Senator Robert Byrd has sponsored a Senate version of the Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act, formerly known as HR.1018. The Senate version is numbered S.1579.
Here’s a link to the bill:
http://www.aowha.org/documents/s1579.pdf
After giving it a cursory reading the language appears to match the version of the bill passed by the House.
We’re working on generating support for the bill along with encouraging a few minor improvements, such as making the bill applicable to all free-roaming horses and burros on Federal lands and fixing a couple of minor technicalities. More info will follow.
Aside from fixing those troublesome issues caused by the Burns stealth rider, S.1579 should:
1. Provide a more concise definition of “thriving ecological balance” and it reasserts relevant Federal land use policies.
2. Convert some “authorized” activities and methods into “required” activities and methods with respect to taking inventory, making determinations and application of peer reviewed scientific methods as the basis for developing management strategies, and it requires consistent evaluation and management practices across all public lands.
3. Permit BLM to establish sanctuaries and exclusive use areas, however the Secretary is required to assess and report on a number of conditions specifically listed in the bill prior to establishing those areas.
4. Authorize BLM to identify and appropriate additional rangeland for wild horses and burros through various means, subject to the conditions and requirements set forth elsewhere in the bill. Those conditions include avoiding any potential conflicts with other lawful public lands activities and uses as identified in the bill.
5. Require BLM to develop and implement enhanced fertility control, as is presently used by a number of private sanctuaries and non-BLM horse management agencies. While the science of equine fertility control is relatively new, it shows great potential in reducing horse recruitment rates (expansion of populations as birth rates exceed mortality rates) without decreasing the genetic diversity of the herds.
6. It charges BLM with the responsibility of undertaking all practical options for maintaining a thriving ecological balance on the range.
7. Prohibit BLM from maintaining horses in prohibitively expensive contract corrals and short term holding facilities for longer than six months, upon which horses in such holding facilities must be moved to more cost-effective facilities or appropriate alternative ranges.
8. Charge BLM with improving its marketing strategies with specific examples provided.
9. Reinforce BLM’s authority to remove horses and burros under conditions stipulated in the original Act.
10. Require BLM to provide additional data with respect to its management activities, and that data is to be more transparent and available for public inspection on the BLM website.
11. Expand BLM’s ability to enter into cooperative agreements to address program deficiencies and needs.
12. Outline specific program reporting requirements so that Congress and the American public can be informed as to BLM’s progress with respect to complying with the provisions of this bill.
If you agree that this bill will benefit America’s wild horses and add professionalism to the management of our public lands, please contact your senators and urge them to support S.1579.
http://www.senate.gov
(Use the “Find Your Senators” feature on the upper left corner.)
Pam Nickoles Photography 