PROPOSAL_FINAL__1_.pdf

In Response to Solicitation No.: ADSPO18-00683862 April 30, 2018

SALT RIVER HORSE MANAGEMENT

PROPOSAL

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) is ready and fully prepared to provide all of the services outlined in the Scope of Work. We have more than 100 volunteers with a daily presence in the Tonto National Forest, a comprehensive database that includes detailed records on every member of the herd, established protocols for rescue and range stewardship activities, ten individu-als certified to deliver the PZP birth control vaccine to horses via remote darting, and the equipment (dart projectors, horse trailers, 4x4 vehicles, tools, trucks, game cameras, panels, snow fencing, drones etc.) necessary for implementing all services outlined in the Scope of Work. We also own property adjacent to the Tonto National Forest where we are creating a Wild Horse Welcome Center and staging area for all rescue and range stewardship operations.

Since its founding in 2011 and subsequent incorporation in 2015, the SRWHMG has been engaged in virtually all management responsi-bilities contained in the Scope of Work, including working to:

1. Identify, assess, monitor and provide veterinary treat-ment for any injured/ill Salt River horses and rehabilita-tion.

Over the years, we have monitored 27 horses from the Salt River herd suffering from varying illness or injuries. Most of those horses recovered extremely well on their own without interven-tion, including from very serious injuries or colic, and are still alive on the river today.

Upon assessment and consultation with veterinarians, and authorization from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), we have removed 12 Salt River wild horses who were urgently in need of veterinary treatment or humane euthanasia. Of these, eight have survived and remain under our care.

Further, a�er consulting with qualified veterinarians, we have recommended the euthanasia of six fatally injured wild horses in the field. (Euthanasia was then carried out by deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department.)

Of the horses we removed from the Salt River Horse Herd Area, the following are deceased:

Jewell – Yearling. Captured by dart sedation/ human round pen method. Cause of death was a large flesh wound caused by barbed wire. Surgery was attempted but the outcome was unsuccessful. Euthanized.

Peaches – Yearling. Captured by oral sedation/ human round pen method. Cause of death was severe impaction/ partially dead colon. Euthanized.

Brewster – Yearling. Captured by oral sedation/human round pen method. Cause of death was a shattered diaphragm. Eutha-nized.

Jade – Newborn. Captured by hand carrying. Cause of death was infection a�er major surgery of the fetlock bone. Eutha-nized.

The following horses are rehabilitated or are being rehabilitated and are currently alive:

Rosco – Newborn. Captured by carrying. Rescued at birth a�er abandonment. Now a healthy two year old gelding.

Pacman – One month old. Captured by a search at night and carrying out. Rescued from severe bone infections caused by barbed wire injuries. Now a healthy two-year-old gelding.

Diamond – 1.5 -year-old. Captured by dart sedation, lasso and human round pen. Rescued a�er losing all of his hoof and half of his coffin bone in a cattle guard. A healthy 2.5 year old gelding today.

Salt River Horse Management Proposal | 1

I. SCOPE OF WORK

Salt River Horse Management Proposal | 2

Mori – Three month old. Captured by hand walking down from a mountain. Rescued from severely fractured skull and blind-ness. A�er surgery and rehabilitation, is a healthy 9-month-old filly today.

Red Beauty – 12 years old. Rescued human round pen/ bait trap method, from severe emaciation and digestive tract issues.

Currently recuperating and rehabilitating successfully; making fast improvements in body score and overall health.

Lolly – One week old. Rescued by human round pen method and carrying, from a broken le� phalanx and malnutrition.

Currently under intensive veterinary care.

Old Lady – Over 20 years old. Rescued on Sunday April 29th by bait trap method from severe emaciation/malnutrition. Current-ly under veterinary care.

Our rescued horses, to our knowledge, are the only Salt River horses that no longer live on the lower Salt River in the Tonto National Forest. Rescued horses are trained and given perma-nent refuge at our 15-acre sanctuary in Prescott, AZ or at our property on the Beeline Highway, or at Red Mountain Equine or at AZ Trail Riding -- two affiliated boarding stables where we conduct our training. Our rescue is licensed with the State of Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) (registration number #74).

