A story posted August 4 by This Is Reno considers a key finding from a USGS study: Greater sage-grouse populations may continue to decline—by more than 70% within areas where the horses live by 2034—of horse populations continue increasing at current rates.
Let’s take a closer look at ‘areas where the horses live.’ How many of them are not occupied by privately owned livestock? How did the researchers get a clean separation between the effects related to horses and those related to livestock, a problem known as ‘confounding?’ Who commissioned the study?
A subsequent column in the Sierra Nevada Ally dated August 8 asks similar questions.
Western Horse Watchers Association 