Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
The company announced today that it no longer plans to build a smart city at the north end of the Virginia Range, according to a story by AP News.
CEO Jeffrey Burns was one of the instigators of the 2019 darting program, which the advocates have continued to this day.
Blockchains is the largest landowner in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, on the south side of I-80, east of Reno, NV.
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The top-level page says ‘Under Maintenance.’
The system has been down for about 24 hours.
RELATED: IT Failure at BLM?
Western Horse Watchers has been unable to access the following services for the past twelve hours:
WHIMS, the fertility control database, is still available, which is great news for the advocates.
The incident began on September 16. Reports covering activity through October 5 have been posted to the Modoc news page:
Foals represented 13.9% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.2% were males and 50.8% were female.
Body condition scores were not provided.
The death rate and number of unaccounted-for animals cannot be determined.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Devil’s Garden Roundup Day 18.
Six grazing allotments that overlap the five HMAs in the Owyhee Complex are listed in Table 5 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein.
The Western Watersheds map, reproduced below, shows the arrangement.
Two of the allotments are managed by the Humboldt River Field Office. Four are managed by the Tuscarora Field Office.
Table 6 in the EA provides forage allocations from 2012, which were copied into the following table. Other values were sourced from the Allotment Master Report in RAS, one dataset for each field office [Humboldt River, Tuscarora].
Although the total forage allocation declined slightly over the past nine years, all six allotments are in the Improve category, along with all of the public acres.
The 999 horses allowed by plan receive 11,988 AUMs per year.
RELATED: Owyhee Roundup Announced.
The incident began on September 8. Gather stats through October 4:
Reports for Days 23 to 27 were posted today. No horses were taken on Days 21, 23, 24, 26 and 27. No explanations were given.
The cumulative total at the gather page is 1,124, with 1,097 shipped.
Two horses were euthanized on Day 20 due to pre-existing conditions. The death rate is unchanged at 1.4%.
Foals represented 21.4% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 45.2% were male and 54.8% were female.
Body condition scores ranged from 3 to 4.
The location of gather activity is not known. Three HMAs are involved in the roundup.
Day 27 ended with 50 unaccounted-for animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Barren Valley Roundup Day 19.
The incident began on September 28. Gather stats through October 4:
Two stallions were put down for pre-existing conditions on Day 6, leaving the death rate at 1.6%. Another stallion was released.
The number of stallions, mares and foals caught each day have not been reported.
Body condition scores are not known.
Gather operations concluded at Wall Canyon on Day 6. Day 7 saw helicopters flying beyond the HMA boundaries. Six HMAs are involved in the roundup.
Pigeon fever may have affected some of the horses. Tests have been ordered.
Another release is set for Day 8.
Day 7 ended with 134 unaccounted-for animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Surprise Complex Roundup Day 5.
So says the operations manager of the Rock Springs Grazing Association in a report posted this morning by WyoFile, a public-interest news service in Wyoming.
The incident will comply with a 2013 court order resulting from a case brought by RSGA, according a BLM news release.
The roundup may be a prelude to the RMP amendments that will close three of the HMAs and downsize a fourth if approved.
The writer acknowledged that one of the goals was to reduce trespass onto 899,308 acres of private land in the Wyoming checkerboard, much of it owned by RSGA.
He did not say if Wyoming was a fence-out state.
No activity has been reported since September 29, when gather ops commenced at Coyote Lake.
The incident will begin on or about October 11, according to the new release.
It was on the schedule dated August 2 but was dropped from the current schedule, dated August 30.
Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and the operation will be open to public observation. Five HMAs are involved.
The capture goal is 947 and the removal goal is 615. Mares returned to the Complex will be treated with PZP.
The Complex covers about one million acres and has an AML of 999, as shown in Table 1 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein. The stocking rate allowed by plan is one wild horse per thousand acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs.
The pre-gather population was estimated to be 1,188.
The Complex intersects six grazing allotments, listed in Table 5 of the EA. Figure 13 shows the arrangement. The image above is from the Western Watersheds map.
