From: Shawna_Richardson@nv.blm.gov Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:37 AM To: Cathy Barcomb Cc: Andrea_Felton@blm.gov Subject: RE: FW: Wild Horse and Burro Briefing Hi Cathy, The Stone Cabin horses are normal size and conformation for wild horses, but what sets them apart is the coloring. This herd has the "Stone Cabin Grey" which was evidently a favorite of Velma. They are normal bay, brown or black when young, but then "grey out" and are white by old age. Some of the blacks start by getting a "frosty" tail or mane which is neat looking. Some of the horses had an "undercoat" that was grey. They weren't really a roan, but not really a grey or solid color either. We had a time trying to decide what to call the color. In 1998 there were a lot of club foot horses that were put down. Luckily, this time, there were only a few. In the Stone Cabin HMA, we captured 3 Nellis mares that had the AB brand from fertility control study. I think that what you have asked from the USFS is right on. At the close of our meeting with them, we essentially told them that we disagreed, but wouldn't appeal, and that they would have to defend their rationale with data to the public. John is stuck on modeling, but fails to admit that he has no real history or experience in the WHB program. He doesn't not put any weight in the census results either. During our flight in January 2007 before the gather, we did find about 124 horses on the Monitor WHT, and not as many on the Saulsbury HMA (146), but this was due to lack of snow. The pilot made the comment that he rarely sees horses up on the WHT in the summer either, and he has been flying these areas a long time (John Kelly). The winter habitat is small, small, small, and the USFS fails to recognize where horses are using -- they are looking at the numbers (124 were counted there, so 124 can be supported). Even the locals agree that the USFS is trying to set the AML to high, and needs to look at the limitations on the BLM lands. The other problem I have is the USFS drastically cutting the Little Fish Lake WHT AML. They say that the condition studies show that the range is in really bad shape, but that was not my impression when I censused and gathered the area. With the Fish Creek Complex to the north and the Stone Cabin Complex to the south now at AML, I think we need to back off and let things equalize before we make any more cuts. I do not believe that USFS has the rationale to cut the AML, but there isn't much that we (BLM) can do. At the close of our meeting with them, John said that he would take another look at the winter range calculations for Little Fish Lake, and re-run the modelling. I'd like to see if he did. I'll try to remember to bring some pictures of the Stone Cabin gather for you and Dawn. Shawna Richardson Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Battle Mountain Field Office Battle Mountain, Nevada 775-635-4181 "Cathy Barcomb" To 02/14/2007 09:29 cc AM Subject RE: FW: Wild Horse and Burro Briefing Good to hear. What "type" of horses are the stone cabin horses....size, color. Many herd area's I'm familiar with the type of horses but can't say I know that much about the Stone Cabin horses other than the fertility control debacle of many years ago. I will set the meeting for March 7th in Reno. I will ask Susie Stokke if we can hold it at the BLM office. You saw their request as to "what" we want. I have already told them to be prepared to address all the comments in the letters but he felt that was too broad and wanted more clarification?????? I am going to repeat to him that we want the monitoring, censusing, etc to justify the numbers they are setting, how the calculations were done (AUM's) and also addressing the NEPA, etc issues, basically compliance with regs, plans, and policy. Roy said he has two excellent FS plans from other areas right now, and horse him to be complimentary is not usual. The FS are acting like they are from two different planets. We will be bringing the other plans with us. Is there anything specific you want me to include to Steve to bring or justify? -----Original Message----- From: Shawna_Richardson@nv.blm.gov [mailto:Shawna_Richardson@nv.blm.gov] Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 4:12 PM To: Cathy Barcomb Cc: Andrea_Felton@blm.gov Subject: Re: FW: Wild Horse and Burro Briefing At this time, I can make the meeting. The Stone Cabin Complex gather went extremely well. The Tonopah WHB Specialist Andrea Felton is doing a great job. We had a safe gather with few horses injured, killed or put down. Andrea also did a good job of selecting good horses to return to the range. Shawna Richardson Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Battle Mountain Field Office Battle Mountain, Nevada 775-635-4181 "Cathy Barcomb" To 02/12/2007 10:10 cc AM Subject FW: Wild Horse and Burro Briefing Will this work for you? I will contact Dawn and also Andrea about being available via phone, I am going to invite Roy Leach from NDOW as well. Is there anybody else we should include on this meeting (briefing)? -----Original Message----- From: Steven Williams [mailto:swilliams01@fs.fed.us] Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 11:00 AM To: Cathy Barcomb Cc: John A Rademacher; Kathleen Lucich; Randy Sharp Subject: RE: Wild Horse and Burro Briefing Cathy, We should be available to meet with you on March 7, 2007. We plan on driving from Austin and we can be there by 10 am. Because we need to get back to Austin that day, we would like to have about 2 hours to make a presentation and answer questions. We hope that our presentation will answer most of your questions and address your concerns. You mentioned that you would like to be briefed on all of the comments that we've received, however we did receive a substantial number of comments so it would be helpful if you consolidated and prioritized specific concerns that are most important to you. We can then gear our presentation towards those concerns. We may have handouts so if you could let me know how many copies we should bring, I would appreciate it. I also need to know the address where you want to meet us. Steven Williams District Ranger Austin/Tonopah Ranger Districts 775-964-2671 ---- IP 6309 or 775-482-6286 swilliams01@fs.fed.us