The Decision Record was signed on November 3, allowing the project to move forward, subject to a 30-day appeal period.

Responses to public comments were provided in Appendix D of the Final EA.

Proposals for high-density feeding operations were also sought in Idaho and Utah.

Horses removed from their home range will be shipped to the new facility while privately owned livestock graze in their stead.

The project is downstream in the wild horse management process.  It does not address the causes of the removals, so it can only prolong them.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for New Off-Range Corrals.

Closure of the HMA to livestock grazing was not brought forward for detailed analysis because the action would not conform to the multiple-use mandate of FLPMA and the existing land-use plan, which authorizes AUMs for wild horse and livestock grazing in the allotments within the HMA.

Further, as stated in Appendix E of the NEPA analysis, management of livestock grazing is designed to achieve standards for rangeland health and conform to guidelines for grazing management.

Unfortunately, that remark is not supported by the data.  If it was true, the acreage in the Improve category would be lower.  The land-use plan has been in effect since 1999.

The Western Watersheds map shows the allotments that overlap the HMA.  Section 3.8 in the Final EA says there are seven allotments within the HMA but only calls out six.

The map shows a small portion of the Willow Creek allotment at the eastern side of the HMA, which may correspond to #7.  Click on map to open in new tab.

Table 2 in Appendix G shows the percentages inside the HMA.  Willow Creek is not in the list.  The Allotment Master report provides the acreage and active AUMs.

The forage taken from the horses and sold to the Warm Springs permittees, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the allotment, is .79 × 4,478 = 3,538 AUMs per year.  The total estimated forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA is 9,756 AUMs per year.

That resource would support an additional 813 wild horses, meaning that 813 horses have been displaced from the HMA by privately owned livestock.  That’s 1.6% of the 50,000 horses in off-range holding.

The 253 horses allowed by plan require 3,036 AUMs per year.  Livestock receive 3.2 times as much forage as the horses, in an area set aside for wild horses.  The HMA is managed primarily for livestock.

The True AML would be 253 + 813 = 1,066 and the stocking rate at the new AML would be 6.3 wild horses per thousand acres, or 158 acres per horse.

The pre-gather population of 244 is well within this range.  It hasn’t even exceeded the current AML!

RELATED: Challis Roundup Announced.

Approximately 88% of the HMA is subject to permitted grazing, according to Section 3.8 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein.

The Allotment Master report in RAS supplies public and private acres, management status and active AUMs for the six allotments listed in the EA.  Table 2 in Appendix G provides the available forage from the 2017 grazing season.

Although half of the allotments are in the Maintain category, 86.9% of the public acres are in the Improve category.

Forage available to livestock declined 12% over the four-year period.  The smaller allotments had larger changes while the larger allotments had smaller changes.

RELATED: Challis Roundup Announced.

The news release says the Challis Field Office is conducting a wild horse gather in the Challis HMA, as if the operation is already in progress.

The gather page shows no activity.

The capture goal is 70 and the removal goal is 39.

Horses will be drawn into the traps with bait and the incident will not be open to public observation.

The HMA covers 168,720 acres in central Idaho, according to Section 1.1 of the 2019 Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein, and has an AML of 253.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.5 wild horses per thousand acres.

The current population is thought to be 224 animals, putting the herd at 0.9X AML, so what’s the hurry?

The HMA intersects six grazing allotments.  Section 3.8 in the EA says seven but lists six.  Table 2 in Appendix G shows the available AUMs and the percentages inside the HMA.  The EA was posted with other project documents.

The Western Watersheds map shows the allotment boundaries.  Zoom in to see the arrangement.

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Challis.

Mares returned to the range will be treated with fertility control of unspecified type.

The incident appears on the latest schedule and was marked as a nuisance removal.

A roundup occurred in the area two years ago.

The incident concluded on November 9, according to a statement at the gather page, with 934 horses captured, 531 shipped, 362 released and 27 dead.  The numbers don’t balance, there were 14 unaccounted-for animals.

The news release said 545 horses removed, but if 934 horses came off the land and 362 were returned, the number removed would be 572.

The capture goal was 947 and the removal goal was 615.

