The update, published in the Federal Register, would revise part 1600, including subparts 1601 and 1610, and establish a new subpart at 1611.
A new section 1610.10 would specify that land use plans consist of (1) desired resource use and condition objectives, (2) designations identified by statute, regulation or national policy of lands for exclusive purposes, such as areas of critical environmental concern or herd management areas, (3) lands allocated for allowable uses, and (4) management direction needed to achieve the resource use and condition objectives.
There are no requirements for elucidation of resource allocations in areas identified for wild horses and burros, including the rationale and statutory warrant therefor.
No language was added that would curtail the influence of special interests and remove insiders devoted thereto.
The management plan allows 390, plus an unspecified number of livestock.
A helicopter will push the horses into the traps.
The contractor is Cattoor.
The contract amount is $397,025 but that covers 640 horses at Swasey and Cedar Mountain. Proration gives $310,176 for Cedar Mountain at a unit cost of $620.
Public lands near trap sites and holding pens are off limits except for observers escorted by BLM staff.
Animals identified for removal will be taken to the Sutherland and Axtell off-range corrals.
There are no plans to treat the mares with fertility control and return them to the range, which would prolong the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
This is a huge disappointment to the advocates, who want the herd subdued with PZP.
The incident concluded on November 8 with 124 horses captured, 122 shipped, none released and two dead.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
Operations began on November 3 and the average daily take was 20.7.
The death rate was 1.6%.
The capture total included 49 stallions, 57 mares and 18 foals.
The roundup liberated 1,488 AUMs per year for other mandated uses of public lands.
There were no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control and return them to the range, a huge disappointment to the advocates.
They want comprehensive fertility management alongside every gather with a clear timeline to eliminate roundups according to an October 27 opinion piece in PJ Media.
The state claims that federal grazing permits are limited to domestic livestock raised for production according to a report by KRTV News, an excuse manufactured by ranching interests who see the arrangement as a threat to their hegemony.
An attorney for American Prairie stated in a September 4 news release that “The court’s ruling recognizes what American Prairie has argued from the beginning, that the Taylor Grazing Act does not require a grazing operation to focus exclusively on production and ignore conservation or restoration.”
Consider their remarks about roundups in an October 27 opinion piece:
Without on-range fertility management, herd populations will quickly recover, triggering another gather in just a few short years.
Recovery is what you want, unless you’re a hunter or rancher.
Their solution? Never-ending fertility control, the path to extinction.
By neglecting on-range fertility management, BLM allows wild horse populations to surge past the population targets it has set, which inevitably leads to costly and disruptive emergency roundups as the agency scrambles to restore the status quo and protect the interests of permit-holders.
How much more evidence do you need? They want the ranchers to win.
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.
A mare was euthanized for an abscess on Day 4.
A colt crashed into a pipe panel on Day 5, breaking his neck.
The death rate is 1.8%.
The capture total includes 42 stallions, 51 mares and 16 foals.
Youngsters represented 14.7% of the animals gathered, too low to sustain a herd growth rate of 15-20% per year.
Of the adults, 45.2% were male and 54.8% were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap was not disclosed.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control and return them to the range, which would prolong the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 1,308 AUMs per year
Water: 1,090 gallons per day
Public lands within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities will be closed to the public for the duration of the roundup.
The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is investigating several reports of illness and death that may be linked to contaminated feed according to its news release.
Inspectors are collecting samples for analysis and testing.
Laub’s Feeding and Cubing has issued a voluntary recall of its product although this is not mentioned at its website.
A story by KOLO News says TI Ranches of Lamoille, NV ran 1,200 head of cattle in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before wild horse numbers increased, compared to 700 head today.
The article said the ranch includes a 224,000-acre BLM allotment, about 20,000 acres of private land and a Forest Service permit covering 30,000 to 40,000 acres.
The market value of the base property, an important factor in evaluating the financial status of a public-lands rancher, especially his net worth, was not given.
The operator information report at RAS tied the ranch to BLM authorization #2704021 in the Wells Field Office.
The allotment information report linked the authorization to the VALLEY MOUNTAIN and BIG MEADOWS allotments.
The ArcGIS Viewer showed no overlap between the Forest Service allotments and areas identified for wild horses.
The AOIs do not indicate rangeland health but suggest that the authorized use is less than the permitted use, which may account for the smaller herd or at least part of it.
Big Meadows is not inside an area identified for wild horses but that does not mean the horses avoid it.
Over half of the permitted use in the suspended column, according to the allotment master report, which may explain why it’s in the Maintain category and why the cattle numbers are smaller than they used to be.
Valley Mountain, overlapped by the Maverick-Medicine HMA, offers 4,532 active AUMs on 260,930 public acres, equivalent to 1.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.
It’s in the Improve category with 19% of the permitted use in the suspended column.
Although horses may be a factor in rangeland health, the equivalent stocking rate tells you that resources are scarce and the prospects for larger cattle herds are poor.
To the east is the Spruce allotment, which was to be repurposed as a wild horse preserve until ranchers got involved.
The BLM news release said the proposed changes would update planning terminology, eliminate duplicate requirements and simplify parts of the process that have become unnecessarily burdensome.
The regulations would right-size Areas of Critical Environmental Concern so the agency can focus on protecting those resources, rather than on oversized buffer zones that are supposed to be managed for multiple use.
In other words, shrink the protected areas and increase AUMs so ranchers can enjoy more of what their allotments have to offer.
A virtual public meeting, providing more information about the proposed regulations, is planned for December 3.
This video helps you understand why the advocates want the horse populations reduced with no possibility of recovery.
“[R]eforms must mandate comprehensive fertility management alongside every future gather and establish a clear timeline to phase out roundups altogether” according to their commentary in PJ Media.
No roundups means no growth.
How many mares must they sterilize to being the birth rate in line with the death rate?
What will be the effect on genetic diversity and long-term viability?
What’s to stop them from driving the birth rate to zero?
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 capture total includes 25 stallions, 28 mares and 11 foals.
Youngsters represented 17.2% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap was not disclosed.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control and return them to the range, which would prolong the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 768 AUMs per year
Water: 640 gallons per day
Public lands within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities will be closed to the public for the duration of the roundup.
