A new project has been opened in ePlanning and two documents have been uploaded.
Areas within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities will be closed to all public entry during the incident, with the exception of contractor personnel and observers escorted by BLM staff, according to the Decision Record.
The map on page 4 indicates that the entire HMA will be closed plus lands to the east and west.
The Swasey HMA, listed in the schedule with Cedar Mountain, was not mentioned.
It is if you’re the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in mass sterilization and instigator of the largest attempted eradication of wild horses in Nevada.
This chart shows what can happen after a genetic bottleneck, which occurs when wild horses are removed from an established herd.
Which path do the advocates prefer?
Consider the opinion piece in PJ Media, co-authored by the executive director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, that Google censored.
“Without on-range fertility management, herd populations will quickly recover, triggering another gather in just a few short years.”
“[R]eforms must mandate comprehensive fertility management alongside every future gather and establish a clear timeline to phase out roundups altogether.”
They don’t want the high road to recovery.
They want the low load to extinction, to be achieved with never-ending fertility control.
They are enemies of the horses and servants of the ranchers.
The purpose of the RFI is to identify suppliers that can meet the requirement of services within one hour as specified in the Performance Work Statement.
The place of performance is the Double Devil Wild Horse and Burro Corrals, seven miles northwest of Alturas, CA in the Modoc NF.
The Forest Service does not intend to award a contract on the basis of the RFI or to pay for the information solicited.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that gather plans for the Little Fish Lake JMA and Stone Cabin Complex complied with the immediacy requirement of the WHB Act according to an opinion filed today.
The panel noted that the Act requires the BLM to promulgate gather plans that remove excess animals as promptly as logistically and reasonably possible but grants the agency significant latitude to determine what is logistically and reasonably possible, concluding that neither of the plans ran afoul of that provision.
Snippet from statute: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death
Snippet from manual: To protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
The traps may have been activated on October 20 but no horses were caught until October 25, referred to above as Day 1.
The capture total includes 2 stallions, 7 mares and 2 foals.
The stallions were released on Day 2.
Youngsters represented 18.2% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 22.2% were male and 77.8% were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
A map at the gather page shows trap sites and closure areas.
Up to 43 mares will be treated with fertility control and released, prolonging the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
The HMA is not subject to permitted grazing but is adjacent to BLM and FS allotments.
Participants in the one-time invitation-only pesticide roundtable are now preaching the gospel of never-ending fertility control.
A few days ago, Return to Normal (Before WHB Act), a signatory to the “Path Forward” and close supporter of the ranchers, reiterated its support for humane population reduction, a ploy to substitute chemical extermination for motorized removal.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in mass sterilization and another participant in the roundtable, has jumped on the bandwagon with a ridiculous piece in PJ Media about the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The writers pointed to the Callaghan roundup, noting that “Without on-range fertility management, herd populations will quickly recover, triggering another gather in just a few short years.”
That’s a good thing, an admission that helicopters, unlike fertility control, don’t cause irreparable harm.
They questioned why the agency relies on roundups instead of ovary-killing pesticides, which have “fiscal and moral advantages.”
Historically, the agency has opted for the lesser of two evils and we should be grateful for that.
That does not alleviate the need for other options, such as restoring lands now designated as HAs, purging the bureaucracies of ranchers and ranching sympathizers, and converting allotments to wild horse preserves as American Prairie has done for bison in Montana.
As for the advocates, they can be ignored. They are stuck in a mental prison of their own making and have nothing to offer America’s wild horses.
The diktat directs the BLM, FWS and BOR to identify lands that can be made available for livestock grazing according to the news release.
The BLM has 60 days to present a plan to eliminate its permit renewal backlog and 30 days to identify new lands for grazing.
The announcement did not indicate if aerial shooting of wild horses was an acceptable method for achieving the goals or if kissing rancher ass would sway the results of next week’s elections.
Aerial operations may be winding down but there are 162 unaccounted-for animals as of Day 12.
1,035 – 860 – 0 – 13 = 162
Note that all but one of the deaths were intentional, animals euthanized for physical defects.
The advocates would have you believe that most deaths are due to helicopters so you’ll demand an end to roundups (which don’t inflict irreparable harm) and support their ruinous darting programs (which do).
UPDATE: The BLM has revised the death count which now stands at one accidental, attributable to the roundup, and 16 intentional, which would have occurred if a low-stress method such as bait trapping was used instead of a helicopter.
Snippet from statute: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death
Snippet from manual: To protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
The sidebar at the gather page says 1,014 horses captured, 98% of the goal.
One horse was dispatched on Day 10 for a physical defect.
The death rate is 1.2%.
To date, all deaths are intentional.
The capture total includes 360 stallions, 429 mares and 224 foals.
Youngsters represented 22.1% of the animals gathered, a sign of genetic vigor.
Of the adults, 45.6% were male and 54.4% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
An unspecified number of mares will be treated with fertility control and returned to the range, prolonging the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
The Complex is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 12,156 AUMs per year
Water: 10,130 gallons per day
Public lands within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding pens are closed to the public, with the exception of observers escorted by BLM staff.
The advocates like to lecture us about roundups and loss of freedom but next week on November 3 they’ll vote for totalitarians (candidates with a D by their name) who would enslave us to an all-powerful centralized government.
They want the commies to win—another reason why you shouldn’t give them a penny.
The DNA for the roundup said all of the horses would be removed but some would be held for two growing seasons and returned to the HMA after the land recovered.
With most of them still on the range per court order, leaving the HMA at 5X AML, there is probably little if any interest in repatriating those in off-range holding.
Which of the following characteristics can you associate with this dedicated practitioner of sustained fertility control?
a. Permanent infertility.
b. Destruction of breeding populations.
c. Loss of genetic diversity.
d. Irreversible decline.
e. Victory for ranchers.
The correct answer, not listed, is all of the above.
Which of the characteristics can you associate with low flying helicopters?
If your faithful public servants have a statutory responsibility protect free-roaming horses, why is fertility control an accepted management strategy?
