Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
There is a government agency, specifically the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior (DOI), which remains aloof and non-compliant to our nation’s law’s and taxpayer’s alike.
Case in Point is a Range Land Assessment Study completed in 2012, costing the taxpayers $40 million dollars. . . Critical rangeland data was excluded, on purpose, in regard to cattle grazing and its direct and destructive effect upon the ecological systems included in the study on Public Lands; effecting both wildlife and land.
This particular Study was useless, but BLM employees not only went through with the study, but spent the funds on themselves and the limited research irresponsibly. At the Studies completion, those employees in the BLM simply shrugged, turned it in as completed, and all that time knew it to be useless in total — i.e. $40 million dollars later. Where did the money go, much of it not accounted for (one of many, many instances of this exist within the BLM and now in the $billions of dollars)?
It was a fact that Welfare Rancher’s and several corporations threatened to sue BLM if cattle were mentioned in this Study, and from then onward (also in 2002, 2004, and 2009) demanded the BLM blame the — e.g., wild horses — rather than cattle, for the ecological destruction (which never has been proven about horses, and never will be as it is simply untrue).
When BLM Management questioned about the Study, their response BLM-Speak:
“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) says it was an absence of “reliable data”—and not politics—that caused it to exclude consideration of commercial livestock impacts from multi-million dollar assessments of environmental conditions on Western range lands. BLM thus rejected the first scientific misconduct complaint . . .”
We find, previously, many Rangeland Studies over the past 6 decades that quite fluidly mention cattle grazing to be destructive to America’s Public Lands – there is more than amble information. There also exists the reasoning behind establishing the Taylor Grazing Act decades ago as well. The TGA was meant to establish proper cattle grazing management without destroying Rangeland, and to curb the cattle-caused destruction while grazing on Public Lands, all under the scrutiny and management of the BLM.
So the claim that the real reason was lack of data, as mentioned above, does not hold water because:
•Attempts to exclude grazing began at the earliest stages of the study, before data availability was even examined. Further, BLM assertions of data gaps were never examined, let alone verified;
•Other factors being studied, such as invasive species, also have data gaps but these issues did not prevent invasive species from being selected as a study focus; and
•BLM managers hid the existence of a major livestock database which was never given to researchers.
Rhetoric and Budgets
The Department of the Interior’s budget is (in their documents) $11.7 billion dollars. “The 2014 budget includes $5.3 billion in current authority for AGO (America’s Great Outdoors) activities, an increase of $179.8 million above 2012. . .The 2014 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) budget request is $1.2 billion, an increase of $32.6 million or 2.9 percent above the 2012 enacted budget. The budget proposes $980.2 million for the Management of Land and Resources appropriation . . .”
Supposedly — “The BLM’s budget request translates to a net cost per acre of about $4.50 to American taxpayers.1 DOI estimates that BLM lands contribute $151 billion in economic output. . .”
Problem: Without proper information genuine and truthful decisions, which conserve and improve America’s Wildlife and Public Lands, and governed by Law, coexists with the expenditure of taxpayer money. It is when irresponsible decisions are made that Wildlife becomes endangered unnecessarily, such as the Wild Horses on Public lands, et al., without regard to proper results, America’s environment is destroyed, and taxpayer money spent recklessly.
BLM Falsehoods Lies and Criminality
BLM management and most employees brag to the public, often, about being the only government agency making a profit of $billions of dollars, yet not only do they use taxpayer money for their Administrative programs, but the amount of stipends to corporations and welfare rancher’s are extravagant to say the least. The amount of fee’s, from those same welfare ranchers and corporations are also all-telling, and the $billions of dollars that go uncollected, or at a reduced-price for the leasing of Public Lands, and destroying those same lands, deplorable at best.
A question taxpayers and American’s should be asking our legislator’s: If BLM is so profitable; GAO states $650 billion possible if or whenever collected from corporations and welfare rancher’s, then why do they not collect these amounts.
