The Nevada Department of Agriculture has entered into a fourth-year non-exclusive cooperative agreement with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, running from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023, according to the Animal Industry Report from the June 8 board meeting.
The report said NDA continues to receive monthly updates from CAAWH regarding the program.
State lawmakers are working on legislation that will give local governments the power to deal with wild horses as they see fit, according to a story posted yesterday by The Santa Fe New Mexican.
The bill would not include wild horses that fall under federal oversight.
One of its sponsors said he sees the issue as a “county problem” for which local officials should have clear guidance on what they can do about the animals.
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The group filed suit in Phoenix yesterday, according to a story by KPNX News, arguing that the agency is removing them from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests under the guise of “unauthorized livestock.”
The article did not indicate if the case was prompted by the “Jumping Mouse” roundup earlier this year.
UPDATE: Added video.
If the RMP assigns five times more forage to livestock than horses inside the HMA, the Proposed Action will ensure that livestock receive at least five times more forage than the horses, sometimes referred to as a thriving ecological balance.
The EA looks for adverse impacts in carrying out this multiple-use mandate, which will be substantial for the horses but those don’t count.
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Its founders are certified PZP darters who seek cooperative relationships with ranchers in the state, according to remarks in the June 27 Wyoming wild horse roundtable hosted by Wyoming Public Media.
Should you support them? Probably not.
Western Horse Watchers could only find links to pages on socialist media in a search for information about the group.
A February 12 post by Warmblood News in 2020 indicated that they received a boost from The Cloud Foundation and that their goal was manage Wyoming’s Red Desert HMAs with humane, reversible fertility control, eliminating the need for large-scale roundups—which means the herds have been minimized and livestock are the primary consumers of resources in the area.
File under: Chartalans.
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Refer to the video transcript in this recap by Wyoming Public Media.
Test everything, keep what is good.
The Draft EA and supporting documents have been posted for public review.
A 30-day comment period begins today.
The Proposed Action, discussed in Section 2.2 of the EA, features roundups, fertility control, intrauterine devices and GPS tracking over a ten-year period.
The HMA intersects four grazing allotments, as noted in February. The forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA is not known at this time.
As stipulated in Section 1.2.1 of the EA, the project will not adjust the AML or livestock use, including forage allocations, as these were set through previous land-use planning and implementation decisions reflected in the January 1990 Pony Express Resource Management Plan and Record of Decision (RMP/ROD), as amended (BLM 1990).
Curiously, the HMA has an HMAP, which can only ratify and reinforce the resource allocations of the RMP.
Comments will be accepted through July 28 according to the BLM news release.
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The BLM currently authorizes 4,114 AUMs per year on 440,982 public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report at RAS.
The Buffalo Hills HMA coincides roughly with the Buffalo Hills pasture, as noted in Table 5 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions in the Smoke Creek Complex.
The Western Watersheds map shows the arrangement. The EA was posted with other project documents in ePlanning.
The allotment is in the Improve category and the active AUMs have declined slightly from the amount authorized when the EA was published. Refer to Table 6.
Forage availability works out to a paltry 9.3 AUMs per year per thousand acres, enough to support 0.8 wild horses per thousand acres.
The HMA intersects 27.6% of the allotment according to Table 5, so the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA should be around 1,135 AUMs per year, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel.
If it was shifted back to the horses, the AML could be increased by 94, for a total of 408.
Unfortunately, the current population exceeds that value.
The BLM will capture 383 wild horses, remove 353 and treat up to 30 mares with GonaCon Equine before returning them to the HMA, starting on or about July 1.
Helicopters will push them into the traps and the incident will be open to public observation, according to today’s news release.
The HMA covers 131,861 total acres and the 314 horses allowed by plan require 3,768 AUMs per year. The stocking rate allowed by plan is 2.4 wild horses per thousand acres, larger than the target rate of one wild horse per thousand acres across all HMAs.
The current population is thought to be 541.
The HMA lies within the Buffalo Hills Allotment, as shown in the Western Watersheds map, and coincides roughly with the Buffalo Hills pasture, per Table 5 in the Final EA for resource enforcement actions in the Smoke Creek Complex.
Captured animals will be taken to the Indian Lakes off-range corrals in Fallon.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
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A public tour of the facility will take place on July 1 from 9 AM to 12 PM local time, according to a BLM news release.
The feedlot covers 32 acres with more than 40 holding pens and can provide care for up to 2,250 wild horses, an indication of what the public-lands ranchers could be doing if confined to their base properties.
They’re now at Skydog Sanctuary according to a story by WCSH News in Portland, ME.
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Helicopters have been grounded for a few months so the foals can grow and gain some strength before they’re taken off the range in favor of privately owned livestock.
The advocates want the horses removed with the Montana Solution but they’ll tolerate the losses associated with helicopters if they lead to greater use of the pesticide.
The action kicks off on July 1 at Buffalo Hills, according to the latest schedule, with 353 horses targeted for removal and 30 to be treated with fertility control.
The plan between now and the end of September calls for 8,793 animals to be gathered, 8,062 removed and 480 treated with fertility control.
Operations may or may not be announced and progress reports may or may not be posted, given the dearth of information at Piceance in Colorado.
At or near South Steens HMA with Joan Martelli.
Like the agency it supports, the group wants healthy horses on healthy rangelands, code words for managing HMAs primarily for livestock.
Other surprises in the story by The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel include photographic evidence from the BLM and two conservation districts (ranching advocacy groups) that wild horses consumed 80% of the forage last year and that next year’s Meeker Mustang Makeover, operated by public-lands ranchers, may feature horses from the HMA.
Wyoming Public Radio will host a discussion on June 27 about wild horse management in the state, according to yesterday’s announcement.
The guest list does not include spokesmen for the BLM, cattlemen, drillers and miners.
The event begins at noon local time on socialist media.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a ranching front group and leader in the wild horse removal industry, has openings for three individuals with experience in education, public speaking, community relations and networking.
In these roles, you will
For example, if asked about management practices at the North Lander Complex in Wyoming, your job is to convince others that livestock should receive at least seven times more forage than the horses, and the best way to achieve that goal is not with cruel and inhumane helicopter roundups but with safe and reversible fertility control.
You will not be expected to convert AMLs to AUMs or compute forage allocations for livestock in areas set aside for wild horses because those numbers would destroy the rationale for your darting programs and reveal you and your colleagues as frauds.
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A mare died in the West Douglas pens yesterday, according to the June 24 sitrep.
The loss was attributed to acute trauma.
The mortality table shows 146 deaths.
Updates are posted to the Colorado HMA page.
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Mares captured in the 2019 roundup arrive at a sanctuary. Filmed in February.
Livestock in the HMA receive four times more forage than the horses.
The advocates have an off-the-range mentality, just like the bureaucrats and ranchers.
Even “on-range management” means “off the range.”
As predicted, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses has asked the BLM for additional analysis before it resorts to helicopters, out of a concern for the foals.
The roundup was set to begin on June 16, using baited traps, but no horses have been captured according to a story posted by The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
The advocates don’t oppose the removals, only the way they are carried out.
They want horses taken off the range with the Montana Solution, not helicopters, with benefits accruing to the public-lands ranchers.
RELATED: Piceance Blackout Continues.
Western Horse Watchers Association 