New Neighbors for Spring Creek Basin Horses?

The Vacant Allotment Finder shows three parcels near Disappointment Valley.

The ArcGIS Viewer identifies them as Old Young, Horse Park and Desert Claim.

They’re on the north side of the HMA.

The allotment master report shows no active AUMs.

The 2026 population dataset puts the Spring Creek herd at 78, slightly below the AML of 80.

You might argue that it’s too small to maintain genetic diversity, which would be a fair statement, but it’s worse than that.

The advocates have been pummeling the mares with pesticide-laced darts for years, so the breeding population may be in the single digits.

Bad news for the horses but good news for the neighbors.

RELATED: BLM Launches Vacant Allotment Finder.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Potential Wild Horse Preserves Near Reno?

The Vacant Allotment Finder shows seven parcels to the south and southeast.

The pop-up boxes indicate field offices and allotment numbers but do not give names.

The ArcGIS Viewer gives names.

Should you start shopping for base properties?  Get more information from the BLM?

No, the viewer shows the allotments overlap areas already identified for wild horses.

The next step would be to go back to the Finder and search another area.

RELATED: BLM Launches Vacant Allotment Finder.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Scoping Begins for Red Desert HMAP and Enforcement Plan

A scoping notice has been copied to the documents folder with comments due by May 4.

The news release said the AML for the five HMAs in the complex is 480 to 724 and the projected population by the fall of 2026 is 2,300 wild horses.

Contrary to remarks in the announcement, overpopulation will not lead to starvation and thirst.  The food is there but it’s been given to ranchers.

The issue is resource allocation not scarcity.

RELATED: Scoping to Begin for Red Desert HMAP?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

BLM, Forest Service Join Forces to Boost Rancher Prosperity

The news releases are almost identical:

The memorandum of understanding, signed by both agencies, will strengthen coordination, cut bureaucratic red tape and deliver immediate, tangible support for America’s farmers and ranchers who rely on public lands.

The vacant allotment finder may be one of the first achievements of the partnership.

“By working closely with American ranchers, we are enhancing communication, investing in innovation, and modernizing our approach to land management practices,” according to Secretary Burgum, “to deliver real results for the people who feed and sustain this country.”

Yep, if it wasn’t for them we’d all be vegans.

The aim of the grazing program is to ensure that high-net-worth individuals receive generous government benefits, often at the expense of America’s wild horses and burros, with no means testing and no expiration dates.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

BLM Seeks Off-Range Corrals in Eastern U.S.

The facilities will serve as waypoints for animals traveling to adoption and sale events and provide a pick-up location for participants in the Online Corral program.

They must be located east of the Mississippi River and must be capable of holding up to 400 animals.

They will be open to the public.

Instructions for accessing the solicitation are given in the news release.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Chincoteague Foaling Season Underway

The list maintained by DSC Photography shows four new lives, all female.

Only 99 more needed to tie last year’s record.

The herd, known for its abnormal sex ratio and unprecedented birth rate, has been manipulated by the Saltwater Cowboys into a moneymaker for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company while FWS looks the other way.

RELATED: Trends in Chincoteague Pony Auction Results.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

BLM Launches Vacant Allotment Finder

The web-based app helps ranchers locate allotments that might be suitable for grazing and provides easy instructions to obtain a permit according to the news release.

The disclaimer, which must be acknowledged to access the site, says it displays potential opportunities for grazing on Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service lands.

Acreage and AUMs are estimates and NEPA reviews may be required.

The announcement did not mention base properties and did not indicate if said parcels could be repurposed by interested parties as wild horse preserves.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Currituck County Scrubs Wild Horse Meeting Materials

Yesterday the Agendas & Minutes page contained links to documents from three special meetings.

Today, it has links for March 12 only, minus the minutes.

Minutes from the September 18 special meeting put the herd size at 112 but did not indicate the number of males and females.

The number of self-boosting mares was not provided.  (Refer to the AdvocateSpeak decoder if you don’t know what that means.)

The size of the breeding population was not provided.

The effect on genetic diversity was not discussed.

Healthy mares were not darted in 2025 due to questions about the long-term effects of PZP according to comments under Action 1K (bottom of page 12 in the pdf).

In an attempt to thwart a better understanding of how the pesticide works, protocols are in place to send the uterus—not the ovaries—of any deceased mares to researchers at the Science and Conservation Center for analysis (manufacturers of PZP).

RELATED: Currituck Wild Horse Advisory Board Meets Today.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

BLM Announces Lake Pleasant Bait Trap Roundup

The incident will begin on April 1 according to the news release.

The capture and removal goals are 1,500 each.

The target is burros.

The current population is thought to be around 2,300.

The HMA covers 103,473 total acres, including 60,836 public acres, and the number of animals allowed by plan is 208.

Operations will not be open to public observation.

Animals identified for removal will be taken to the off-range corrals in Florence.

There are no plans to treat any of the jennies with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.

The roundup will liberate up to 9,000 AUMs per year for other mandated uses of public lands, which is of little interest to drillers, miners, loggers, tourists, hikers and campers, but it’s great news for _________.

RELATED: BLM Issues Lake Pleasant Final Planning Documents.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

West Douglas Paradox

The herd area is not suitable for wild horses but the allotment that contains most of it supports livestock equivalent to 962 wild horses.

The equivalent stocking rate in the allotment is 6.9 wild horses per thousand public acres, almost seven times higher than the rate that avoids rangeland degradation (one wild horse per thousand acres according to your faithful public servants).

If the bureaucrats and advocates held a lying contest, who would win?

RELATED: Can Public Lands Be Suitable and Not Suitable for Wild Horses?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

NMACO Building Wild Horse Training and Transition Facility

The project started with the donation of a ten-acre parcel according to a story by The Journal of Cortez, CO.

It’s not a base property and doesn’t have grazing privileges on public lands.

The facility reflects a shift in the group’s priorities, from keeping wild horses on public lands to ownership of displaced animals and placing them into private care.

The ranchers couldn’t be happier.

Western Horse Watchers refers to the trend as the downward spiral in wild horse advocacy, characterized by acceptance of methods that were previously eschewed.

If a proposed refuge doesn’t include public lands and doesn’t displace livestock therefrom, it’s not worthy of your support.

RELATED: Mesa Verde Roundup Continues.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Can Public Lands Be Suitable and Not Suitable for Wild Horses?

Not according to the law of contradiction.

1. Law of Identity: A = A, A is A.

2. Law of excluded middle: A ∪ Ac = S, everything is A or not A.

3. Law of contradiction: A ∩ Ac = ∅, nothing is A and not A.

Unfortunately, those are rules of thought.  The material world need not conform.

Consider the West Douglas Herd Area in Colorado.

A BLM spokesman said it’s not suitable for wild horses according to an article about the new roundup schedule by The Colorado Sun.

A wildfire destroyed most of their food.

But the HA lies mostly within the Twin Buttes allotment, with a small portion in East Douglas Creek, and the allotment master report for Twin Buttes shows only nine percent of the authorized AUMs in the suspended column.

The active AUMs would support 962 wild horses.

Can a fire burn some of the forage and most of the forage?

Can the land be fit for wild horses and not fit for wild horses?

The bureaucrats would have you believe that.  They’re as nutty as the advocates.

RELATED: BLM Defies Colorado Wild Horse Working Group?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.