The death rate was 2.9%.

Foals represented 17.6% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 51.9% were male and 48.1% were female.

The low percentage of foals is not consistent with a growth rate of 20% per year, a benchmark used by land managers to predict herd sizes.

The roundup began on October 11.

RELATED: Owyhee Roundup Announced.

The following table contains data for animals captured in wild horse roundups, starting with Onaqui Mountain in July, 2021.  These figures are from the daily reports, not the cumulative totals, and do not include results from roundups in progress.

Foals represented 18% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 45% were male and 55% were female.

Do these numbers tell you anything useful about the herds at large?  Are they indicators of the way roundups are carried out?

The advocates are ruining the herds—and helping the public-lands ranchers—at Onaqui Mountain and Sand Wash Basin, and those efforts are reflected in the low percentages of foals.

The government typically wants to see more stallions than mares on the range, which also reduces growth rates and keeps the resource scales tipped in favor of the ranchers for longer periods of time.

The incident concluded on November 5, according to a statement at the gather page, with 1,672 horses captured, 1,639 shipped, none returned and 27 dead.  These figures yield six unaccounted-for animals.

The capture and removal goals were 1,900.

The totals based on the daily reports were 1,661 captured, 1,607 shipped, none returned and 27 dead, with 27 unaccounted-for animals.

The death rate was 1.6%.

Foals represented 21.0% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 45.4% were male and 54.6% were female.

The observed percentage of foals is consistent with a growth rate of 20% per year, a benchmark used by land managers to predict herd sizes.

The roundup, which began on September 8, was billed as an emergency.

RELATED: Barren Valley Emergency Roundup Begins Next Week.

The incident began on October 7.  Gather stats through November 9:

• Type: Planned
• Method: Helicopter
• Horses captured: 1,170, up from 1,072 on Day 30, per cumulative totals
• Average daily take: 34.4, based on cumulative totals
• Capture goal: 4,400
• Removal goal: 3,500
• Returned: 1, no change from Day 30
• Deaths: 6, no change from Day 30
• Shipped: 1,066, based on daily reports, no change from Day 30

No activity was reported on Days 31, 32 and 33.

The cumulative total included 429 stallions, 502 mares and 239 foals.

Foals represented 20.4% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 46.1% were male and 53.9% were female.

The death rate declined slightly to 0.5%.

Body condition scores were not reported.

Gather activity resumed at Salt Wells Creek.  Five HMAs are involved in the roundup.

The number of unaccounted-for animals on Day 34 was 97.

Other statistics:

• AML: 2,165 (across five HMAs)
• Forage assigned to horses: 25,980 AUMs per year
• Pre-gather population: 5,105
• Forage liberated to date: 14,028 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 11,690 gallons per day
• Forage assigned to livestock: 191,791 AUMs per year (estimated)
• Horses displaced from HMAs by livestock: 15,982 (32% of off-range holding)
• True AML: 18,147

RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 30, Need-to-Know Edition.

The incident began on October 11.  Gather stats through November 8:

• Type: Planned
• Method: Helicopter
• Horses captured: 934, up from 891 on Day 26
• Average daily take: 32.2
• Capture goal: 947
• Removal goal: 615
• Returned: 362, up from 260 on Day 26
• Deaths: 27, up from 23 on Day 26
• Shipped: 531, up from 446 on Day 26

One horse was put down on Day 28, followed by three more on Day 29, with IM 2021-007, Euthanasia of Wild Horses and Burros Related to Acts of Mercy, Health or Safety, giving cover to the acts.

The death rate increased to 2.9%.

Foals represented 17.6% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 51.9% were male and 48.1% were female.

Body condition scores were not given.

The observed percentage of foals is not consistent with a growth rate of 20% per year, a benchmark used by land managers to predict herd sizes.

On Day 29, 102 horses were returned, including 51 mares treated with PZP.  This practice, endorsed by many of the advocates, slows population growth and keeps the resource scales tipped in favor of the public-lands ranchers for longer periods of time.

The release may signal the end of gather ops at Rock Creek.  Five HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Day 29 ended with 14 unaccounted-for animals.

