Best Option for Uintah County Vacant Allotments?

The news release said they “were previously relinquished and are now available to qualified livestock operators,” as if that was the only valid use.

Those searching for wild horse preserves need not apply.

The allotments offer an estimated 18,075 active AUMs per year, which would support 1,506 wild horses, subject to rangeland health evaluations.

The grazing fee is currently $1.69 per AUM and the cost of off-range holding is $6 per head per day.

A. Restore Permitted Gazing

  • Grazing receipts = 18,075 × $1.69 = $30,546.75 per year
  • Cost of caring for wild horses = 1,506 × $6 × 365 = $3,298,140 per year
  • Cash flow = $30,546.75 – $3,298,140 = -$3,267,593.25 per year

B. Convert to Wild Horse Preserve

  • Grazing receipts = $0 per year
  • Cost of caring for wild horses = $0 per year
  • Cash flow = $0 per year

Option B saves taxpayers over $3 million per year.

At an average stocking rate of five wild horses per thousand public acres, which is the case for the Uintah allotments, the 21,000 animals in short-term holding could be put back on the range by cancelling the permits on 4.2 million acres—less than 3% of the BLM land identified for livestock grazing.

RELATED: Potential Wild Horse Preserve in Uintah County?

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

Ranchers Butt Heads with Conservationists in Bison Grazing Dispute

The case revolves around the BLM’s new understanding of the meaning of livestock, discussed in a January 16 proposed decision that would cancel American Prairie’s grazing permits.

The agency says it can only issue permits for production herds, not conservation herds.

The decision would also frustrate those who would purchase base properties to establish wild horse preserves on public lands.

RELATED: BLM Reneges on American Prairie Grazing Permits.

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

How to Sell More Pesticides

A. Build a coalition against motorized removal.

B. Offer mass sterilization as a humane alternative.  Call it wild horse conservation.

C. Tacitly support the overpopulation narrative and removal of excess animals.

D. Don’t talk about shrinking herds, abnormal sex ratios, increasing death rates, loss of genetic diversity and who you’re really trying to protect.

E. Recognize your donors and volunteers for saving thousands of wild horses.

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

Potential Wild Horse Preserve in Uintah County?

The BLM announced last week that eleven allotments in the Book Cliffs area had been relinquished and are now available for grazing.

They’re not in the vacant allotment finder.

The Utah rangeland management page has maps and application forms.

An open house will be held on April 29 at the Vernal Field Office for interested parties.

The allotment master report gives management status, acreage and AUMs, but not active AUMs.

The active AUMs can be estimated from data in this spreadsheet.

Most of the acreage is in the Improve category, suggesting that your stewards of the public lands were not taking their responsibilities seriously.

The allotments offer an estimated 18,075 active AUMs on 286,284 public acres, with a capacity of 1,506 wild horses.

The stocking rate would be 5.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, five times higher than the target rate across all HMAs.

Your faithful public servants employ a double standard for resource management, one for wild horses and another for livestock.

Here we are using the standard for livestock, which is usually higher, sometimes much higher.

The ranching community will likely keep the offering under wraps because they subscribe to a philosophy of no net loss of AUMs—especially to pests!

The advocates won’t pursue it because they’re pesticide salesmen, not conservationists.

That leaves organizations like American Prairie and The Wild Horse Refuge.

The location map shows the arrangement.

Green River and Birchell are on the west side of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation but the allotments on the east side might make a good wild horse preserve.

It’s not clear if one base property can secure grazing preference on multiple allotments.

The bureaucrats would likely throw as many roadblocks in your way as they can because they, like the advocates, want the ranchers to win.

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

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

Too Many Wild Horses in Nevada?

Officials in Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing, White Pine and Lincoln counties have issued emergency declarations or resolutions citing impacts they attribute to wild horses according to a report by KOLO News.

An estimated 37,426 wild horses and 5,146 wild burros roam freely in the state, compared to an AML of 12,811.

The acreage occupied by those animals was not given.

Who’s complaining?  It’s not a, b or c as the advocates would have you believe.

a. Drillers

b. Miners

c. Loggers

d. Hunters

e. Ranchers

Let’s do what they don’t want us to do: Look at the data.

The management plans allow 11,987 wild horses and 824 wild burros, equivalent to 12,399 wild horses, on 14,032,947 public acres identified for their use, or 0.9 wild horses per thousand public acres.  (Refer to 2026 population dataset.)

Beyond that, rangeland health will suffer according to your faithful public servants.

We have one standard for wild horses.

The allotment information report at RAS shows 2,083,025 active AUMs, equivalent to 173,585 wild horses, on 40,160,475 public acres.  (Refer to this spreadsheet.)

The equivalent stocking rate is 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres—almost five times higher than the rate associated with “healthy horses on healthy rangelands.”

And another standard for livestock.

The current population, equivalent to 37,426 + 5,146 ÷ 2 = 39,999 wild horses, has probably spread beyond the HMA boundaries.