The next question would be obvious, if these corporations and welfare ranchers, indeed, owe this amount of money, and the American Deficit is far less, in accord also with the GAO, then how is it that America has a deficit and apparently has to conduct budget cuts to programs which feed people? Something is definitely not right here!
The “Change” that needs to happen is to not only demand proper explanation of the budgets; but the compilation of honest numbers that reflect exactly the costs of managing our environment and our lands, without special interests and questionable stipends’ to corporation’s and welfare rancher’s, who lease Public Lands to use for their profits, and to hell with taxpayer’s!
Conclusion
This article highlights misuse of taxpayer money and issues directly involved to the misuse. Only by seeing the common themes can we hope to identify new and more effective solutions and the most eminent solution to many is downsizing and actually getting rid of the criminal organization called the Bureau of Land Management; the others are outlined below.
Further Serious Problems that require resolution:
* Legal standards that lack sufficient clarity or force to achieve sustainable use of resources and protection of non-economic values;
* Inadequate monitoring of resource conditions;
* Restrictions that limit public participation in planning and the NEPA process and therefore amplify the influence of economic interests seeking to use resources;
* Exemptions that eliminate environmental review of significant decisions;
* Subsidies that promote exploitation or degradation without adequate justification.
The resources that we waste with mismanaged grazing policies range from the administrative to the ecological. Some – like the administrative resources – are easier to quantify. According to a recent GAO report, federal agencies spent a total of at least $144 million just to administer grazing programs in fiscal year 2004. With ranchers paying just $1.43 per AUM to graze on our lands that year, federal agencies only brought in $21 million to offset the cost of administering the grazing programs. GAO found that BLM and the Forest Service would have had to charge $7.64 per AUM and $12.26 per AUM, respectively, to recover their expenditures.
It is hard to believe, in this day and time of information being so prominent, that the American Public can be led astray so easily.
Until appropriate corrections within this government agency made, American taxpayer’s will simply watch as their money is spent irresponsibly by government employees and their private contractors. Today there exists no government agency protecting American taxpayers what so ever, and it is obvious.
_______________________________________________
Fiscal Year 2014The Interior Budget in Brief April 2013, Department Overview
BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS The United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, i.e. Document
BLM SAYS IT CANNOT TRACK CATTLE ON ITS LANDS, Press Release Jan 24, 2013, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Department of the Interior Economic Impact Report, 2011 (page 16)
U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, FISCAL YEAR 2008 BUDGET IN BRIEF, BUREAU HIGHLIGHTS: BUREAU OF LAND MGMT., BH-8, available at http://www.doi.gov/budget/2008/08Hilites/BH005.pdf (last visited Feb. 8, 2007) (explaining that “[l]ike the 2007 President’s Budget, the 2008 budget proposes to
amend the FLTFA to: allow BLM to use updated management plans to identify areas suitable for disposal; allow a portion fo the receipts to be used by BLM for restoration projects; return 70 percent of the net proceeds from the sales to the Treasury; and cap receipt retention by the Department at $60.0 million per year.”).
Zachary Colie, No Arctic Oil Drilling? How About Selling Parks?, S.F. CHRON., Sept. 24, 2005, available at 2005 WLNR 15054567.
Bettina Boxall, Some Fear a Vast Sell-Off of U.S. Land, L.A. Times, Nov. 16, 2005, available at 2005 WLNR 23355553. Although the bill would increase the patent fees from $2.50 or $5 an acre to $1,000 an acre, the price would still exclude mineral worth, “which can amount to billions of dollars.” Id.
Id.; Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, H.R. 4241, 109th Cong., §§ 6204(b), (c).
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, H.R. 4241, 109th Cong., §§ 6207 (“Subject to valid existing rights, nothing in sections 6202, 6203, 6204, 6205, and 6206 of this subtitle shall be construed as affecting any lands within the boundary of any unit of the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, or National Trails System, or any National Conservation Area, any National Recreation Area, any National Monument, or any unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System as of the date of the enactment of this Act.”) (emphasis added).
