User:LynnWysong/sandbox/United States Free-Roaming Horse Sanctuaries

The solutions to the problems of what to do with excess free-roaming horses gathered from Federal, Tribal and State lands in the western United States is very controversial. Prior to the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WFRH&BA), most of them were sent to slaughterhouses. Horses gathered from lands not under the jurisdiction of the WFRH&BA are still vulnerable to being sent to slaughter, and, as the cost of maintaining horses at "long term holding facilities" has soared into the tens of millions of dollars each year, there is an increasing push by Congress to euthanize excess horses gathered under the auspices of the Act. In efforts to prevent horses being sent to slaughter or euthanized, various entities have established "sanctuaries" to maintain them until their natural deaths. The sanctuaries either enter into agreements with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to maintain the horses, or adopt or purchase them from other Federal agencies, State governments or tribes that have gathered them from their respective lands. Horses acquired from Federal agencies other than the BLM, State governments or tribes are considered the property of the Sanctuaries, which are fully responsible for the cost of their care, whereas the Federal government retains ownership of the horses acquired from the BLM, and defrays the cost of maintaining them.

History
https://www.perc.org/articles/you-can-t-drag-them-away

The WFRH&BA called for management of free-roaming horses to be "designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands." Since horse numbers can grow 15-20% per year or double every four years, populations began to rise rapidly from the original numbers of horses estimated to remain at the time the Act was passed. The agencies began rounding up horses by paying contractors to use saddle horses to chase them into traps for removal. In 1976, the BLM established an "Adopt-a-Horse" program, to place excess horses that had been removed, but had no authority to pass title to the adopters. By 1977, there were 60,000 animals on the range, the lower end of numbers estimated to be on the range in 1930. In 1976, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLMPA) authorized the agencies to use helicopters to push the horses into traps. Unlike airplanes, helicopters can push horses along at a trot rather than a run, but using them is still controversial.

In 1978, the WFRH&BA was amended in the Public Rangelands Improvement Act requiring the agencies to set "Appropriate Management Levels" (AML) and remove excess wild horses. AMLs for each Herd Management Area began to be established through the Land Use Planning Process. The FLPMA required the BLM to manage public lands under the principles of "multiple use and sustained yield," thus livestock grazing and wildlife habitat are managed along with free-roaming horses and burros. When the BLM develops land use plans, its official position is that it "will consider wild horses and burros in a manner similar to the way it treats other resource values (e.g., cultural, historic, wildlife, and scenic, as distinguished from authorized commercial land uses, such as livestock grazing or timber harvesting)." , the current total maximum AML for both horses and burros is 26,715, down from 30,158 in 1986. Advocates for protection of free-ranging horses argued that the AML was set too low, particularly in contrast to the forage allocated for cattle. However, in the intervening years, Congress has not suggested that AML be raised, but instead has directed the BLM to look into more effective forms of population control.

From 1971 through 2001, the BLM removed 193,000 horses and burros from the federal rangelands, but still could not maintain the populations at AML. The 1978 amendment had provided guidelines for adopting out horses. authorizing passing title to adopters and the BLM managed to place 189,300 of the 193,000 animals in private care. But, in addition to requiring the BLM to set AMLs, the 1978 amendment required that, "excess wild free roaming horses and burros for which an adoption demand by qualified individuals does not exist to be destroyed in the most humane and cost efficient manner possible." BLM instead initiated a self-imposed moratorium on destroying excess unadoptable animals in 1982, instead, starting in 1984, placing 20,000 horses with large-scale adopters who took a minimum of 100 horses each. Non-compliance for approving and monitoring those adoptions caused inhumane treatment and death to hundreds of the horses and many adopters sold thousands of them to slaughterhouses after gaining title. BLM terminated the large scale program in 1988 after negative publicity and pressure from the Congress and from 1988 until 2004, Congress prevented the Bureau from destroying excess healthy unadopted animals by stating, in the Department of the Interior’s annual appropriations acts, that "appropriations herein shall not be available for the destruction of healthy unadopted wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors." As an alternative, since 1988, the BLM began sending excess horses to "sanctuaries". The first sanctuary was the "Institute of Range and the American Mustang" in the Black Hills. In 1989, Congress directed the BLM to establish more sanctuaries. Sanctuaries were meant to "encourage tourism and economic development in the area as well as public understanding of BLM'S wild horse program"

http://mypubliclands.tumblr.com/post/113357526162/providing-safe-haven-for-wild-horses-and-burros

National Mustang Association
The National Mustang Association was founded in 1965, after which it purchased a ranch near Barclay, Nevada and tried to enter into an agreement with the BLM to maintain excess horses taken from the Pryor Mountain National Horse Range.

