www.thecloudfoundation.org - Ruby Pipeline: The Real Reason Behind BLM’s Push to Remove Wild Horses?

The Real Reason Behind BLM’s Push to Remove Wild Horses:

Is Ruby Pipeline the Smoking Gun?


Wild horse advocates rally in Denver to stop roundups, ask Senator Udall for help in BLM investigation

Denver, CO (January 7, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation asks the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reveal the truth behind removing healthy wild horses from the Calico Complex of northwestern Nevada. It does not appear to be coincidental that the multi-billion dollar corporate project, the Ruby Pipeline, would run through the Calico Complex—site of the controversial roundup of more than 2,500 mustangs and the Buckhorn Wild Horse Herd Management Area. BLM removed over 200 wild horses at Buckhorn in December 2009 without public notice.

Director of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has told members of the public that the horses will starve if not removed because there is nothing for them to eat. The Director of the BLM, Bob Abbey, also supported Salazar’s claim when he stated this week that horses are being removed “to restore an ecological balance” even though this claim is nullified by numerous experts including a biodiversity science specialist with 8 years experience in the range and the sworn testimony of BLM employees Eckel and Drake. Abbey went on to reassert the BLM policy position that “we will need to continue removing excess wild horses from the public rangelands in areas where the land can no longer support them.”

Yet, documents recently received by The Cloud Foundation from biologist Katie Fite of Western Watersheds and researcher Cindy MacDonald (publisher of the American Herds blog) today expose what may be the real reasons behind the massive, dead of winter wild horse roundups—and they have nothing to do with horse or rangeland health—but may have everything to do with the Ruby Pipeline.

In a written response to questions posed by the Office of Energy Projects (an agency within the Department of Energy), a Ruby natural gas pipeline project consultant, Dan Gredvig, stated that “Ruby will work with BLM to minimize wild horse and burro grazing along the restored ROW (right-of-way) for three years. Possible management actions would be to . . . reduce wild horse populations following BLM policy in appropriate management areas. BLM wild horse and burro specialists were consulted in developing this management approach.” The document is dated February 23, 2009.

It appears that the public’s wild horses are being removed at taxpayer expense on publicly owned land to make way for a multi-billion dollar pipeline constructed by El Paso Natural Gas Corporation of Colorado Springs, CO. Natural gas and water would ultimately provide added resources to California and other destinations. Given these new revelations, the public has the right to ask several key questions and get immediate answers to them: 1) Who really stands to profit from removing wild horses from public lands? 2) What private contractors, possible politicians, and/or agency bureaucrats stand to benefit from the yet undisclosed details of the Ruby Project? 3) Why has the public been excluded from any discussion of this undisclosed use of taxpayer public lands?

“I don’t think it is out of line to seek immediate responses to these questions. The public has a right to know what is happening to their public lands and to the future of their wild horses, especially when it comes at taxpayer expense..” Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director, The Cloud Foundation (named for the famous wild horse Kathrens has documented for the PBS/Nature series).

Links of interest:

Ruby Pipeline Information - http://www.trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_ba4c941a-cded-51bf-a33c-c9a8...

http://www.ferc.gov/for-citizens/citizen-guides/citz-guide-gas.pdf

Pipeline Map: http://www.rubypipeline.com/docs/Ruby%20Overview%20Map.pdf

Western Watersheds Project - http://www.westernwatersheds.org/


12.28.09 USA Today: “Activists Decry Wild-Horse Roundups”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-12-28-horses_N.htm

Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit.
America’s Disappearing Wild Horses
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/wild.html

Frequently Asked Questions on Wild Horses

(http://www.wildmustangcoalition.org/id44.html)

Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now (http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11285225)

Updated 2009-2010 Roundup Schedule

http://thecloudfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/roundupschedule2010_3pp.pd...

Unified Moratorium letter and signatories

(http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/action-alerts/20...)