Id.; See EARTHWORKS, NAT’L WILDLIFE FED’N, THE WILDERNESS SOC’Y & ENVTL. WORKING GROUP, Deficit Reduction Act of 2005: Fact & Fiction About the Mining Subtitle in the Deficit Reduction Act, 1, available at http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Factsheet- MiningFactFiction-DeficitReduxAct2005.pdf (last visited Jul. 27, 2006) (arguing that, “[t]he mining subtitle specifically allows the selling of preexisting claims (i.e. valid existing rights) in these areas. In the National Parks alone, according to the National Park Service, more than 18,000 acres of mining claims predate this mining subtitle and are available
for purchase.”).
U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF LAND MGMT., BLM and Forest Service Announce 2007 Federal Grazing Fee (February 2, 2007), available at http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2007/february/NR0702_3.html (last visited March 27, 2007). “AUM” means “animal unit month.” It is the equivalent of one cow-calf pair, one bull, one steer, one horse, or five sheep.
U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, LIVESTOCK GRAZING: FEDERAL EXPENDITURES AND RECEIPTS VARY, DEPENDING ON THE AGENCY AND THE PURPOSE OF THE FEE CHARGED, 38 (September 2005), available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05869.pdf (last visited June 25, 2007) (hereinafter GAO: GRAZING FEES).
See generally, WELFARE RANCHING, supra note 50, at 162-257
Photojournalist - Journalist 
katdfinns
February 8, 2014 at 9:09 pm
This is so telling, how is it that such a dumb bunch of people can make so much money on even dumber people. And, straight out in the open. To say nothing of what they are doing to the poor horses. Taking their power and beauty. Gads, if I could think of pertinent lawsuit to slam on this agency, I would do it in a heart beat. Please keep writing and sending. I’m happy to know there are some people who are speaking the truth.
Louie C
February 9, 2014 at 6:31 am
http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6213
Note from the team at Protect Mustangs:
The Antelope Valley, Maverick Medicine and Goshute herd management areas (HMAs) will be ruined if 73 parcels proposed for lease, totaling approximately 125,000 acres, are taken away from native wild horses.The proposed action will push wild horses off their legal range. BLM will chase them with helicopters–removing them forever from their families and ripping away their freedom.
Follow the instructions in the BLM press release below to email your individual comments to BLM by 5 p.m. February 10th.
Request BLM halt the lease sale of areas within the wild horse HMAs slated for oil and gas development. Mention it will cause water, air and soil pollution and increase global warming, lower the water table as well as hurt wild horse territory.
Request a moratorium on roundups for scientific research on wild horse population dynamics and to ensure wild horses will be protected and preserved in freedom.
Use your own words to make your comments count. According to BLM, click and send comments don’t count beyond being one form comment. Email your comments today. Short and sweet is fine as long as you use your own words.
Some residents in northeastern Nevada have forgotten they have been blessed to use public land at subsidy pricing for generations. Now we are witnessing a worrisome trend with the Nevada Farm Bureau and the Nevada Association of Counties wanting to push America’s wild horses and burros off public land to control the water, forage and industrialization. They appear to be requesting BLM kill wild horses in holding to make room for more roundup victims.
It’s time for science to guide policy and for cooperative agreements to foster healthy rangeland and prevent native species wipe outs.
Thank you for sending your comments in today to protect the American public’s wild horses!
