Greetings! Friends
I am writing you all to ask you to help out since so
many of you have followed this issue for so long. A constantly ringing
phone or a flood of faxes today, this weekend and on Monday could make a
difference. This is a true deadline and if you could help out this
once... I would be ever so grateful.
The Forest Service is planning on signing the permit for
the Horse Butte grazing allotments on Monday. They want to go ahead and
sign it for 10 years. They should just cancel it! At worst, they should
extend it for only a year and give the ranchers notice that they are
considering letting wild animals use federal lands (as they were
intended to) in the future.
They have not even scheduled the Environmental Analysis
for this area until 2004.
The snows are falling heavily here, my friends and I
fear that the winter could indeed prove harsh for our buffalo friends.
Cancellation of these allotments could help the buffalo.
If you could please take the time to make 2 personal
calls or faxes (emails are just not that effective) - it would really
help!
The facts:
The 4 grazing allotments bring in less that $900 to the
U.S. Treasurer
Last year over $500,000 of taxpayers monies was spent to
"protect" the few cows that graze on those lands from the buffalo. For
generations unknown to man, buffalo have used Horse Butte for winter
grazing and spring calving
If the federal Govt would use the allotments for wild
animals as intended by the Gallatin Land Act, it would go far to help
the plight of the buffalo as generations worth of memory will certainly
not be erased due to a human whim
Canceling the allotments now is just common sense - if
they are reissued - it will take more tax payer dollars to correct
If the public lands are not available for cattle - it is
very likely that the Munns brothers (the permittees from Idaho) would be
more likely to accept a conservation easement on their private lands.
They are the only ones with any cattle in the whole area. They could
also graze horse which have no "brucellosis issues"
Over 90,000 folks have signed a petition asking for
exactly this and have been ignored by public officials. see http://www.wildrockies.org/buffpet
Mr. Glickman has every ability by law to cancel these
allotments today. Since he's out of a job next month - why not do
something for future generations? Under (402a of FLMPA (43 U.S.C. (1752
(a)), the Secretary of Agriculture may include in any grazing permits
whatever terms and conditions he "deems appropriate and consistent with
governing law" and "may cancel, suspend, or modify a grazing permit, in
whole or part"
The Horse Butte peninsula is itself a natural barrier
for confining bison migrations. Remove the cattle allotments from that
area, and you have absolutely no justification for siting a facility
there as the natural water barriers surrounding Horse Butte already
fulfill that purpose.
If you could please make a call my friends, as you are
the folks who know the issue and can talk politely and intelligently
about this issue, I would be very grateful.
Here are the numbers of the 2 most important folks to
call:
USDA Secretary Daniel Glickman
Telephone: 202-720-3631; Fax: 202-720-2166
200 A Whitten Bldg., 1400 Independence Ave. SW,
Washington, DC 20250
Rich Inman; Deputy Forest Supervisor
phone: 406 587 6705 (feel free to leave an urgent message if he's
out...)
fax: 406 587 6758
Gallatin NF
10 E Babcock
POB 130 Fed Bldg
59771
There is more info on Horse Butte and the animals that
it is home to (trumpeter swans, endangered bald eagles, grizzly bears,
wolves - just to name a few...) at http://www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/politico/hbwhere.html
Go on to
Attention Canadian Citizens: Your
Feedback Is Needed
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17 December 2000 Issue
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