Green

Off the reins

Wild horse advocates launched opposition campaign against efforts to spay wild horse populations, citing dangers to the horses and potentially unethical methods of population control.

“This cruel plan could kill many federally protected wild horses,” said Anne Novak, director of California-based organization Protect Mustangs, in a statement. “We oppose spaying wild mares in the field because it’s a high risk procedure. The BLM is charged with protecting wild horses, not putting their lives in jeopardy.”

The Wild Horse and Burro department of the BLM uses spaying and horse roundups to control horse population in several western states, including Nevada (“Running wild, Oct. 11). Protect Mustangs is asking for an audit, conducted by an independent party, to determine if spaying is a necessary procedure.

“Show us an independent headcount and then let’s talk about overpopulation—if it’s a realistic concern,” Novak said. “Right now we see the BLM inflating the population numbers to justify rampant million dollar roundups, money dumped into fertility research and funds spent to warehouse 50,000 captive wild horses. Today maybe 17,000 are left in all 10 Western states. This could be the end for America’s indigenous free roaming wild horse.”

Protect Mustangs is one of several wild horse advocacy groups filing complaints against the BLM for its treatment of horses.

PHO TO/A SHLEY HENNEFER

David vonSeggern is a member of the Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club, which filed an appeal against the Bureau of Land Management.

Through the pipeline

Storm clouds for Romney

An ad, in which a clip of Mitt Romney’s climate change joke at the Republican National Convention is contrasted with footage of Hurricane Sandy, has gone viral.

In his speech, Romney made light of Obama’s pledge to tackle environmental issues. The joke garnered a laughing response from the audience, and the speech and the reaction were widely distributed on the internet. Back in August, a report in Forbes stated, “He didn’t simply dismiss global warming, or reject policies intended to address or mitigate against sea level rise, which is closely tied to global warming. … Romney took this a step further: he used the very idea of controlling sea level rise as a mere rhetorical device, a laugh line to mockBarack Obama’s grandiosity.”

The new ad, created by ClimateSilence.org, a project organized by nonpartisan political project Forecast the Facts, was released last week. It’s called “Romney vs. Sandy,” and starts with Romney saying, “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet.” The audience responded with laughter and subsequent cheering, which the video then plays behind images of Hurricane Sandy, including footage of crumbling houses, drowned vehicles and children sleeping in temporary shelters. It concludes with a screen that reads, “Tell Mitt Romney: Climate change isn’t a joke.”

—Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

A discussion about environmental art will be held on Nov. 8. Bill Fox, director for the Center for Art+Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, will talk about the center’s efforts to promote environmental art from the 1790s to the present. Free. 7:30 p.m., Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada Building, 605 Washington St. For more information, contact Valerie Andersen at 544-3061 or gbg-programs@toiyabe.sierraclub.org.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/RNRGreen for more.

Environmental groups win court ruling against the Ruby natural gas pipeline

A Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling recently found the Ruby natural gas pipeline in violation of several environmental laws, including jeopardizingby Ashley Hennefer endangered species, which means that the owners of the pipeline must take measures to demonstrate conservation. Lawsuits have been in the works since 2010 after the pipeline was first approved, according to David von Seggern, ashleyh@ emeritus professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and member of thenewsreview.com Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club, a national conservation project. The Sierra Club is part of a group of organizations which filed a formal appeal, Center for Biological Diversity v. BLM (Bureau of Land Management), against BLM and Fish and Wildlife Services. Other filing organizations include the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Great Basin Resource Watch and the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe. “Mainly, we objected to the pipeline route which went through Northern Nevada without regard for our wildlife,” von Seggern says. “It was the preferred route by the contractor but not preferred route by environmentalists.” The Sierra Club had presented alternative routes, which von Seggern says were “not even considered.” The Sierra Club had also filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals, but the group will withdraw this case as a result of the ruling. The pipeline was authorized by BLM in 2010 and is owned and operated by Kinder Morgan LLC. It’s a 42-inch-wide pipe that extends more than 678 miles from Malin, Ore., to Opal, Wyo. Construction completed last year, and transport of natural gas began in summer 2011. Alarge portion of the pipeline crosses through Northern Nevada. While von Seggern says the Sierra Club’s issues with the pipeline were largely about the pipeline’s route, the case had a stronger chance if it focused on the threat of endangered species. According to the case document, the pipeline “encompasses approximately 2,291 acres of federal lands and crosses 209 rivers and streams that support federally endangered and threatened fish species.” The Fish and Wildlife Service ruled out any threat to these species, including the Lahontan cutthroat trout, Warner sucker, Lost River sucker, shortnose sucker and Modoc sucker which “inhabit waters in Nevada, Oregon or both,” and allowed the BLM to move forward with the pipeline. But the three-judge panel of the court ruled that this violates the terms of the Endangered Species Act. Von Seggern notes that the Sierra Club’s efforts were focused solely on concern for wildlife. “We want to make it clear that we pursued this lawsuit not to stop natural gas production,” says Von Seggern. “We’re not opposed to what they did. We simply wanted to make their pipeline as environmental safe to protect local wildlife. It was the policy of the Sierra Club to support natural gas as a good alternative to coal.” Areport by the Associated Press indicates that the BLM agreed to 12 efforts to protect endangered fish populations, “but committed to fully funding only seven of them.” Mitigations would include improving vegetation along streams and building migration barriers. Von Seggern says that the Sierra Club is “still trying to figure out what the court ruling will demand” of the BLM, which has 90 days to respond to the ruling. Ω