The President’s budget proposal for FY 2021 will take meaningful steps to address the untenable state of the WHB program and the unsustainable proliferation of wild horse herds on public lands, which far exceed what is healthy for the land and has impeded resource availability for other wildlife species, according to a news release issued today.
Not so fast, Chester.
What can’t be defended are the lies of omission about privately owned cattle and sheep on public lands designated for the horses and the amount of forage consigned thereto.
Consider the four HMAs affected by the Rock Springs RMP amendment, discussed at length on these pages over the last few days.
- Adobe Town HMA – 29,412 AUMs per year diverted to livestock
- Divide Basin HMA – 35,914 AUMs per year diverted to livestock
- Salt Wells Creek HMA – 59,592 AUMs per year diverted to livestock
- White Mountain HMA – 34,588 AUMs per year diverted to livestock
The total is 159,506 AUMs per year, enough to support 13,292 wild horses. On just four HMAs! Can you imagine the loss if the pattern is true for the other 173 HMAs?
There is no wild horse population crisis. There is more than enough for them to eat on western rangelands.
The problem is the public-lands ranchers, their overlords, cheerleaders and political allies—not to mention their fences, which impede the movement of the horses, and the water holes they’ve stolen from them.
Western Horse Watchers Association 