Recently Received Email

I looked at part of the article (LA Times articles aren't usually worth reading in detail) and spotted this one sentence paragraph: "The government's long campaign to tame wildfire has, perversely, made the problem worse."

The author's problem is that they think the Forest Service, BLM, BOR, NPS,ETC. are actually interested in extinguishing fires.

I seem to remember that as recently as twenty years ago these agencies were growing trees for lumber and grass for forage. Those renewable natural resources were the back-bone of productive land uses (logging and grazing), prosperity for local communities, and the economic health of our nation.

Today the agencies obviously take a great deal of pride in producing an abundance of trees and grass as fuel for wildfires --- the new management goal is to produce fire fuels so they can do their part to support the fire fighting industry. As any average, self-justifying bureaucrat understands they must make sure that their job is in next year's budget. Some of them have the Endangered Species Act as their budget justification, many are now getting rich from global warming hysteria. Both of those efforts are puny compared to the growth of the fire industry which now includes whole populations of government employees that use of the fear and terror caused by the fires to justify taxpayer money for their jobs. It is more than a coincidence that the land management of today's agencies directly results in huge fires; those fires are the consequence of the fuels that they grow. There is no "fire extinguishing" industry because that would not result in hundreds of millions of tax payers' dollars being spent for "fire fighting"

All that wildfire fuel has to be logged or grazed, or it will be burned.

Floyd Rathbun

The cure for the BLM and the wild horse program:

1. To reduce the cost at the processing centers
1. Reevaluate vaccination program. Old horses versus young, under six years of age. Question the need for rabies vaccination
b. Stop all castrations of stallions going to the LTHF. Continue on young adoptable horses
2. Eliminate the surgery on cryptorchid horses except for the removal of the testicle that is “down”. Return this animal back to the herd and he will become the domineering stallion and his fertility will be almost non-existent. Birth control.
3. Obtain waivers from the state or federal vet where the present LTHF are in to eliminate the testing for EIA which is statistically non existent in Wyoming and probably in Nevada
2. To reduce numbers of horses being gathered
1. Encourage all grazing permit holders to take a horse with no restrictions and increase his aum’s a certain amount for each horse the permitte takes. These horses are given free title eliminating the one year wait. Ideally the permitte picks the horse up at the corrals before processing.
2. If the permitte is willing allow the horses to remain on his leased land with the appropriate reduction in his cattle or sheep numbers to accommodate the horses. He will be paid for this the same amount the LTHF participants are getting. The rule on no horses on public lands must be waived for these circumstances.
3. For those ranchers unwilling to participate a reduction of their aum’s may be in order but this should be a last resort.
3. A rewrite of the 1971-1972 Wild Horse and Burro Act may be in order
4. Yearly gatherings will still be needed to allow the ranchers to select their horses.
5. Encourage the non-passage of the anti horse slaughter act and warn congress that passage of this bill interferes with the horse owners right to do with his private property as he wants and that right is guaranteed under the constitution. In my eyes this gives the government the obligation to take possession of and to take care for these horses.
6. The humane euthanasia is a legitimate method of disposing of unwanted horses.
7. In reference number two I know that this has been tried before with no success. I read the letter and I have to say that it was the most pathetic begging piece of writing that I have ever seen. I don’t recall that anything was offered to the ranchers so why should they have participated? Also, please stop referring these animals as icons of the west, as true descendents of the early spanish horses and so on. All the rancher knows is that they is eating the grass he has paid for and up to now, if my suggestions are not acted, has no real reason to participate. God rest old wild horse Annie’s soul but the problem that was created by her has ballooned into an un-recoverable quagmire.
8. Reconsider the non-placement of horses with the Indian tribes. The fear that they may be used and get skinny is stupid and unfounded. I would contact the Mexican government to see if they would like a few thousand horses also. I think the advisory board wants to control the horses even after they are sold or given away
9. Respectfully submitted and retains all rights to the above suggestions. Dr. John E Radosevich