BLM CANCELS ILLEGAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Contact: Kayah Swanson, Deputy Director
712.202.4893
kayah@thecloudfoundation.org
BLM CANCELS ILLEGAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Meeting cancelled after legal action threatened by two advocacy groups
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The Bureau of Land Management has cancelled the March 27-28 National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting after an attorney representing The Cloud Foundation and the American Wild Horse Campaign sent BLM a formal letter in protest of their illegal lack of appropriate public notice.
The meeting, slated to take place in Salt Lake City, was announced on March 13th, in clear violation of the requirement for 30 days of public notice prior to a public meeting in the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
William A. Miller of Scottsdale, AZ, sent BLM the letter threatening legal action against the BLM on March 14, 2018. The BLM then cancelled the meeting on March 16, 2018.
“The BLM must give proper notice so that the public can have a voice on this issue that so many citizens care about,” said Miller. “We will not stand by while this agency trounces federal law in order to restrict the voice of the people and ram through yet another morally bankrupt and unscientific recommendation to kill our American mustangs.”
BLM claimed the meeting was urgent because the tenure of three board members will lapse on March 30, 2018, which still would have required at least 15 days of public notice.
“It’s difficult to understand how the lapsing tenure of these three board members could be considered an urgent matter, when we’ve known the lengths of their terms for three years,” said Lisa Friday, Director of Communications for The Cloud Foundation. “Even so, they still failed to meet the 15-day public notice requirement for urgent matters.”
At the October 2017 National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting in Grand Junction, CO, the board voted to hold the next meeting in Washington, D.C. Instead the meeting was scheduled for Salt Lake City on the home turf of pro-horse slaughter Congressman Chris Stewart.
“It is appropriate that the BLM chose to cancel this meeting, which did not allow for the legally required amount of public notice,” said Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation and Humane Advocate member on the National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board. “I look forward to subsequent meetings which will allow the public and the media ample time to make preparations to attend.”
Members whose terms expire on March 30, 2018 include Ms. Jennifer Sall, Public Interest Representative; Ms. June Sewing, Wild Horse & Burro Advocacy Representative; and Dr. Julie Weikel, DVM, Veterinary Medicine Representative.
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SOURCES:
BLM Meeting Cancellation: https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-postpone-national-wild-horse-and-burro-advisory-board-meeting
Federal Advisory Committee Regulations: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/43/1784.4-2
The Cloud Foundation (TCF) is a Colorado based 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of wild horses and burros on our western public lands.