The Standard-Examiner reports that on Monday, February 13, President Obama requested $1.1 billion in appropriations for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management in Fiscal Year 2013.
BLM Director Bob Abbey reiterated the agency’s mission in this statement:
“Our public lands and resources are some of America’s greatest assets, and under this budget proposal we target investments to advance the BLM’s mission of protecting these lands for multiple uses, including recreation, conservation, and safe and responsible energy development.”
We noted this with interest:
The BLM is one of a handful of Federal agencies that generates more revenue than it spends. In FY 2011, nearly $4.2 billion in revenues was generated from onshore energy development on Federal lands, with about half of those revenues going to the states where the leasing occurred. The economic output associated with the public lands is enormous. Based on a Department study, in 2010, extractive and non-extractive uses of BLM-managed lands and minerals generated an estimated total economic output of slightly more than $122 billion nationwide and supported approximately 550,000 American jobs.
Will that revenue include whatever money the BLM makes selling the wild horses and burros in long-term holding to the meat man? Or will that go directly into the pockets of the federal employees who handle these deadly transactions? Just wondering. I suppose we could ask Callie Hendrickson.
In the meantime, in case you are wondering what they intend to use any of their mega buck budget for in connection with wild horses and burros, read on:
Wild Horse and Burro Management Strategy – To advance Secretary Salazar’s wild horse and burro management strategy, the President’s proposed budget calls for a $2.0 million program increase that would fund research and development of population-control methods. The goal is to slow the annual population growth rate for wild horses, which would require fewer or smaller gathers of horses and reduce off-the-range holding costs, the largest single cost-driver in the program.
Ah, we see. Kill the ones in long-term holding, and sterilize what’s left on public lands. Mission accomplished. And yes, you the taxpayer are paying for this unfolding tragedy.
Tuesday's Horse 
Just read recently that Abbey is on Twitter now! (I think it was on BLM Facebook page or maybe the website for BLM).
Don’t know exactly how that message thing works on Twitter but you MIGHT be able to contact him direct via Twitter even though he doesn’t officially ‘follow’ you. (?)
Anybody know for sure?
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Just wrote another letter to Obama, and now going to call the White House..sick and tired and terribly sad for our Wild Ones…
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He is a Lame Duck and I am sure that there could be One Million letters from the kids and they would be ignored. Trouble is there are too many competing organizations and none of them are in sync with one another. I blame ‘Social Media’ which I have little use for. It is nothing but a huge chat fest. Facebook is the worst. I rarely go to the site but will only if I see something particularly heinous being posted. I kicked off a gal I went to high school with (I have no idea how she got there, or how half of those folks got there, that is how great their ‘privacy’ is) because she was saying basically that Whitney Houston ‘got what she deserved.’. She is a right winger to the max and is a fill in host on ‘The Situation Room’ and I am fairly certain Wolf Blitzer is a democrat.
We need to be more organized and with all of these orgs now on Facebook, it has gotten much worse. Newsletters were the best but now there is all this ‘cyber clutter.’ How can we effectively protest Obama and his cronies whom are causing this genocide if we are not all coming from one place?
Elle
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Facebook has definitely “watered” things down for many organizations, with people starting their own causes, pages and the rest of it. We found that we were wasting our time there, time that is precious for other work, so we left. I think Facebook is alright for commercial purposes, but in very, rare cases is it helpful advocating for animals. However, we love Twitter and have a much higher “conversion” rate from reading to taking action. The best outreach tool is still the weblog like this one, and why we put so much into it.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly! Facebook is a huge waste of time. I have a Google+ account for my rescue but never go there either. I have a Linked In account and that site never remembers my password! I don’t go there either.
My site has been hacked and so was the email account. I had to reconcile what is still on the server with what I have backed up to a Seagate external drive.
I have been uploading old films to my YouTube page as a way to earn some money for my rescue. They don’t recognize my credit card PIN. I mailed them a copy from the bank. There is an enormous market for so called ‘Vintage’ films. After YouTube recognizes my pin, I can sell films from stars like Gloria Swanson (her talkies) and other actors and actresses of yore. I have practically every Vivien Leigh film as well, and her films are incredibly difficult to find.
We should all just get out of the Social Media schemes except for Twitter. I have my account set up so that people have to request a follow. I don’t need those prostitutes there!!! I am useless with wordpress blogs, so that is not an option for me.
Elle
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THAT WOULD BE GREAT IF HE HAD THE MEN/WOMEN IN PLACE WHO KNEW HOW TO MANAGE WILD HORSES BUT HE DOES NOT. ABBEY AND SALAZAR SAY ONE THING BUT DO ANOTHER SO HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY. YES, I BELIEVE THEIR COMPLETE GOAL IS TO SLAUGHTER ALL OF THE HORSES IN HOLDINGS ESPECIALLY THOSE OVER 10 YEARS OF AGE. AS WE HORSE PEOPLE KNOW 10 YEARS MEANS MOST OF THE HORSES ALL HAVE ANOTHER 10 YEARS LEFT. COME ON BLM SHOW US SOME SMARTS WITH OUR HORSES. YOU ARE NOT ONLY KILLING THE HORSES YOU WANT TO KILL ALL WILDLIFE.
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I think Vivian is right the while department needs a complete overhaul. New thinking humans to replace the. One hand has no idea what the other is doing in this age that’s just ridiculous . Or perhaps it is all just a big planned smoke screen to keep us all shakeing our heads wondering what the heck is going on. Where are environmentalists , people will a broader vision . If we think they must have some smart people, look at their degrees , and lawyeristic language is bunk. The ripples from the boulders they throw in this pond , our Planet ,our earth , our home , will go on and on until nothing is left , including The human race.
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And the buget needs cutting and this happens !!
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