Captured animals will be taken to the Sutherland off-range corrals in Utah.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
The EA was posted with other project documents in ePlanning.
Western Horse Watchers does not see the wisdom of mobilizing a contractor in an area that is only 20% above AML and almost certainly below the True AML.
The incident began on September 16. Reports covering activity through October 3 have been posted to the Modoc news page:
Foals represented 13.1% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.8% were males and 50.2% were female.
Body condition scores were not provided.
The death rate and number of unaccounted-for animals cannot be determined.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Devil’s Garden Roundup Day 14.
The Allotment Information Report shows 1,555,088 AUMs per year assigned to RSGA, instigator of the consent decree, but the Allotment Master report shows 97,193.
The Rock Springs allotment covers about two million acres of public and private lands in the Wyoming checkerboard and is administered by the Rock Springs Field Office.
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They couldn’t get their resolution through the state legislature so now they’re pleading with the federal government, according to a report posted this morning by Nevada Current, an online service devoted to political and policy news and commentary.
The story includes the ridiculous quote about climate change by the chief scientist of HSUS, one of the signatories to the rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward.’
Do not be misled by statements from representatives of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses. The group offers no meaningful opposition to land-use plans that shift most of the resources in HMAs to privately owned livestock.
They oppose helicopter roundups but spend untold amounts to get rid of wild horses with PZP, appeasing the government bureaucrats and helping them enforce the lopsided allocations of those plans. They are not signatories in fact but signatories in principle.
Approximately 65% of the public acres in Nevada grazing allotments managed by the BLM fall into the Improve category, according to data from March, 2021.
RELATED: SJR3 Grifter Lectures Us on Wild Horses and Public Lands.
At the Currituck Outer Banks with Andrew Knepper.
The incident began on September 28. Gather stats through October 2:
An orphan colt died on Day 4. The death rate is now 1.6%.
The breakdowns between stallions, mares and foals were not provided.
Body condition scores are not known.
Operations will move to High Rock and Wall Canyon tomorrow. Six HMAs are involved in the roundup.
Day 5 ended with 138 unaccounted-for animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Surprise Complex Roundup Day 3.
The 75-minute panel discussion features Vickery Eckhoff and Cynthia Smoot.
If you’re going to the Rock Springs roundup next week, bring Tables 1 and 8 from the Final EA and maybe a copy of this post.
The government has already assigned most of the resources to privately owned cattle and sheep.
What’s the best way to make sure those specifications are fulfilled?
Safe and humane fertility control, according to a news release issued yesterday.
The ‘Path Forward‘ signatory, like other advocacy groups, has decided that the best way to protect wild horses is to get rid of them, just what the ranchers ordered.
In practice, because the ranchers want their allocated share of the forage now and are unwilling to wait for the herds to die off as birth rates sink to zero, helicopters will do most of the dirty work, with the advocates in a mopping up role, stalking the mares with their darting rifles and shooting them with PZP, ensuring that the herds don’t try to reclaim any of their food from the most noble and deserving non-native species on America’s public lands.
Mission accomplished.
RELATED: Unabashed and Unapologetic, DeMayo Pushes ‘Path Forward.’
The incident began on September 6. Gather stats through October 1:
Activity has been sporadic and reports, when they appear, cover several days.
A stallion died of injuries related to the roundup during the third period (September 27 to October 1). The death rate is 4.5%.
The breakdowns between stallions, mares and foals were not provided.
Body condition scores are not known.
Day 26 ended with no unaccounted-for animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Beatys Butte Roundup Underway.
The incident ended today with 527 horses captured, 495 shipped, 31 dead and one returned, according to figures at the gather page.
The removal goal was 600. All animals were accounted for.
Foals represented 22.0% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 40.4% were stallions and 59.6% were mares, an assignably large gap between males and females.
The death rate was 5.9%.
A foal was put down on Day 4 because it was orphaned. Today, the gather page says it was euthanized because of malnutrition. Eighteen other such cases were reported.
The news release, issued today, says the BLM gathered and removed 527 wild horses.
RELATED: Jackson Mountains Emergency Roundup Starts Next Week.
Western Horse Watchers Association 