FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 2010
VOLUNTEER TEAM BREAKS RUBY STORY CONNECTED TO WILD HORSE ROUNDUPS

San Francisco, CA (January 8, 2010)
Advocacy PR and Political Strategists Anne Novak, of CreativePR.net (San Francisco) and Lise Stampfli of GreenDog Campaigns (San Rafael) have broken the story of the smoking gun—The Ruby Pipeline—allegedly behind the massive wild horse roundups, on behalf of their pro bono client, The Cloud Foundation.

Since early October, the two have provided PR and strategic services to The Cloud Foundation bringing to the public's attention the plight of the wild horses and burros of the West. The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud's herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana. Volunteer executive Director, Ginger Kathrens is hailed as the Jane Goodall for the American wild horse and for her Emmy Award-winning documentaries on the Pryor Mountain mustang herds and the famous stallion, Cloud.

A week into the winter roundups, Novak and Stampfli found evidence of the alleged "real" reasons for the mass removal of America's mustangs from the Calico Mountains of Nevada.  Reasons that have nothing to do with protecting the wild horses or the environment, as asserted by BLM spokespersons and Dept. of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

As early as September, Novak's intuitive feeling that something big was behind the rush to round up thousands of wild horses and her persistent on-line research suggested connections between the Ruby Pipeline project of El Paso Gas, a massive natural gas pipeline planned to span from Wyoming across Utah, northern Nevada to southern Oregon, the geographic area of many proposed roundups.  

Stampfli’s quest for reliable scientific data, studies and reasons for the horse removal led her to the BLM Environmental Assessment Comments on the Calico roundup.  Here, she read among the comments several from an environmental group, Western Watersheds Project (WWP). The statements were supportive of horse advocates' position against the roundups.

Previously, Novak's research led her to Cindy MacDonald’s post on her blog American Herds in November 2009. The post contained information from Ruby Pipeline and BLM documents that revealed Ruby's desire for fewer horses on the range and a willingness of BLM managers' willingness to facilitate Ruby's plans with a wild herd removal. When Novak and Stampfli conferred on these findings they realized that under normal circumstances Ruby would be responsible for mitigating any adverse effects on horse population by development of the pipeline, Because horses wander freely between herd management areas, Novak and Stampfli agreed this could be an expensive proposition for Ruby. Early removal of the horses would save Ruby time and money. 

Stampfli contacted Mac Donald and in their discussion MacDonald revealed the author of the WWP comments, Katie Fite, She put the two in touch with each other.

Katie Fite is WWP's biodiversity specialist and has done extensive commentary on the environmental impacts of the Ruby project.  She has 8 years experience observing the range environment and told Stampfli that in her opinion there was "no scientific evidence to support wild horse removal."  Fite and Stampfli also discussed sworn testimony made by BLM employees earlier (in an appeal hearing on grazing) that wild horse damage to the range last year was minimal. They also discussed the Ruby route. The pipeline will be located within 3 miles of the Calico mustang gather site and in proximity of several other roundups. There was an obvious juxtaposition between Ruby's route and the planned gathers from herd management areas (HMAs) along the route.

Stampfli conferred with Novak and the two agreed to discuss links between the Ruby Pipeline and the roundups with their client, Cloud. In the briefing with Cloud, Kathrens asked Stampfli whether she should call 60 Minutes, Stampfli said "Go for it, Anne and I agree. This is the smoking gun we've been looking for."

Novak explains, “After researching the subject and looking for connections, we finally nailed it and it was in front of us all the time. These two women, MacDonald and Fite, had the proof—we just helped make the connections and get the word out." 

“It’s not enough to just have a conspiracy theory about a big corporation's interests running rampant over wild herds,” said Stampfli adding “We looked at BLM’s science. It did not support wild horse and burro removal. Their own field experts testified that horse impacts on the most sensitive regions of the range were minimal. Independent scientific assessment concurred. Bottom line: the wild herds are being removed to facilitate massive developments for resource extraction and delivery."

Of the efforts of Novak and Stampfli Ginger Kathrens has this to say, "Anne and Lise are a dream team. Their energy and passion for America's wild horses and their search for the truth are a gift to all of us. As a result of their efforts the public may now see what is really happening to our horses and burros of the West."

Contact:
Dotty LeMieux, Founder GreenDog Campaigns
8 Willow Street
San Rafael CA 94901
415-485-1040
del@greendogcampaigns.com
www.greendogcampaigns.com

Dotty LeMieux founded GreenDog Campaigns in 1998 and has maintained a steady 75% win rate for women, first time and challenger candidates. She also presents training programs in conjunction with National Women’s Political Caucus, the Democratic Party and other activist groups. Her articles have been published in campaign magazines and online, and she recently presented a nationally broadcast “Webinar” for Winning Campaigns Magazine on the subject of negative campaigning.