BLM Press Release:ELKO, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Elko District is making available for public review an Environmental Assessment (EA) for parcels of public land nominated for lease within the Elko District in the 2014 Competitive Oil & Gas Lease Sale. These parcels have the potential for future oil and gas exploration and development. The 30-day public review period concludes Feb. 10, 2014.The BLM received nominations for 214 parcels of public land to offer for leasing, totaling more than 435,880 acres. The BLM deferred several of the nominated parcels to protect sage grouse habitat. Other parcels were removed because of cultural and Native American concerns. A detailed listing of deferred parcels is available in the EA and online. The remaining 73 parcels (125,220 acres) have been analyzed for potential impacts in the EA, in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010. Lease stipulations identified in the Elko (1987) and Wells (1985) Resource Management Plans are attached to all parcels to help protect resources. The EA is available for public review at: http://www.blm.gov/rv5c.The Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale will be conducted on June 24, 2014. Additional information about the sale is available at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/prog/energy.html.
If you have issues or concerns or need more information, contact Allen Mariluch, Project Lead at the BLM Elko District, at (775) 753-0200 or email at amariluc@blm.gov.
Louie C
February 10, 2014 at 2:49 am
http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16502
TELL BLM OREGON: PROTECT WILD HORSES IN SAGE GROUSE PLANS!
Public Comment Deadline: February 20, 2014
The BLM’s plan for Oregon affects 10.2 million acres of land, including 17 wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and 24 Herd Areas (HAs). Among those affected would be the famed wild horses of the South Steens HMA, pictured above, and the Sulphur Spring herd, which has pure Spanish bloodlines.
Barbara Warner
February 10, 2014 at 12:38 pm
Another awesome article, John. Many thanks . Also to you too, Louie, for all the info.
The 1990-91 GAO study proved the millions of cattle destroy the range and riparian areas –not the few thousand wild horses but the BLM ignores this information also. The American people are being robbed of their public lands and wildlife . If only this would get as much attention as the Super Bowl .
Louie C
February 11, 2014 at 12:38 am
SHELDON WILDLIFE REFUGE WILD HORSES
Reference number: F14PS00185
Issue date: 02/05/2014
Response due: 03/19/2014 05:00 PM PT
The USFWS is actively seeking qualified Contractors to receive, care for, and find long-term homes for up to 500 feral horses and/or burros per year.
Contractors may receive horses for placement each year for up to four years. Horses will be captured and removed by the USFWS from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, Denio, NV (Humboldt County).
Award will be made to multiple Contractors. Pricing will be based on a per-animal fixed price.
Interested contractors must be registered in SAM (System for Award Management) at http://www.sam.gov and complete Online Representations and Certifications (ORCA) at http://www.bpn.gov. This solicitation will be posted to http://www.fedconnect.net on 02/18/14.
All technical questions are to be directed to John Kasbohm at (541) 947-3315 and contractual questions to Shannon Blackburn at (503) 872-2825. PROJECT INFORMATION:
The successful contractor(s) shall perform scope of work as specified in the Statement of Work.
Set Aside: N/A
NAICS: 813312-Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations
PSC / FSC: F019-NATURAL RESOURCES/CONSERVATION- OTHER WILDLIFE MAN
Contracting office:
FWS, DIVISION OF CONTRACTING AND GE
EASTSIDE FEDERAL COMPLEX
911 NE 11TH AVENUE
PORTLAND, OR 97232-4181
Contact: SHANNON BLACKBURN
Phone:
Fax:
Email: shannon_blackburn@fws.gov
https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities
Louie C
February 12, 2014 at 7:03 am
https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=cca45fd7e277033207e01b928d2a0a7b&tab=core&_cview=1
WILD HORSE and BURRO STERILIZATION or CONTRACEPTION: DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES AND PROTOCOLS
Solicitation Number: l13ps01214
Agency: Department of the Interior
Office: Bureau of Land Management
Solicitation Number:
l13ps01214
Notice Type:
Solicitation
Synopsis:
Added: Sep 23, 2013 7:41 am Modified: Oct 23, 2013 10:09 amTrack Changes
WILD HORSE and BURRO STERILIZATION or CONTRACEPTION: DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES AND PROTOCOLS
Type:
Solicitation
Posted Date:
October 23, 2013
WHB_SPI-ISD_sterilization_RFI_Sept_18_2013.pdf (173.05 Kb)
Description: Request for information updated version
Contracting Office Address:
Denver Federal Center, Bldg 50
PO Box 25047
Denver, Colorado 80225-0047
Primary Point of Contact.:
Willie Bethune
wbethune@blm.gov
Phone: (202) 912-7027
Louie C
March 6, 2014 at 5:03 pm
Be aware….
