Are wild horses destroying their their hebitat~

[valley ranch]

Have you heard?

Have you heard it said that wild horses are destroying their habitat? What do they mean, those who spread this slander against these animals~ are they saying they are eating the food growing ~to the ground ~drinking every gallon of water, or are they causing erosion~ nothing could be farther from the truth.

That’s what the BLM is telling, brainwashed people. I’ve ridden, drove, flown over and on the much of this land and there are not near enough horses, burros or cattle to destroy this land~ not near enough even to eat down the fuel so that each summer we would have fewer range fires.


The Public and Private lands combined~ we are talking about are nearly 700 million acres~ you can count how many animals would be needed so as to have an a 5 acre plot for each one, or a 1acre plot.



The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers more than 247.3 million acres (1,001,000 km2) of public lands in the United States which constitutes one-eighth of the landmass of the country.[2] President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the General Land Office and the Grazing Service.[3] The agency manages the federal government's nearly 700 million acres (2,800,000 km2) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862.[3] Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washingtonand Wyoming.[4]




We don’t have enough horses on public or private land to control the overgrowth of plants they were free to eat before this land became states, horses and burros are helpful, if allowed, in eating what would be range fire fuel.




Politicians are not always acting to our best interests and people who gain from their decisions many times support political news and actions for their own financial gain or lack of understanding and agreement as to the value of the land or animals who live there. At times horses and burros are restricted from drinking from water so they can be taken, because they have no water, and the story that they are eating food better used for range cattle is magnified to the point it threaten honesty, for the sake of argument against this part of our heritage.

We, many who, live and have cattle ranch or farm and share the land with these creatures would like to stop the gathering and killing of the wild horses and burros~ those who don’t live on the range say they want to protect our land by the gathering and killing of these beautiful animals~ we would like these people and all Americans to know our land is in no danger from the wild life the greatest threat comes from government bureaus~ in this case: The Bureau of Land Management

Well, that’s the way we see it~

 

[bobm]

In the Eastern part of this country, where hunters are very limited in hunting White Tail Deer, they have multiplied to the point that they are now a common site and a bain to home owners' gardens and landscpes. Not to mention the many accidents with cars and often injury to people too. Well folks... just apply that analogy to the feral horses only in more miles apart with arrid conditions and poor soils on top of hardpans that do not produce much feed per acre, but since it takes many acres per ferral horse to maintain it, it is an environmental disaster to natural fauna and fawna if you do not control their numbers. The BLM is doing an admirable job inspite of a limited budget, ridiculous lawsuits, and badmouthing by those that have their own adjendas to push often to the detriment of the native environment and species.

 

[valley ranch]

BM~You seem to be describing yourself and your lot~

There are not enough animals on the range to clear the Cheat Grass~ there are fires as I talk to sane people now~~~Talking~you are from a pompous position against creatures for and with an agency that is graft filled and self seeking~for like reasons```

We who live with these animals~share with them the open country~resent your greed against their freedom~

There is more open land in western states than can be imagined~unless you've seen it~you know that~ cling to the BLM and their admirable job~your glorification of the machine~if it is for money or self~it doesn't matter~think about these creatures~they may be of greater value then you self and selfish interests```

 

[bobm]

... and with that, I will

 

[Beekissed]

As for the deer, I can speak of them ....they are not multiplying out of control here in the east. They are far, far fewer in number than they were just 20 yrs ago...I can drive 20 miles to town and back and never see a single deer and that was virtually unheard of 20 yrs ago. Back then it was like running a gauntlet of deer and one had to drive very slowly over the last 10 mi. to home. Back then I had totaled a few vehicles on deer and those were in the daylight...now I don't even come close to a near miss at dusk or in the night. The deer are gone...those that are left are smaller than they used to be.

Just 20 yrs ago one would drive certain roads and the headlights would run across a field so full of whitetail deer that they looked like a herd of cattle. I would often stop trying to count them when I got to 50....lucky to see one or two in those same fields now at night.

My boys all bowhunt here but the deer have become so scarce that it's hard to have enough to go around and for each person to tag one...that's a rarity nowadays. Used to we'd be skinning out 10 deer a season.

I'd love to see this "east" of which you speak that is overrun with the whitetail deer, as I drive clear across a state that used to be full of them, twice a month, and am lucky to see a few deer all the way across this state. Few people hunt anymore in these parts, so it's not a glut of hunters or overhunting that has rendered it thus...there are just fewer deer than ever before.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee wish I could invite your boys here to hunt. My jaw drops when ever I hear about deer declining. Every morning on way to work the side of highway is littered with dead deer from that night. They have no fear of people and will eat landscape 2 feet from house. Ct is the same over run with deer. I think of them as giant rats

 

[Beekissed]

Bee wish I could invite your boys here to hunt. My jaw drops when ever I hear about deer declining. Every morning on way to work the side of highway is littered with dead deer from that night. They have no fear of people and will eat landscape 2 feet from house. Ct is the same over run with deer. I think of them as giant rats

In our local town the deer appear to be plentiful to those folks because they roam the neighborhoods in small herds, eating flowers and landscaping, but those are just deer that have found the suburbs a safe haven for plentiful food~people feed them~ very little food competition, no hunting pressure, no predators. Those town herds do not reflect the actual deer population out in the woods.

Out where the deer are supposed to be, it's just not the case...at least in this state and in the neighboring one of Ohio. I'm betting that out in the country of NY~is there such a thing?~that the deer aren't quite as numerous as they are in the burbs. Coyote numbers have effected the deer herds here and over in OH where some of my family live, also disease has taken down many and just people encroaching onto their habitat, all the farms broken up into subdivisions and such. Where there used to be large deer and plenty of them, they are few and small in size.

Town folk see deer hit along the highway and think that must mean there are a lot of them....nope, just means they have moved in closer to where more humans live, thus getting in the way of more cars.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee that does make sense. Up state NY is mostly rural and country. Southern part of state mostly city. I don't hunt, get annoyed by deer, so seems like they are everywhere.

 

[bobm]

Bee, As per University and Fish and Game Department studies ... the coyote population as well as coydogs and coywolves have increased exponentially in the East. The coyotes prey mostly on fawns and other small game species since they are smaller. But those that have crossed with dogs , wolves and their crisscrosses are much larger and prey on the adult deer too.

 

[Nyboy]

The only time I felt sorry for a deer was one caught by a pack of coyotes in the woods behind kennel. The coyotes where very loud barking and howling the deer cried for 45 minutes before going silent. It must have been a very slow and painful death for the deer.