STOP-THE-ROUNDUPS PRESS CONFERENCE IN PHOENIX; SAVE OUR WILD BURROS AND HORSES DEMONSTRATIONS AT NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING OF OUR WILD HORSES

UPDATE:   

Response to BLM's PROPOSED STRATEGY DUE

            PLEASE BE SURE TO GET YOUR RESPONSE IN TO BLM'S "PROPOSED STRATEGY" document today, March 30, 2011.  Look over their strategy.  If you are tired of reading, I think you will find this Press Conference, including the question-and-answer section, an excellent source of information and inspiration.  Also informative and inspiring are the public comments voiced at the Advisory Board meeting.  More excellent sources of feedback to BLM:

            Two more places to help you bring your thoughts into focus/into words:

            The Cloud Foundation recommendations are on their website; just click on the link here to view those.  

            There is a click-and-send strategy feedback letter on Wildhorsepreservation.org's website.  I recommend you copy-and-paste that letter into the body of a personal email, edit it to personalize it with some of your own words and perhaps emphasize the issue(s) that are most meaningful to you or to those whose opinions you most trust and respect.    

WILD HORSE & BURRO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING and 

ADVOCATE PRESS CONFERENCE in PHOENIX, AZ

          With numerous supporters of our American wild horses, I traveled to Phoenix to attend the first 2011 meeting of the national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, as well as the press conference we held to Stop the Roundups.
           WE LISTENED TO FIVE passionate, knowledgeable speakers with histories of standing up for the horses.  You may view Madeleine Pickens, R.T. Fitch, and Simone Netherlands, the first three on R.T. Fitch's blog since I need not duplicate what is already available;  

           Here are the last two clips for you from the press conference officiated by Ginger Kathrens, Emmy winning filmmaker of the Nature series on Cloud, the inimitable wild Palomino stallion of the Rockies. Following these last two statements came the Question-and-Answer segment, all of which is posted below.
           And now Laura Leigh's statement:

              The individual statements were closed out by Michael Blake's statement at the March 10, 2011, Stop-the-Roundups press conference.

I will be adding more as I go along...wanted to get these up for you now.
                                 —oOo—
         Here now is the complete Questions-and-Answers time, broken into four sections (1A, 1B, 2, and 3) since 10 minutes is the maximum video time Youtube allows at present.
         Here is part 1A, Questions and Answers, where Laura Leigh and Ginger Kathrens answer a fundamental question:  What do we think has to happen to protect the wild horses and burros in perpetuity (i.e., as an ongoing presence in our land)?


               3-10-11 Qs & As Part 1B, as Ginger Kathrens answers a question regarding the numbers of cows and sheep as compared to the numbers of wild horses and burros on the HMAs — the wild horses' and burros' Herd Management Areas designated for them:


and moving right along, here is Qs and As, Part 2, where Laura Leigh discusses some heavily competing interests and what many believe to be the real issue behind the push to remove wild horses and burros from our public lands:

    And here is Part 3, Qs & As, Madeleine Pickens discussing her plans for Mustang Monument, the sanctuary she is endeavoring to create in a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Bureau of Land Management:

  Public Comments
          Here are some of the public comments.  I will continue to get these out to you as soon as I can.  BLM will also be re-broadcasting the whole Advisory Board meeting, but they haven't gotten that up yet.  When it is available, I will be happy to post the link here.
           UPDATE:  On BLM's Youtube channel they've kindly posted their livefeed transmission from the Board meeting, including public comments.  Just click on the link above.
          We were not permitted to use tripods up here where people were speaking due to safety precautions established by the fire department for ready access, so once again, things are not as smooth as I would prefer.  However, I decided we'd all rather make do and see faces of the speakers than have a nice steady image of the speakers' backs.
          Here is my statement to the Advisory Board during the Public Comments portion.  Four minutes flies by.

           And before you watch Ginger's statement below, I just have to say what a privilege it is to know and work among these stellar people, and to call them and to be called friends.  This was a well attended Board meeting with advocates coming from all over the country.  I met people with whom I've been communicating for a long time on Facebook and through my blog, email, networking...  and renewed acquaintance with Advisory Board members, some of whom are making an effort for the horses.   There are new members, and we need to see what recommendations they will make.
          And it was good to see people from BLM, as well.  We must continue to emphasize and choose relationship.  We come down on different sides of the issues often, but we have to keep working at this.  We are making history, people, make no mistake.  Keep showing up for the horses and burros...
          Here is Ginger Kathrens:

          Here is Craig Downer's statement.   I was truly moved by his "reading with expression," as he put it, of some of his comments which he had already submitted to the Board.

              And I will soon have more comments from people at the Advisory Board Meeting.  There are several more really terrific comments I am eager to post for you.  This is not nearly complete without them.
              I am heading this weekend (March 26-27, 2011) for Los Angeles to see the new Humanion Films release, Saving America's Horses - A Nation Betrayed.  Katia Louise, filmmaker, came out to the Calico roundup in January 2010, interviewed Craig Downer, interviewed me.  She covers all horses' struggle and service in many venues, that is, wild horses as well as the terrible slaughter nightmare. 
             This film, like James Kleinert's Disappointment Valley, is an important revealing work.   Included in the film is some of my wild horse roundup footage as well as that of Laura Leigh's, as well as her own and others.  This should be an important work.  I will tell you what I think in my next blog.  In he meantime...
              Here now is Deniz Bolbol's strong, clear comment.

      And here is Carla Bowers' well articulated statement.  Carla was a vital member of the team who traveled to D.C. in early February.  Thank you, Carla.   


            Western Watersheds, thank you.  For a little perspective, let's take a look at a short video clip recently released by Western Watersheds.  This is footage of a cattle grazing allotment on our public lands.  This is not a wild horse Herd Management Area; this is all "livestock" grazing.   No horses to blame this devastation on...