Bureau of Land Management in FY 2020 includes $6 million for a pilot program to remove most of the wild horses from two or three HMAs and administer fertility control to the remaining bands.

It’s the first phase of the wild horse eradication plan pushed by range-fed beef producers and operators of private sanctuaries.  See page 2 in HR 3052.  The program is explained on page 11 of the report that accompanies the bill.

Note the prohibition against returning horses to the range.  This is the handiwork of the public-lands ranchers and their political allies.

The House subcommittee that drafted the legislation has eleven members, presented here along with their grades from Conservative Review.

• Betty McCollum, Chair, D-MN, F (16%)
• Chellie Pingree, D-ME, F (19%)
• Derek Kilmer, D-WA, F (10%)
• José Serrano, D-NY, F (20%)
• Mike Quigley, D-IL, F (12%)
• Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-NJ, F (17%)
• Brenda Lawrence, D-MI, F (17%)
• David Joyce, Ranking Member, R-OH, F (34%)
• Mike Simpson, R-ID, F (31%)
• Chris Stewart, R-UT, F (58%)
• Mark Amodei, R-NV, F (40%)

They all received a failing grade because they’re all liberals.

Could it be that public-lands ranching is an enterprise of the Left, a darling of the Democrat Party?  Sure looks like it.

RELATED: CANA Foundation Throws in with Public-Lands Ranchers.

Refer to this letter in the Desert Independent, posted 06/15/19.  It’s just one example.

Whenever you see a plea for ‘on-range management’ of wild horses (sometimes posited as ‘humane management’), run.

These organizations offer no meaningful resistance to the ranching juggernaut.

Instead, they argue about methods and timing: The range-fed beef producers want the horses gone now, by any means necessary, while the so-called advocates want their numbers to decline gradually, through application of contraceptives.

Consider the situation at Twin Peaks HMA, where the horses get the short end of the AUM stick.  Why aren’t they pushing back against the public-lands ranchers?

Might be a good idea to check their donor list before giving them money.

Adoption event last month at Pauls Valley Off-Range Corral in southern Oklahoma.

Remarks by the woman beginning at 5:11 are false.  The land can support way more than 26,000 horses and burros.  Herd sizes do not double every three years.  BLM forces these animals off their home range (public lands in Western U.S.) so their food can be sold to privately owned cattle and sheep.

Thanks to Camille’s Mustangs for getting this on film.

RELATED: Wild Horse Overpopulation?