DECLARATION OF CAROLYN CAREY – PAGE 1

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

AMERICAN WILD HORSE PRESERVATION CAMPAIGN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. THOMAS VILSACK, Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture, et al., Defendants,

and, CALIFORNIA CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION, CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION, PUBLIC LANDS COUNCIL, NATIONAL CATTLEMEN’S BEEF ASSOCIATION, MODOC COUNTY, WILLIAM FLOURNOY, CAROLYN AND JAMES PETER CAREY, and MIKE BYRNE,

Proposed Defendant-Intervenors

Case No. 1:14-cv-485-ABJ

DECLARATION OF CAROLYN CAREY

IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO INTERVENE

BY PROPOSED DEFENDANT-INTERVENORS,

CALIFORNIA CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION, ET AL.

I, Carolyn Carey, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, do hereby declare as follows:

1. I am over eighteen years of age and am competent to testify from my first-hand

knowledge as to the matters set forth in this Declaration. I currently reside in Alturas, CA, and

can be reached at P.O. Box 1892, Alturas, CA 96101.

2. I and my husband James Peter Carey are owners of Carey Ranches. We graze

cattle on the Avanzino Ranch, which consists of both private ranchland and some public lands

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DECLARATION OF CAROLYN CAREY – PAGE 2

under fence within the Modoc National Forest (“MDF”). The MDF erroneously included the

Avanzino Ranch in the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory (“WHT”) boundary. We have not

agreed nor signed an agreement to manage wild horses on our private ranch lands.

3. The Avanzino Ranch is located adjacent to the WHT at issue in this case and has

been negatively impacted by wild horse overpopulation. In recent years, water has been a major

concern, as several consecutive years of drought have depleted many of our formerly reliable

sources of water on the public and private lands where we graze livestock. In January of this

year, we observed about 30 mares and their offspring on the Avanzino Ranch. In past years, we

have been supporting anywhere from 30 to 100 head of wild horses on that private property. As

the wild horse population has continued to increase, the problem with ingress onto our private

ranch lands has been exacerbated. When population size is within AML, few or no wild horses

use our private lands.

4. Unless wild horse population size is managed within the AML, use by excess wild

horses will continue to be unsustainable. We support the Forest Service’s decision to establish a

new AML that is based on actual monitoring—a necessary step to maintain wild horse

populations within the AML, maintain rangeland health, protect the forage base necessary for

other uses, and ensure wild horses remain healthy. Until the current litigation is resolved, the

Forest Service is not in a position to implement the necessary actions.

5. I and my husband have great compassion for horses, and have been personally

involved in long-standing efforts to work with the Forest Service to better manage the wild horse

population in the Modoc National Forest. We have been active participants in the development

of the Devil’s Garden Territory Management Plan (“TMP”) and its environmental assessment

(“EA”), which are at issue in this case.

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DECLARATION OF CAROLYN CAREY – PAGE 3

6. We have also collaborated with the Natural Resources Conservation Service

(“NRCS”) to establish a Wetlands Reserve Program Grazing Plan easement on portions of our

private property on the Avanzino Ranch. The easement is designed to restore and/or maintain

wetlands and wildlife habitat. One of the easement’s prescriptions is to preclude wild horses

from being on those portions of the property because they destroy habitat for migratory and

resident waterfowl, which are dependent on certain vegetative structures that the horses destroy.

We are at risk of losing the NRCS easement and significant compensation for meeting its

restrictions and requirements (estimated at $1,238,685) if the Forest Service does not properly

control the horse population and remove them from our private property, as is their legal

obligation. Until this litigation is resolved, and wild horse numbers reduced, it is unlikely the

Forest Service will be able to meet this requirement.

7. In addition to impacts on water resources and forage, the horses tend to knock

down hundreds of feet of fencing, both along the WHT boundary as well as the fencing along our

adjacent private lands. Because the Devil’s Garden is heavily punctuated with lava rock, it is

impossible to dig post holes, and fences must be held up by rock piles and wire. With this

construction, horses can tear down hundreds of feet of fence at a time. We spend weeks each

year replacing downed fences prior to turning out our cattle on the Avanzino Ranch. Because

the Ranch is normally inaccessible during the winter and early spring months, we are unable to

manage and monitor fences and horses trespass on our private property.

8. As noted in the EA, vast sections of fencing along the WHT are no longer

functioning properly and competition for resources between wild horses and permitted livestock

has become the norm since 2006. These impacts have led to substantially increased operating

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costs for fence maintenance, forage utilization monitoring, and pasture rental to replace the

pastures which can no longer be used to graze livestock.

9. A significant number of wild horses trespass onto our private lands in the

Avanzino Ranch from both the western (Carr Allotment) and eastern (Timbered Mountain

Allotment) sides. A very large group of horses—previously estimated at 150 or more—have

overrun the Timbered Mountain Pasture on the Carr Allotment, which is adjacent to the

Avanzino Ranch. On the eastern side, horses congregate around the stock tank and spring in the

Black Rock pasture of the Timbered Mountain Allotment, just outside our fence. When wild

horses congregate around watering holes they are very aggressive and chase off domestic

livestock and wildlife. Given our ongoing drought conditions the loss of any water makes it

difficult, if not impossible, to properly manage habitat and livestock. Both of these areas where

horses congregate are public lands that were incorrectly included in the WHT. Because the

horses are heavily concentrated in these areas that are adjacent to the Avanzino Ranch, they

regularly trespass onto our private lands. Thus, both the boundary modification and population

reduction will help stem the flow of horses onto our private lands and reduce or eliminate

fencing problems.

10. Implementation of the Territory Management Plan through gathers is also critical

to stopping the further degradation of the range due to wild horse overpopulation on both the

public and private lands in and adjacent to the WHT. Only by achieving the AML can the public

and private lands return to healthy conditions that support and achieve a thriving natural

ecological balance in the area for wild horses, grazing, and wildlife. Up until now, we have been

forced to reduce grazing and have made additional elective reductions to compensate for wild

horse impacts. Despite these reductions in livestock use, the impacts are becoming increasingly

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DECLARATION OF CAROLYN CAREY – PAGE 5

severe and costly. With so many horses on the range and not enough food, water and space for

all of them (not to mention our livestock), wild horses often suffer heavy losses during the winter

from starvation and thirst, as occurred during the winter of 1992-1993.

11. Management of the wild horses must be brought back to properly manageable

levels, in line with the feed and water available for them, the wildlife, and livestock. The steps

outlined in the TMP, including the AML changes and proposed gathers, are a necessary and

humane way to bring the horse population back to sustainable levels and honor the grazing rights

of permit holders. Livestock are moved when feed and water conditions dictate; hunting seasons

and quotas are changed to manage wildlife. The Forest Service has a duty to manage wild

horses, too, in a timely way for their own well-being as well as that of the habitat.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed on August 20, 2014.

/s/ Carolyn Carey Carolyn Carey

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