2. Remove dead horses from the Salt River horse area

Over the past five years, at the request of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) we have arranged and/or paid for the removal of six deceased and or euthanized horses from the Salt River horse area by Trails end Removal. We have pulled an additional six deceased carcasses to a location out of view of the public where they can naturally be disposed of by predators. We also buried one carcass that was mummified in a public location and removed one carcass from the river for sanitation purposes.

3. Implement emergency plans for drought and other situations to manage the Salt River Horse Herd (SRHH)

With permission of the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) and the USFS, the SRWHMG is currently implementing a large-scale emergency feeding protocol to improve body condition for Salt River horses experiencing low body condition due to extreme drought. On one previous occasion in 2017, we provided grass hay for the Butcher Jones horses during colic season.

4. Provide and distribute any necessary supplemental feed and/or water

In 2015, we provided 1,000 gallons of water every three days to the Butcher Jones horses, before they were provided access to Butcher Jones/Saguaro Lake by the USFS. We are willing and able to do the same for the Butcher Jones horses in order to divert them from the highly public and heavily visited recreation area during the busy spring and summer season.

5. Turn branded and/or gelded/spayed horses over to the owner or applicable government agency.

The SRWHMG has removed two domesticated horses from the Salt River horse herd area and turned them over to the AZDA, including a senior pinto horse with arthritis who was abandoned in the Tonto National Forest in early April 2018. We purchased this horse at auction and he now resides at our affiliated board-ing ranch Red Mountain Equine. The previous stray horse was removed in 2012, suffered from Cushings desease, lived a happy one year at our sanctuary and has since been humanely euthanized.

6. Receive written authorization from the AZDA or MCSO prior to interacting with a Salt River horse.

The SRWHMG routinely and appropriately obtains permission from all relevant authorities, including AZDA, USFS, MCSO, Arizona Department of Transportation (AZDOT), before taking any actions related to the Salt River horses and will continue to do so specifically and communicate frequently with the AZDA Salt River Horse Liaison.

Additionally, the SRWHMG is prepared to perform the below duties listed in the Scope of Work.

1. Provide a comprehensive herd health assessment within 60 days of the contract start date and provide updated assessments each quarter.

The SRWHMG has every horse within the Salt River herd docu-mented in our online so�ware database, which is updated with new data and pictures daily. Additionally, our database includes the horses that frequent the river from the Salt River Pima-Marico-pa Reservation across the river from the Tonto National Forest.

We refer to these horses as “Reservation horses,” based on the location of their territories and the fact that they are on reserva-tion lands at least 60 percent of the time. We are familiar with the migratory patterns of individual bands and the herd as a whole.

Our president, Simone Netherlands and 30 of our key field team volunteers are experienced horsewomen and men and we work in close collaboration with our area equine veterinarians, includ-ing AZ Equine Hospital, Southwest Equine Hospital and Prescott Animal Hospital. As such, we are uniquely qualified to promptly and comprehensively conduct a herd health assess-ment upon award of the contract.

2. Create and administer an equine birth control program designed to control the population of the SRHH

The SRWHMG organized a training course by the Science and Conservation Center (SCC) for implementation of PZP immuno-contraception (“ZonaStat-H”) (EPA Registration no. 86833-1) on March 13 -15 in Apache Junction, AZ. At the course, 8 of our volunteers received their certification to receive and/or apply the PZP vaccine to equids in May 2014, a�er attending a certifi-cation course at the SCC headquarters in Billings, MT. This brings to 10 total number of volunteers trained and certified to dart horses with PZP. In addition, the SRWHMG works in close collaboration with the nation’s largest wild horse advocacy

II. RESPONDENT

QUALIFICATIONS

Salt River Horse Management Proposal | 3 organization, the American Wild Horse Campagin (AWHC), which has designed and implemented similar programs on wild horses in Nevada. AWHC sponsored the PZP training for our volunteers.

The SRWHMG has the knowledge, skills and abilities listed in this section. In addition to the experience listed in Section I, this includes:

1. Interacting with horses that have not had direct or hands-on human contact

Under the leadership of SRWHMG President Simone Nether-lands, who has trained over 100 BLM mustangs and has exten-sive horse training experience for over 30 years, we have regularly interacted with individual Salt River horses and horse bands that have had no previous direct or hands on human contact.

