Snake Spin

I want to backtrack for a minute to NDoA's Ed Foster dressing down Silver Springs resident Kathy Graves in an email message on Monday. Mrs. Graves questioned Foster about a statement he made on KTVN (Channel 2.) In his reply, Foster chastised Mrs. Graves with the statement, "This is a classic example of not hearing or having the facts," and Foster flat out lied to Graves about what he said on TV. I guess Foster forgot about TeVo recording boxes as Mrs. Graves had saved Mr. Foster's news story appearance.

In subsequent communications exchanges Mr. Foster tried to dodge the issue of lying to and inappropriately dressing down a Nevada Citizen and tried to turn the subject to what he actually did say, what he meant in what he did say, blah, blah, blah.

The point is Mr. Foster lied (again) and probably owes a formal apology to Mrs. Graves which to our knowledge is yet to take place. Foster is quick to point out that he is a public servant, which apparently means he doesn't have to worry about truth, ethics, manners or accountability.

Divide and Conquer

Ed Foster is in the news as the drama continues - starving horses in Lockwood - 70 horses on the Department's dole at the Silver State Industries' corrals - He and VRWPA President Jeanne Gribbin have become "incredibly productive." All nonsense and humbug. But what's new at the Nevada Department of Agriculture? Thus is the crux of the problem.

The Department says it no longer intends to gather up the Virginia Range horses, but when we last checked they were still trying to keep the money appropriated to double their holding capacity and, well, hardly more than a couple of hours seems to go by before someone at the Department says something that defies reality, or reasserts their shopworn contention that it's the wild horse groups who have everything wrong. As a result, the wild horse advocates aren't very sold on the sincerity of the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Department's credibility meter is still hovering around zero.

Range Management

The Nevada Department of Agriculture likes to play this whole business off as the wild horse groups being made up of a bunch of ignorant fools who just want to let the horses multiply exponentially and overrun the range. So it's probably time to expose that game. The wild horse groups have consistently advocated sensible range and horse management to a Department that just wanted to pull horses off - an approach advocates describe as "trap and toss." So spokespeople for the Department somehow seem compelled to babble on that if the advocates had their way the range would be overrun by thousands of horses and the place would look like a moonscape. More lies.

By now the Department should realize that when we say it, sooner or later we're going to prove it. So here we go.

Last year a consortium of wild horse groups submitted a draft management proposal to the Department - basically a framework or starting point to develop coherent management ideas and objectives. Non-taxpayer provided funds were also offered.

Knowing how the Department tends to warp reality, copies of the proposal were also sent at the same time to a couple of local news reporters to keep in their files. (In this game you always need some independent third parties who can verify facts when the lies start pouring out.) It was the Department who lacked enthusiasm for developing a strategic plan as it didn't play into their fabricated crisis. Of course, now that the situation is getting hotter, the Department - who doesn't seem to have a clue as to what's really going on with the herd - is trying to position itself as the champions of studying and managing the range using science.

Here are some excerpts from the wild horse groups' 2007 proposal that illustrate both the concerns of the groups and the approaches that the groups wanted to develop.

VIRGINIA RANGE HERD BALANCED POPULATION PROJECT (Relevant excerpts)

Summary

The Virginia Range estray horse herd is one of the largest aggregate herds in Nevada with respect to average population levels. The horses range throughout Storey County, northern and central Lyon County, northwestern Carson City and those portions of Washoe County that abut the Virginia Range. Virginia Range horses fall under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for the management and control of these animals.

The Virginia Range herd is popular with most residents and tourists as the animals are among the most easily observed of Nevada's free-roaming horses. Media polls have consistently shown between two-thirds and seventy percent of the public supports the perpetuation of these horses. The Virginia Range horses have been the historic basis for significant political confrontation and legislation. The first wild horse protection laws in the country involved the Virginia Range horses and the political movement started by Reno resident Velma Johnston eventually led to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

The Virginia Range herd populates a region that is rapidly developing. Grazing acreage is lost every year. Additionally there are few natural predators capable of mitigating horse population growth.

Traditional population management has been by means of trapping or gathering excess and "nuisance" horses. These horses were primarily placed with permanent adopters through cooperative agreements between the Department and competent 501(c)(3) non-profit horse groups. More recently the Department has introduced immunocontraception as a population control method as an alternative to gathering, preparing and placing horses with adoption groups.

Continual development within traditional wild horse ranges has created increased demand for Departmental intervention while at the same time the Department funding is being reduced in response to a general decline in state revenues. It is becoming increasingly evident that private-public partnerships must be developed and a proactive management plan implemented if the Virginia Range horses are to be managed to benefit the horses and that satisfies the public who supports their continued presence.

Primary Objective

Maintain a healthy and viable Virginia Range Herd that is in relative balance with available forage and resources utilizing management techniques that minimize the need to remove horses through trapping.

Examples of Activities

Establish the actual herd population through aerial surveying.

Estimate available forage and calculate Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) that the forage can sustain utilizing established scientific methods.

Employ and evaluate proactive population control measures.

Employ range restoration techniques (e.g., spring restoration, appropriate reseeding, erosion control) where appropriate and approved by (landowner)

Make observations and evaluate the effectiveness of the various approaches utilized.

Provide drift control (fencing) where applicable.

Mitigate situations that produce horse-human conflicts.

Utilize available field experts wherever appropriate.

Publish observations, findings and recommendations.

Use of Experts

The participants may employ experts including, but not limited to, veterinarians, university faculty and students, range biologists, and wildlife ecologists. While the information and recommendations of such experts will be contributed to the entire Project, such experts are the sole responsibility of the Participant or Participants who specifically employ them. The remainder of Participants shall not be responsible for remuneration, expenses and other costs associated with any expert(s) except as may have been specifically agreed to.

The reality is that the wild horse groups and individual advocate-volunteers have historically given consideration to management issues, helped fund studies, helped improve range conditions, helped control weeds, and looked after the horses. And they have the documents to prove it.

Snake Scoop

One of our observers who likes to keep tabs on the coming and goings at the Snake Shack (NDoA's H-Q) saw a few familiar vehicles at and around the department on Monday. They seemed to look a lot like the vehicles used by members of the State Agricultural Board. Dunno yet if any license plates were photographed with a cell phone camera.

If Ag Board members were gathered, hopefully they had enough sense not to have a quorum present without posting a proper public meeting agenda being as required by law, and aren't trying to rig a "walking quorum," or deliberate through illegal "serial communications" - whereupon they might deliberate Ag Board business in violation of the State's open meeting laws.