The capture goal has almost been reached.  The removal goal is about 91% complete.

Other statistics:

• AML: 999 (across five HMAs)
• Forage assigned to horses: 11,988 AUMs per year
• Pre-gather population: 1,188
• Forage liberated to date: 6,864 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 5,720 gallons per day
• Forage assigned to livestock: 66,897 AUMs per year (estimated)
• Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: 5,575 (11% of off-range holding)
• True AML: 6,574

RELATED: Owyhee Roundup Day 26, Status of Owyhee Allotments.

Section 2.6.6 in the 2012 Final EA for resource enforcement actions says that reducing or removing livestock “would be inconsistent with the current land use plans and/or Final Multiple Use Decisions (FMUDs) for the Owyhee Complex and with multiple use management.”

In a subsequent paragraph, the writers note that “changes to livestock grazing cannot be made through a wild horse gather decision, and are only possible if BLM first revises the land-use plans to re-allocate livestock forage to wild horses and to eliminate or reduce livestock grazing.”

What’s at stake?

The five HMAs in the Complex overlap six grazing allotments, as shown in the map from Western Watersheds.

Table 5 in the EA provides HMA acres within the allotments.  The forage available to livestock today is about 5% less than in 2012, so the current values were copied into the spreadsheet.  Other values were taken from Table 5 or computed.

These figures can be used to estimate the forage assigned to livestock in each HMA, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the allotments.

For example, Snowstorm Mountains intersects 69.3% of the Bullhead allotment, so the forage taken from the horses and sold to the ranchers is .693 × 12,050 = 8,351 AUMs per year.

The sum of these estimates is 66,897 AUMs per year.  This resource would support an additional 5,575 wild horses, meaning that 5,575 wild horses have been displaced from their home range by privately owned livestock, about 11% of the 50,000 horses in off-range holding.

This is why those facilities are full, or nearly so, and why the bureaucrats are searching for more.

The advocates would solve the problem by getting rid of the horses, not the livestock.

Confine the ranchers to their base properties and let them pay market rates to feed their animals.  What do you suppose happens during the off season?

The current AML of 999 (across five HMAs) could rise to 6,574.  It’s that bad.  The stocking rate would be 6.2 wild horses per thousand acres, or 160 acres per horse.

Grazing seasons can be found in the Authorization Use reports from RAS, one for allotments managed by the Humboldt River Field Office and another for allotments managed by the Tuscarora Field Office.

At Theodore Roosevelt National Park with MyBackyardBirding.

The events in this video may pre-date the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program.

The standard covering roundups was published on June 30, 2015.

Why were these burros forced off the range?

More animals than allowed by plan?  Damage to ecosystem?  Were they robbing the public-lands ranchers of their birthright?

Despite the CAWP, the 2018 Spruce-Pequop roundup started with the killing of eight wild horses by gunshots to the abdomen.

Around 20 of the Heber wild hoses have been shot over the last two years but the Forest Service has been unable to find the culprits.

In the early days of the 2021 Jackson Mountains roundup, a foal was put down because it was an orphan.  That was its only shortcoming.  The gather report now says that it suffered from a chronic injury (malnutrition), with IM 2021-007 giving cover to the act.

With the fiftieth anniversary of the WHB Act now just weeks away, what exactly are we supposed to celebrate?  We have a statute that no longer resembles the original and most of the areas set aside for wild horses and burros are managed primarily for cattle and sheep.

The incident began on October 11.  Gather stats through November 5:

• Type: Planned
• Method: Helicopter
• Horses captured: 891, up from 742 on Day 24
• Average daily take: 34.3
• Capture goal: 947
• Removal goal: 615
• Returned: 260, no change from Day 24
• Deaths: 23, up from 19 on Day 24
• Shipped: 446, up from 403 on Day 24

Four horses were put down on Day 26 due to pre-existing conditions, although the report lists one as related to the roundup.  The actions were justified by IM 2021-007, Euthanasia of Wild Horses and Burros Related to Acts of Mercy, Health or Safety.

The death rate is 2.6%.