Institute of Range and the American Mustang
The first to successfully enter into an agreement with the BLM to maintain excess horses was the "Institute of Range and the American Mustang" (IRAM) in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 1988, the BLM entered into an agreement with the State of South Dakota to pay IRAM $1 per day per horse to maintain 1,650 horses, on both private lands purchased by IRAM and on lands leased from the Rosebud Sioux tribe. The plan was that, within three years, the sanctuary would become self sufficient through funds from tourism and corporate donations. But, by 1990, the sanctuary was struggling financially, and the BLM had determined the land it owned and leased could not support 1650 horses without providing supplementary feed. At the end of the three years, IRAM supporters adopted the original 300 horses sent to the sanctuary, and the relationship with the BLM ended. The sanctuary is currently supported by donations and other income, and houses adopted BLM and other captured free-roaming horses at risk for going to slaughter. It has a capacity of 500 horses on 11,000 acres if supplemental feed is provided.

Return to Freedom
Return to Freedom (RTF) was established in 1997 "to create a sanctuary model to explore minimally invasive wild horse management that could be viable on the range." It has taken on the care of 350 horses and 43 burros from various BLM herds and other sources, maintaining them through funds provided by donations.

International Society for the Preservation of Mustangs and Burros
https://books.google.com/books?id=g54fgYNrCjgC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=gila+bend+horses&source=bl&ots=N0ME4IXQEl&sig=gJbzOtTb7GQo2jKLlZR6Z9PCpWU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2nrn_3fXVAhVFz2MKHZpCAA84ChDoAQhPMAo#v=onepage&q=gila%20bend%20horses&f=false

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/lup/11856/37545/39346/26-App_M-Painted_Rock_Herd_Manageability.pdf

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/badlands-new-home-for-wild-herd/

October 15, 2001 Tribe getting wild horses from Nevada

August 19, 2002 Drought threatens wild horses

October 4, 2002 Horse group wild about gift of hay

May/June 2009 Wild and Civilized

October 4, 2016 Hay donated for starving wild horses on South Dakota ranch

October 6, 2016 Dewey County Auditor creates way to donate to starving horses

October 12, 2016 Hundreds of SD sanctuary horses impounded, future uncertain

October 14, 2016 Numbers, costs soar in wild-horse controversy

October 14, 2016 810 allegedly starving horses impounded from Wild Horse Annie’s charity

October 28, 2016 Leader of wild-horse sanctuary gets charge dropped, seeks return of 400 head

November 6. 2016 The horses of the ISPMB ranch near Lantry

November 6, 2016 From salvation to starvation: How a wild horse crusader's dream went bad

November 7, 2016 Horse breeding and spending gallop out of control at West River sanctuary

November 8, 2016 Whistle blowers finally expose conditions at wild-horse sanctuary

November 11, 2016 Troubled wild-horse sanctuary must handle its own adoptions, sheriff says

December 6, 2016 Wild horses impounded near Lantry to be auctioned

December 14, 2016 Deal to stop wild-horse auction OK'd by all except sanctuary's leader

January 9, 2017 Latest on Lantry wild horses: Court showdown looms

January 31, 2017 Troubled nonprofit surrenders 520 wild horses but keeps 20

June 1, 2017 185 Hallelujah Horses in Fort Collins Need Help and Homes NOW

Mustang Monument "Eco Sanctuary"
In the summer of 2008, the BLM, was faced with a budget crisis in its free-roaming horse program due to the cost of maintaining excess (unadopted) horses captured on public lands in holding facilities. The agency was considering implementing the option that Congress had provided for in the original WFRH&BA to euthanize the horses or the option of selling the horses “without limitation" to any willing buyer as allowed in the 2004 Burns Amendment to the Act. Since "any willing buyer" included those that would send the horses to slaughter in for sale of the meat in foreign countries, Pickens established “The National Wild Horse Foundation" and November 17, 2008, at a public meeting held by the BLM to discuss the issue, announced her plans to buy a one million acre (4,000 km²) tract at an undisclosed location "in the West" and establish a sanctuary for the horses, which she would adopt and maintain at her own expense. Shortly thereafter, Pickens made an alternative plan and offered to the BLM to, instead of adopting the horses, take care of them at the sanctuary for an annual stipend of $500 per horse. The BLM evaluated the Pickens' proposal and the property she was considering, which was later identified as the Winecup Gamble Ranch in northeastern Elko County in Nevada which was listed for sale for $50,000,000 in 2010. In spite of Pickens' testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands promoting her proposal earlier in the month, trying to convince the legislature that her idea of a sanctuary could save the Federal government money, the BLM told her in March, 2009 the plan was not feasible. </re

In 2019, Pickens purchased an alternate property further south of the Winecup Gamble Ranch, the 14,000 acre Spruce Ranch in the remote Goshute Valley for $2,570,000 and submitted a prospectus to the BLM to establish an "eco-sanctuary" for 10,000 BLM horses currently being held "in holding facilities in various locations across the United States." She also requested that the BLM postpone a planned gather of a nearby herd until she could build a facility to hold them. On September 29, 2010, the Elko County Natural Resource Management Advisory Commission discussed Pickens's proposal, and whether or not to recommend to the Elko County Commission to support it. On November 3, 2010, the Elko County Commission declined to support the sanctuary. In spite of this, Pickens declared her intent to buy more ranches, with enough grazing rights to sustain the 10,000 horses she had requested to care for in the prospectus. On December 17, 2010, the BLM declined her request to postpone the gather, and on January 24, 2011, published a statement outlining the actions needed to move forward with permitting the eco-sanctuary.