Our volunteers receive “wild horse academy” training before they go out in the field so that they may be prepared for any situation that arises with the Salt River wild horses, or with the public.

When necessary, we use natural horsemanship techniques. We employ our own method of forming a human round pen around the horse or horses in question, or forming a half a human round pen behind them. We then walk the horse in question in the desired directions and prevent it/them from going in undesired directions. Sometimes we may use our volunteers on horseback to assist with locations and rescues. With rescues of adult horses, we construct a half roundpen made up of 10 � panels, a�er which we quickly but calmly close the other half of the round pen once the horse in question is in it. With a varying number of volunteers from 4 for small rescues to 60 for the most complicated one, we have safely:

- Moved numerous bands from undesired or dangerous locations by walking/guiding them, sometimes over large distances. We accomplish this by forming a half circle of several people a short distance behind them and applying pressure to the horses and releasing the pressure at the right moments while staying under their stress level in order not to make them jump or run or panic. We are very successful at these calm and non- stress inducing wild horse techniques both at rescues and relocations.

- Let horses back into the fencing when they were accidentally on the wrong side of the fence. We create an opening in the fence and gently coach them through it a�er which we repair the fence. We have authorization to cut and repair fencing in the Tonto National Forest from the U.S. Forest Service.

- We have reunited foals who had accidentally become separat-ed from their mare and/or bands. Using our database, we identify the band and mare to which the foal belongs. Then, organize a search for the foal’s mother and family. When we find both in separate locations, we use two separate teams to walk each the horses in question back toward each other until a reunion occurs. We have done this in cases of foal entrapment or when foals are not able to cross the river a�er their bands have crossed. These reunions require patience and perseverance in harsh weather conditions by very determined people, who are all volunteers and do not receive financial compensation for their time and efforts.

- We, under guidance of a veteranarian, have darted horses with temporary sedatives when natural capture was not possi-ble. We have also used oral sedatives and pain medications.

- We own a large quantity of panels from which we can construct several round pens or traps. We sometimes cover the paneling with construction/snow fencing to reduce the risk of jumping or crashing into paneling. We have never injured a wild horse during a rescue.

- Some of our volunteers are great horseback riders and own and manage riding stables. They are available for emergencies virtually round the clock, seven days a week, and are helpful when a carcass needs to be moved (dragged), a horse needs to be located or guided down from the top of a mountain, as in Mori’s case.

- Several of our volunteers are licensed drone operators who assist in locating and monitoring Salt River wild horses.

To date all of our capture/rescue operations have been success-ful. When we intend to rescue a Salt River wild horse, we have always been able to maneuver, carry, walk, bait trap, or coach the horse to enter our horse trailer regardless of the age of the animal. A�er capture, the horse receives medical treatment, care and sanctuary. We have also performed herd assessments and total head counts from the air by helicopter.

When several Salt River wild horses were shot, we helped MCSO posse members to locate the horses in question and searched for the purpetrator. We also performed a total head count to assure the public that no additional Salt River wild horses had been shot.

2. Eco diversity and managing horses on large areas of land

For the past five years, we have worked hard for and with the USFS on stewardship of the habitat in the Tonto National Forest that the Salt River herd and other wildlife call home. (Many of our volunteers have been involved in stewarding the horses and their habitat for 10 years or longer.) In addition to our horse-relat-ed activities outlined above, our volunteers clean up trash, metal, nails and fishing line on a daily basis and routinely partici-pate in Forest Cleanups by other volunteer organizations to maintain the ecosystem for the horses and other wildlife species and reduce the human-caused pollution and challenges the lower Salt River ecosystem faces.

We have removed many miles of downed and old barbed wire fencing that was installed next to the river approximately 60 years ago when there were still cattle allotments on the Salt River. We believe that we have removed most of it a�er five years of intensive work. Several Salt River wild horses as well as other wildlife have died from barbed wire entanglements, which prompted us to focus efforts to remove it. We also have replaced most of the barbed wire in the Salt River Horse Herd Area within the Tonto National Forest with barbless wire.

Our volunteers routinely check and douse fires that people leave a�er recreating in the Tonto National Forest. During the “Cactus Fire,” we assisted the USFS in monitoring the progress of the fire and the movements of the horses.