Foals represented 17.8% of the horses captured.  Of the adults, 51.4% were male and 48.6% were female.

Body condition scores were not given.

The observed percentage of foals suggests the herd is not growing at a rate of 20% per year, a benchmark used by land managers to predict population sizes.

Gather ops moved to Rock Creek on Day 22.  Five HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Day 26 ended with 162 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

• AML: 999 (across five HMAs)
• Forage assigned to horses: 11,988 AUMs per year
• Pre-gather population: 1,188
• Forage liberated to date: 7,572 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 6,310 gallons per day
• Forage assigned to livestock: Unknown
• Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: Unknown
• True AML: Unknown

RELATED: Owyhee Roundup Day 24, Status of Owyhee Allotments.

The event will occur on November 13, according to an announcement in the Virginia Equestrian.  Some details have been omitted.

RELATED: Motorcade to Protest Wild Horse Roundups in Nevada.

The incident began on October 7.  Gather stats through November 5:

• Type: Planned
• Method: Helicopter
• Horses captured: 1,072 per cumulative totals, can’t be compared to Day 28 report
• Average daily take: 35.7, based on cumulative totals
• Capture goal: 4,400
• Removal goal: 3,500
• Returned: 1, no change from Day 28
• Deaths: 6, no change from Day 28
• Shipped: Not in cumulative totals, 1,066 based on daily reports

The daily breakdowns of stallions, mares and foals have not been provided since Day 26.  The cumulative totals are 389 stallions, 463 mares and 220 foals.  Western Horse Watchers prefers to use the daily reports.

The number of horses dispatched (shipped + dead + returned) exceeds the number of horses captured.

Foals represented 20.5% of the horses gathered.  Of the adults, 45.7% were male and 54.3% were female.

The death rate is 0.6%.

Body condition scores were not reported.

Gather activity at Divide Basin ended on Day 30, one of five HMAs are involved in the roundup.  The HMA covers 22.6% of the total acreage per Table 1 of the Final EA.

The number of unaccounted-for animals on Day 30 is zero as noted above.  The number of horses to be returned is unknown.

Other statistics:

• AML: 2,165 (across five HMAs)
• Forage assigned to horses: 25,980 AUMs per year
• Pre-gather population: 5,105
• Forage liberated to date: 12,852 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 10,710 gallons per day
• Forage assigned to livestock: 191,791 AUMs per year (estimated)
• Horses displaced from HMAs by livestock: 15,982 (32% of off-range holding)
• True AML: 18,147

RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 28.

In a letter to The Durango Herald, a reader points to a petition by Friends of Animals to protect Montana’s Pryor Mountain herd under the Endangered Species Act.

RELATED: Wild Horse Management: Protection or Persecution?

The incident began on September 8.  Gather stats through November 3:

• Type: Emergency
• Method: Helicopter
• Horses captured: 1,660, up from 1,593 on Day 54
• Average daily take: 29.1
• Capture goal: 1,900
• Removal goal: 1,900
• Returned: 0
• Deaths: 27, up from 23 on Day 54
• Shipped: 1,570, up from 1,498 on Day 54

The totals at the gather page are 1,671 horses captured, 1,602 shipped, 27 dead and none returned.  The figures above are based on the daily reports.

Three horses were put down on Day 55 due to pre-existing conditions.

The summary of deaths shows a horse put down on October 28, a day for which there is no report.  The death rate is now 1.6%.

Foals represented 21.0% of the horses gathered.  Of the adults, 45.4% were male and 54.6% were female.

The percentage of foals is consistent with a herd growth rate of 20% per year.

Body condition scores on Days 55 to 57 ranged from 1.5 to 4.

Gather ops may be occurring at Coyote Lake.  Three HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Day 57 ended with 63 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

• AML: 892 (total for three HMAs)
• Forage assigned to horses: 10,704 AUMs per year
• Pre-gather population: 2,500
• Forage liberated to date: 19,920 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 16,600 gallons per day
• Forage assigned to livestock: 27,011 AUMs per year (estimated)
• Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: 2,258 (4.5% of off-range holding)
• True AML: 3,150

RELATED: Barren Valley Roundup Day 54.