WE'VE BEEN NOMINATED!

You can help Wild Love Preserve win $50,000 with a simple click of the mouse!

WLP Founder, Andrea Maki, has been nominated for a 2017 Eagle Rare Life Award with this story, submitted by WLP Volunteer Coordinator, Gretchen Pelsma-Talbert. The most votes will put Wild Love Preserve in the running for the Eagle Rare Life Grand Award of $50,000 to benefit Idaho Wild Horse Preservation and WLP Programs. 

"I've known Andrea Maki for 25 years and have witnessed her integrity, dedication, and commitment first-hand. Andrea doesn't waver, she's insistent on honesty and follow-through, and in today's world, it's rare to find a truly altruistic individual. She has inspired me, and countless others, to roll up our sleeves and join her in protecting and preserving wild horses in their indigenous habitats in Idaho and throughout the West.

Since 2010, Andrea's had her art career on hold as she's focused 100% of her time, energy, and resources, on creating an all-inclusive model in wild horse conservation in Idaho, after she promised some Challis wild horses she would do everything she could to help them remain wild and together in their native habitat. Following her promise, Andrea founded her nonprofit called Wild Love Preserve in 2010 and she's made countless road trips between her home in Seattle and the central Idaho high desert to the Challis wild horses. She's been saving wild horses by bringing opposing stakeholders together for the first time, and because of her efforts, not one Idaho wild horse has been shipped out of state to long-term government facilities, since the Bureau of Land Management's 2012 helicopter roundup of the Challis wild horses. 

Kindness, mutual respect, science, and education drive Wild Love Preserve's mission to protect and preserve wild horses in their native habitat and nurture the legacy of respective indigenous ecosystems as an interconnected whole, with regional engagement and benefit. Wild Love Preserve engages public and private lands to address all facets of regional wild horse conservation on home turf in central Idaho: from the 136 Challis, Idaho wild horses WLP adopted following the 2012 Challis BLM helicopter roundup, to their collaborative work on the range and their creation of a permanently protected wild expanse in the heart of Idaho wild horse country. 

Andrea's holistic approach to the preservation of our iconic wild mustangs focuses on our collective well-being by bridging divides and bringing stakeholders together to collaboratively address total range health, sustainable ecosystems, co-existence with all wildlife, and livestock where applicable. She's pioneered a model in wild horse preservation that has garnered national attention and serves as a pilot for other wild horse regions. 

Boots-on-the-ground work, negotiations, policy change... plus she has been tirelessly fundraising for the last six plus years. Raising full project funding has been a challenge, although not surprising when blazing a new trail, establishing a new system and pilot program. In addition to not having the means to take a salary, she has leveraged all of her personal credit resources to cover WLP wild horse program expenditures, while she's simultaneously saved American taxpayers $7.5 million since 2013. No matter the odds, Andrea Maki walks her talk. “Too many people are of a moment, then they are off to the next and assume someone else will take care of it. Hypothetical discussions don’t result in change,” she says. “Change only happens with action.""

- Gretchen Pelsma-Talbert, Boise

Read Story, Vote + Share: http://www.eaglerarelife.com/content/andrea-maki

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