Our volunteers open and close the gates early mornings and late evenings at Butcher Jones Road under a volunteer agreement with the Tonto National Forest.

Our volunteers frequent the Tonto National Forest so o�en, some on a daily basis, that they know this land like the back of their hands. They are experienced in desert survival, in swimming and kayaking and in recognizing problems before they start. Our volunteers record everything they experience and see in the Tonto National Forest, including photgraphic and written docu-mentation of changes in the natural habitat and ecosystem. We photograph not only horses, but also trees, vegetation, birds, amphibians, and other mammals. We care about everything that happens in the Tonto National Forest.

Many of our volunteer own off-road vehicles, which facilitate travel over large distances and rough terrain. Many of our volun-teers own kayaks in order to make river travel fast and convenient.

Many of our volunteer also own drones that can cover large distances.

We are currently working on a project with Friends of the Tonto to fence out some newly planted willow and cottonwood sapplings in order to give them a better chance of survival.

3. Knowledge of health and/or caring for a horse at different stages of life

SRWHMG president Simone Netherland is an experienced horsewoman who has bred, trained and cared for horses in all stages of life for the past 30 years. In addition, dozens of SRWHMG volunteers are lifelong horsemen and women with experience providing lifelong care for horses. SRWHMG has cared for wild and domestic horses of all ages removed from the Salt River herd area, from young foals to adult and senior horses, many in need of intensive medical care.

4. Ability to safely provide hands-on care to an undo-mesticated horse in the event of an emergency

SRWHMG possesses the skills, experience, knowledge and equipment to provide hands on care to undomesticated horses in the event of emergency and has done so routinely over the past 5 years. Please see rescues on previous page.

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1. Organizational information

Please see Attachment 1, which includes:

· Organization profile

· Organization background and history

· Organization 501c3 determination letter from the IRS.

· Organization financial information

· Key leadership bios & information

· References

2. Description of computer system and/or so�ware which will be used for tracking horses

SRWHMG CSA (Catalog So�ware Application) is designed and built specifically for the SRWHMG using a secure enterprise application architecture and framework. The design imple-ments open source technologies including: JEE (Oracle Java programming language, Javscript), POSGRES relational database and OS browser independent user interface (JQuery Mobil, Html, Javascript, CSS). Users can add new herds (for example the Heber herd), bands, horses, along with live user comments. Pertinent demographics collected include: horse name, age, gender, migration pattern, genealogy, PZP dates and dosages. All the data collected can be used to determine herd overall health, birth rate, and additionally photos help identify each horse including body color, mane color, nose pattern, and leg color patterns.

The so�ware itself is owned by Augunautics.com, the company of the so�ware engineer who built it, and would not become property of the State of Arizona, but the database and the server it runs on is owned by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and access and quarterly reports will be provided to the State of Arizona. The database includes individual identification of all horses, including photographs and written descriptions of their markings and colors, band affiliation, and various notes.

Collected data currently includes births, deaths, annual foaling and mortality rates. The database has been created for tracking fertility control application as well, and complete records on vaccination histories will be maintained. (See Attachment 3, Section II for further details.)

III. OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

V. RESPONDENT HORSE

MANAGEMENT PLAN

A Horse Management Plan is included at Attachment 3.

The SRWHMG will develop in consultation with the Depart-ment a detailed financial plan for all responsibilities outlined in the RFP. SRWHMG raises revenues through a number of proven fundraising strategies, including online solicitations and campaigns; annual fundraising events; grant applications to foundations and corporate sponsorship solicitations. We also have a commitment from the nation’s largest wild horse advoca-cy organization, the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) to provide financial assistance to support this program. AWHC has an annual budget of $1.1 million and has successfully provided similar assistance to other organizations in the United States.

In our 2017 financial plan, we budgeted for a wide range of management activities, including fees for horse removal, veteri-nary, supplemental feed, and the purchase of land for a Salt River Horse visitor center. We have met all of our financial goals in previous years and are confident future revenues will be more than sufficient to meet the financial obligations attendant to this

RFP.

Salt River Horse Management Proposal | 5

IV. RESPONDENT

EMERGENCY PLAN

A written action plan for emergencies is included at Attachment 2.

VI. FINANCIAL PLAN