A week after the BLM declined Pickens' request to postpone the gather, on December 24, 2010, she purchased 235 horses which had been rounded up by the Paiute tribe on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, and some 250 horses from other non-BLM sources, all of which were destined for slaughter from a Nevada auction yard.

Pickens eventually took the horses she purchased to the 4000 acre Warm Creek Ranch, which she had purchased shortly after purchasing the Spruce Ranch. The Warm Creek Ranch is located about 25 miles south of Wells, Nevada on Highway 93, adjacent to the northwest boundary of the 508,000 acre BLM Spruce Mountain grazing allotment. In July, 2011 Pickens applied to convert the permits for the BLM grazing allotments that came with the Warm Creek Ranch from grazing cows to grazing horses. The grazing allotments could have supported 200 horses for eight months a year, but as of May 28, 2017, the application to graze horses has not been approved. The horses are kept on the private lands of the Warm Creek Ranch where they are referred to as mustangs and are mostly fed hay grown on irrigated fields on the ranch. As of August, 2016, there were 700 horses on the ranch.

In September 2011, the Spruce Ranch, which has a grazing permit for the Spruce Mountain allotment, was deeded over to Saving America's Mustangs. the 501(c)(3) organization that had originally been named the National Wild Horse Foundation. Saving America's Mustangs holds the view that the grazing acreage granted under the permit for Spruce Mountain allotment is enough to sustain 1,000 horses that would otherwise be held in holding facilities, but the BLM calculated the permit allows the use of enough forage for only 505 horses. Negotiations between Pickens and the BLM to enter use the Spruce Ranch as an eco-sanctuary continued, and on August 15, 2012, the BLM published a Federal Register Notice announcing it was considering entering into a partnership with Pickens to maintain 900 horses on the Spruce Ranch private land and the Spruce Mountain allotment. Although Pickens owned the water rights and developments that supported the grazing on the allotment, the proposal did not contemplate the BLM paying Pickens to graze Federally-owned horses on Federally-owned lands, which it has no legal authority to do, but which had been proposed under the 2010 prospectus; alternatively, it would instead give her a stipend for "care" of the horses. The proposal would also require modifying the boundaries of three Herd Management Areas to remove all free-roaming horses from the Spuce Mountain allotment in order to free up adequate forage for 900 horses. Processing of the proposal, which would require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) stalled after the scoping report for the EIS was completed, due to the fact that the water rights for the allotment could only be used for grazing livestock, and feral horses were not considered livestock under Nevada law. Pickens would either have to take ownership of the horses and graze them as her personal livestock, paying the BLM grazing fees, or apply to the Nevada Division of Water Resources to change the purpose of the water use. As of June 12, 2014, around the time the EIS had been projected for completion she had not made the necessary application and in 2015, Pickens approached the BLM about how to move the plans for the eco-sanctuary forward. Her representative stated she was told that if she relinquished the grazing permit and gave up her water rights, the project might be able to proceed. As of August 20, 2016, cattle were being grazed on the allotment as well as the several hundred free-roaming horses that would have had to be removed for the eco-sanctuary.

A small herd of Pickens' horses graze on 12,000 acres of the remote private property of the Spruce Ranch, about an hour's drive 30 miles east of the Warm Creek Ranch headquarters on an unimproved road. The road passes through the private land, and had provided access to recreationalists to the public lands on the other side, but despite that the BLM had installed cattle guards on the fences to allow continued public access, Pickens had gated and locked it. Over the weekend of August 13–14, 2016, it was discovered vandals had tampered with water sources on property and cut the fences, resulting in the death of at least 11 horses and the escape of at least 54 more, which were recovered. Investigating officials stated the horses appeared to have "been dead for weeks" indicating the vandalism had occurred in July, 2016 or earlier. Pickens offered a $100,000 reward for information on the vandals.

In May, 2017, the Mustang Monument took in 50 Virginia Range geldings rescued from the International Society for the Preservation of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB). The horses had been found to be neglected at the ISPMB "sanctuary", and put up for adoption.

Deerwood Ranch Wild Horse EcoSanctuary
http://www.deerwoodranchwildhorseecosanctuary.com/Welcome.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/us/ecosanctuary-plans-for-wild-horses-add-tourism-to-the-mix.html?mcubz=0