News from the SAFARI CLUB
http://firstforwildlife.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/issue-of-the-week-wild-horse-and-burro/
Louie C
March 6, 2014 at 5:12 pm
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/us/black-rhino-hunting-permit/
Winner of black rhino hunting auction: My $350,000 will help save the species
Dallas (CNN) — Corey Knowlton is on edge sitting inside a Las Vegas hotel room, surrounded by a private security detail, explaining why he spent $350,000 for the chance to hunt a black rhinoceros in the southern African nation of Namibia.
Louie C
March 6, 2014 at 5:20 pm
A REAL invasive species, Pythons, are invading Florida, so one has to wonder….why hunt endangered mammals rather than invasive reptiles?
Louie C
March 8, 2014 at 7:49 am
Comfrey Jacobs Arrested After Blocking Bison Trap Road for Over Two Hours
http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6488
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: When livestock trailers arrived to Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek bison trap this morning, they found the access road closed.
Twenty-year old Comfrey Jacobs risked his physical well-being and personal freedom by blocking the access road to Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap. His goal was to prevent more of America’s last wild, migratory bison — the most important bison populations in the world — from being shipped to slaughter.
Members of Buffalo Field Campaign were present to document and lend support. Video footage and photos are available upon request.
Comfrey’s action stalled transport to slaughter operations for more than two hours. Baffled for some time, Park Service employees eventually brought out a front-end loader and moved Comfrey and his blockade off of the road. The stalled livestock trailers then entered the road and headed to the trap to load wild bison for transport to slaughter. Comfrey was still locked into his concrete-filled 55-gallon barrel when three trailers, now full of America’s last wild buffalo, left.
“I have been calling Yellowstone officials on a daily basis, multiple times a day and I’m getting very frustrated with this dishonorable lack of transparency,” said a BFC spokesperson Stephany Seay. “Yellowstone officials have told us they know exactly the information we are looking for, but are unwisely choosing to make the public and the media wait.”
Louie C
March 12, 2014 at 6:36 pm
BISON ACTIVIST ARRAIGNED
Comfrey Jacobs vs U.S. Government
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2014
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press1314/pressreleases1314/031114.html
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: Comfrey Jacobs appeared in U.S. federal court today for his first arraignment after being arrested for blocking the road to Yellowstone National Park’s bison trap on Thursday morning, March 6, 2014. Mr. Jacobs was charged with three offenses: disorderly conduct, breaking a closure, and interfering with a government operation. He was offered a plea bargain: if he plead guilty he would be charged $1,000 in restitution, be placed on unsupervised probation for five years, and be banned from Yellowstone National Park for five years.
Mr. Jacobs did not accept the plea bargain, as he is awaiting further legal council. There will be a continuation of his arraignment on April 2, 2014. If Mr. Jacobs chooses to go to trial, he will be tried by a judge and not a jury of his peers.
The goal of Comfrey’s decision to block access to Yellowstone’s bison trap was to prevent more of America’s last wild, migratory bison — the most important bison population in the world — from being shipped to slaughter. Mr. Jacobs stalled slaughter operations for more than two hours.
Comfrey’s action demonstrated strong public opposition to the buffalo slaughter and has drawn an incredible amount of media and public attention to the issue. The day following Mr. Jacob’s blockade, Yellowstone National Park issued their only press release for this year’s controversial bison operations, announcing that the Stephens Creek bison trap was empty and Yellowstone had no further plans to capture this season.
Barbara Warner
March 12, 2014 at 8:30 pm
I just signed a petition to keep fracking out of our forests and public lands. Join me here! http://bit.ly/1i17b3G