Our government masters too often seem downright schizophrenic.
Take the raging debates over what to do about two species — sage grouse and wild horses.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hell bent to list the chicken-sized bird under the Endangered Species Act because they fear the population could become extinct. Such a listing would hurt farmers, ranchers, miners, recreation and oil and gas exploration on public and private land. Yet, the birds are legally hunted in Nevada and other states.
One study estimates there are 535,000 sage grouse ranging across 11 Western states, yet between 2001 and 2007 hunters bagged 207,000 sage grouse — and that doesn’t count the untold numbers that were wounded, escaping the game bag but later died. About 9,000 sage grouse were harvested in Nevada alone in the 2009 and 2010 hunting seasons.
On the other hand, there are an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 wild horses — actually feral horses, since they are not native to the region — roaming the Western range lands, though Bureau of Land Management officials say the open range can only sustain 27,000. Under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, it is illegal to harass or harm such horses and burros. Doing so is punishable by a fine of $2,000 or a year in jail.
Sometime next year the free-roaming wild horse population is expected to hit 69,000. The BLM already has 47,000 wild horses warehoused in corrals.
So, the federal government says there are too few sage grouse, but it is legal to shoot them, while there are too many wild horses, but it is illegal to shoot them.
Even though the 1971 law instructs the BLM to sell excess horses to any willing buyer “without limitation,” the agency has steadfastly refused to sell horses for slaughter for meat or other purposes.
But now that reluctance by the BLM may be moot. It turns out the budget deal signed into law in January by Obama withheld any money to pay for federal inspections for slaughterhouses that ship horse meat interstate or export overseas. No inspections, no slaughter.
Even though the sage grouse population is such that, even if it is declining at the rate estimated by the federal government, the birds can survive for several centuries in the wild, there is a push to list them as threatened or endangered.
But under the “management” of the Bureau of Land Management, the wild horse overpopulation has reached a crisis level.
2 comments:
69,000? How is that possible? Is this a misprint?
From BLM's website:
Wild Horse and Burro Population
The Bureau of Land Management estimates that 40,605 wild horses and burros (about 33,780 horses and 6,825 burros) are roaming on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states, based on the latest data available, compiled as of February 28, 2013. Wild horses and burros have virtually no natural predators and their herd sizes can double about every four years. As a result, the agency must remove thousands of animals from the range each year to control herd sizes.
The estimated current free-roaming population exceeds by nearly 14,000 the number that the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses. The maximum appropriate management level (AML) is approximately 26,677.
Off the range, as of mid-February 2014, there were 49,246 other wild horses and burros fed and cared for at short-term corrals and long-term pastures. (Specifically, there were 14,643 horses and 1,196 burros in corrals [for a total of 15,839 animals] and 33,407 horses in pastures. The combined figure of 49,246 animals in holding compares to the BLM's total holding capacity of 53,809.) All wild horses and burros in holding, like those roaming Western public rangelands, are protected by the BLM under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/history_and_facts/quick_facts.html
Post a Comment