If you assume they’re residing within the HA boundaries, the stocking rate would be 39,999 ÷ 19,778,204 × 1,000 = 2.0 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Twice the limit for wild horses but half the limit for livestock.

The impact on rangeland health cannot be determined because of the double standard.

The real concern, of course, is that they’re robbing forage from big game and livestock.

In keeping with established practice, the writer included comments from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, even though its rep is no longer with the nonprofit.

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

Foal-Free Friday, Bucking the Trend Edition

As of today, the Chincoteague foal count is eight, consisting of six fillies and two colts.

Five have a base color of red and three are black.

Normally you’d expect 50% males and 50% females, with three black-based horses for every red.

But this herd is not normal.  It’s been engineered for maximum production, defying the management philosophy of the rangeland eugenicists.

It’s too early to tell if this year’s foal crop has an unusual sex ratio or color distribution.

The cowboys have altered the sex ratio of the adults to produce more babies so they may have skewed the color pattern to produce more red ones.

After all, Misty was red and bidders at the auction may prefer ponies like her.

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, Pesticides and Dogs Edition.

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

Pancake Trapping Ends

The incident concluded on April 15 with 300 horses captured, 295 shipped, none released and five dead.

There were no unaccounted-for animals.

300 – 295 – 0 – 5 = 0

All deaths were intentional.

The death rate was 1.7%.

The capture total included 152 stallions, 124 mares and 24 foals.

Youngsters represented 8.0% of the animals gathered, suggesting that the herd is growing at a much slower pace than your faithful public servants claim.

Of the adults, 55.1% were male and 44.9% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.

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

The operation liberated 3,600 AUMs per year.

RELATED: BLM Announces Pancake Bait Trap Roundup.

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

Inventory Decreases Slightly in New Facilities Report

There were 55,533 wild horses and 2,741 wild burros in off-range holding on March 26, compared to 60,283 wild horses and 3,750 wild burros on November 21.

Reasons for the change were not given in the report.

Adoptions, sales, deaths and transfers to other government agencies will cause the numbers to drop.

Roundups, whether nuisance, emergency or planned, make the numbers larger.

Mass sterilization, favored by the advocates, drives the on-range and off-range numbers down, to the delight of the bureaucrats and ranchers.

Another option would be to cancel the grazing permits and leave the animals in their lawful homes.

Livestock production would continue on base properties as it does during the off season.

RELATED: BLM Updates Facilities Report for FY26.

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

Double Standard for Rangeland Health at Eagle HMA

Around 70% of the HMA lies within the Wilson Creek allotment, maybe a bit more.

The management plan allows 210 wild horses on 659,188 public acres, or 0.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Beyond that, rangeland health will suffer according to your faithful public servants.

The allotment offers 47,682 active AUMs on 1,065,261 public acres, equivalent to 3.7 wild horses per thousand public acres, 12 times higher than the rate that assures rangeland health.

Maybe that’s why it’s in the Improve category, with 18% of the permitted use in the suspended column.

RELATED: Should Rangeland Degradation Correlate with Resource Loading?

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

BLM Evaluates NEPA Adequacy Ahead of Saylor Creek Roundup

A new project has been opened in ePlanning and a DNA worksheet has been copied to the documents folder for public review.

The comment period runs from April 15 to May 15.

A roundup is on the new schedule with a start date of July 10.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

The worksheet says the current population is 129, compared to an AML of 50, but does not give the amount of forage assigned to livestock, so there is no easy way to determine if there are more horses than the land can support.

Mares returned to the range will be treated with GonaCon-Equine, a fertility control pesticide that the advocates previously shunned but are now starting to embrace.

They are spiraling out of control and don’t deserve a penny of your support.

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

Protect The Harvest Folds, Reborn as Western Justice

The ranching advocacy group and organizer of the Wild Spayed Filly Futurity ceased operations on 10-31-24 due to lack of funding.

The domain now supports a crypto betting site but you can read the news release on Wayback Machine.

The announcement by Western Justice says that it’s staffed by the same group of people Forrest Lucas assembled at Protect the Harvest.

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

Bullfrog Trapping Ends

The incident concluded on April 11 with 513 burros captured, 507 shipped, none released and four dead.

There were two unaccounted-for animals.

513 – 507 – 0 – 4 = 2

The death rate was 0.8%.

Three of the deaths were intentional, including an orphaned foal that refused handfeeding.

The capture total included 252 jacks, 233 jennies and 28 foals.

Youngsters represented 5.5% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 52.0% were male and 48.0% were female.

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

The operation liberated 3,078 AUMs per year.

RELATED: BLM Announces Bullfrog Bait Trap Roundup.

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

No Answers in Heber Wild Horse Shootings?

The Forest Service said the incidents remain under investigation according to an article by the White Mountain Independent.

What if those who do the investigating were on friendly terms or sympathize with those who pull the trigger?

Would that explain the lack of arrests?

RELATED: More Wild Horses Found Dead in ASNF.

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