Park Service Puts Up Pryor Signage

Park Service Puts Up Pryor Signage

Dear Supporters of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd;

I want to share the following letter we received this week from the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (BCNRA) regarding signage which they have erected along the paved Park Highway. It alerts motorists that there are animals on the road. We appreciate your emails and letters encouraging this action by the BCNRA in response to the hit and run deaths of the band stallion, Admiral, and his yearling son, Climbs High (Kapitan is his BLM name) along the park highway last summer.

Climbs High, May 2011

As you may recall, the driver of a truck, Adam Finn of Germantown TN, was intoxicated when he ran them down at 2 am  on July 24th. His case is being heard in the Lander, WY U.S. District Court and, as yet, no decision has been reached. Mr. Finn drove away from the accident, but his truck broke down about a mile from the crime scene. Authorities found him still drunk in his truck the next morning.

We appreciate the signage which the BCNRA put up this fall to alert drivers that animals may be on the road. It is common to see not only wild horses, but bighorn sheep and deer as well as smaller animals along the highway, hence the generic nature of the signs.

Photo Courtesy: Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

Thanks for speaking up. Your voices made a difference!

Happy Trails!
Ginger

 

Winter Ready Mustangs & A Longshot

An Update on Cloud and the Pryor Herd – Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friends of Cloud, his family and herd;

Our trip to the mountaintop late last month was a difficult one. At least six inches of snow had fallen several days before we began our drive up scenic Crooked Creek Road, just reopened after summer-long repairs. Our late start found us in the dark as Lauryn and I passed the Big Ice Cave. Within minutes, we were in snow following the tracks of at least one other vehicle which gave us hope of reaching the horse range. Then the tracks ahead stopped and turned around, and so did we. There was no getting through the wet drifts so we backtracked. Halfway down Crooked Creek, our headlights lit up a little red fox as it dashed across the road. It’s only the second fox I’ve seen on the mountain in 17 years.

We both agreed if we were to find Cloud and the rest of the mountaintop horses, it would not be on the “easy” road.

Bighorn ram & ewe

The next morning we made a trip out to the Dryhead to see if we could find Climbs High’s mother and the band. No luck. But we did see 15 Bighorn sheep including 7 that were foraging on mountain mahogany near the Devil’s Canyon Overlook. A young half-curl ram joined the ewes and lambs, clearly interested in one female in particular. Back on the main road we rounded a curve and came face-to-face with the young grullo band stallion, Fiero, and his little family as they strolled down the roadside.

Court Allows The Cloud Foundation, AWHPC, & ISPMB to Intervent on Behalf of Mustangs in Southern Wyoming

The fight for wild horses on our public lands presses on. Recently the largest “welfare ranching” organization in our country, the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an effort to remove all wild horses from the “checkerboard” lands of southern Wyoming. These lands encompass roughly 2 million acres of square mile sections—one square mile of private land, then one mile of public land, 20 miles wide on both sides of the freeway.  This hodgepodge of public and private land was created in the 1800s when the railroad was built and investors wanted to encourage settlement.

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Sierra’s Return: The Journey of a Freedom Fund Mare (New video!)

Dear Friends of Cloud’s Herd & the Freedom Fund horses;

As many of you know, a devastating 2009 roundup of Cloud’s Herd in the Pryor Mountains included the permanent removal of an entire sub-population of Pryor Mustangs living outside the designated boundaries of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range on Commissary Ridge in the Custer National Forest.

Sierra & the rest of her band driven into the trap atop Commissary Ridge, Sept. 2009

Those horses included then 21 year-old Grumpy Grulla, Raven’s mare for many years, and 19 year-old,Conquistador, the striking dun who Cloud fought with in my first PBS documentary about the Pryor wild horses. In all, we ended up with four little bands, which included a blaze-faced, 13 year-old chestnut mare named Sierra.  I have known her all her life, and I knew the three foals I can confirm she gave birth to. The first two foals were likely killed by mountain lions, but the third—the light sorrel with the blazed-face lived to adulthood.

An Update Video on the Divide Basin Roundup

Dear Wild Horse Champions; We invite you to screen the linked 10-minute story about our trip late last month to the vast, sage-covered landscapes of southern Wyoming. Lauryn Wachs and I attended the roundup of wild horses in the Great Divide Basin. As many of you know, I would rather be strung up by my thumbs than attend these sad and savage events. It blows me away that our tax dollars are still being wasted on helicopter roundups to scour the land of these beautiful creatures. But, the program speaks for itself—both to the beauty of the land and the horses.

Take Easy Action for Nevada Wild Horses

Submit your own comments for the Pancake Complex herds

Dear Wild Horse & Burro Supporters;

Nevada wild horse herds are on the chopping block in FY 2012 with roundups scheduled to begin in the dead-of-winter… again!

An old mare chased to exhaustion at the
Antelope Complex roundup, January 2011

It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know

An Update on Seneca & Hightail

Dear Friends of Cloud and his herd;

Time heals all wounds, so they say, and that appears to be the case with Seneca and Hightail. These two mares were left with no band stallion when a drunk driver plowed into Admiral and then his yearling son, Climb’s High, in the dead of night. Both horses were killed on July 24^th, 2011.*

When we were leaving the range at the end of our July-early August trip we reported seeing the two mares with Climbs High’s two-year old brother, Jesse James, and what looked like the 4 year-old bay bachelor, Hickok. They were far away dots on the distant hills, but we thought the bright, solid bay might be Hickok. A month later we would know for sure.

Pryor Scoping Letter Issued

BLM Seeks Another Removal in Cloud’s Herd

August 16, 2011

Dear Friends of Cloud, his family, and herd;The BLM Billings Field Office mailed a Scoping Letter to interested parties on July 28th, stating their intent to reach an “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 90-120 adult wild horses, one year of age and older in the Pryor Mountains. If they carry out this plan 45 to as many as 75 horses would be removed in 2012. We cannot allow this to happen.Our position is clear—there is absolutely no need for any removals. Little Lynx

Tragedy on the Pryor Mountains

A Tribute to Climbs High and his father, Admiral

Dear Cloud Friends;

Lauryn, our Cloud Foundation whiz kid, and Erin, our college intern from Michigan, traveled with me from Colorado to the Pryor Mountains on July 27, 2011. It was a bittersweet journey.  In the early evening we drove to the low desert country in the Pryors, knowing that two of our “greeters” at the horse range gate, Admiral and his yearling son, Climbs High (Kapitan), had been struck and killed by a drunk driver just three days before. Admiral Climbs High - June 2011

The Fight to Save Nevada’s Wild Horses

The Cloud Foundation files lawsuit against BLM

Dear Friends of our Wild Horses and Burros;

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful 4^th of July! In the spirit of freedom for our wild horses, the Cloud Foundation filed a lawsuit against the BLM in Nevada to prevent the removal and warehousing of over 1,700 wild horses from their vast 1.7 million acre home in northeastern Nevada (Maverick-Medicine, Triple B, Cherry Creek and Antelope Valley West Herd Management Areas).