The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses said yesterday in a news release that at least 840 wild horses and burros have been sold at slaughter auctions since 2019 as a result of the Adoption Incentive Program.
Adopters pocket the cash then dump the animals at livestock auctions, where they are sold to kill buyers for slaughter in Canada and Mexico, according to the announcement.
Western Horse Watchers estimates that during the same period, CAAWH and its army of nitwits got rid of at least 2,000 wild horses with the Montana Solution.
Who’s the greater threat to these animals?
When you spray your home for bugs, do you refer to them as cherished cockroaches while you apply the pesticide, as CAAWH does to wild horses?
The incident will begin on or about August 1, according to a BLM news release, with five HMAs and four HAs affected.
Helicopters will push the animals into the traps and operations will be open to public observation.
The capture and removal goals are 200 wild horses and 800 wild burros. No animals will be treated with fertility control and returned to the range.
The Complex covers about 1.2 million total acres northeast Pyramid Lake, NV and has a combined AML of 553 horses and 90 burros, equivalent to 598 horses. Refer to Table 1 in the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein.
The HAs are no longer managed for horses and burros and have an AML of zero.
The Western Watersheds map shows the arrangement. The HAs are not included.’
The current population is thought to be 1,695 horses and 1,327 burros.
A foal died on Day 2 after collapsing in the pen due to pneumonia. Three horses were put down on Day 3. An incident in the trap resulted in the escape of ten horses.
The horse death rate is 1.0%.
The horse total includes 228 stallions, 266 mares and 94 foals.
Youngsters represented 16.0% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 46.2% were male and 53.8% were female.
The herd can’t be growing at a rate of 20% per year, a figure used by land managers to predict herd sizes, with a birth rate of 16%.
They’re safer in the wild [but not from the advocates] according to a spokesman for CAAWH in this not-ready-for-prime-time report by KREX News in Grand Junction.
If the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses had its way, they’re wouldn’t be any foals or pregnant mares for helicopters to chase.
Indeed, there wouldn’t be any horses to capture at all, because its army of nitwits would have taken most of them off the range with the Montana Solution, leaving their food and water to the public-lands ranchers, as specified in the land-use plans.
Nevada Vanadium has reached an agreement with Fish Creek Ranch to lease water rights to meet the water supply requirements of the project for a period of ten years, according to Section 3.19.2.2 of the Draft EIS.
As specified in the agreement, Fish Creek Ranch would remove 818 acres of alfalfa from production during the term of the lease to compensate for water that would otherwise be used for irrigation.
Water would pumped from a take-off near Fish Creek Springs to the project site.
A Rangeland Management Specialist with the Battle Mountain District confirmed that Fish Creek Ranch qualifies as a base property and has grazing preference on the Fish Creek Allotment, which overlaps the project area.
The advocates issued a bizarre statement last week claiming that “BLM NV is preparing to dig in and use millions more gallons of precious water for mining operations while ousting federally protected wild horses from their homes, and continue the destruction of our lands and wildlife.”
The SER and EIS were posted to the Gibellini project folder in ePlanning.
The Draft EIS and other supporting documents have been posted for public review, according to a BLM news release dated July 22.
Under the Proposed Action, the project area would cover 6,456 public acres, on which 806 acres of surface disturbance would occur. No state or private lands are included.
The project life consists of 1.5 years of construction, seven years of operation, four years of active reclamation and closure, and up to 30 years of post-closure monitoring.
The 85-acre open pit would not be reclaimed.
The project area straddles the eastern boundary of the Fish Creek HMA, with roads coming in from the east.
Under the Proposed Action, 15.1 AUMs per year would be temporarily lost, with 1.4 AUMs per year permanently lost due to the open pit.
The temporary loss would equate to three cow/calf pairs on a five-month grazing season, consistent with the claim that impacts to livestock are anticipated to be minor, short term, and localized.
You could argue that resources taken from the horses were lost a long time ago, when they were assigned to the permittees.
Vanadium is used as an alloying element in steel, among other things.
Comments will be accepted through September 6.
An online public meeting will be held August 6 on Zoom from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time.
The project will be pursued by Nevada Vanadium Mining Corporation. Refer to this news release for more information.
The incident started yesterday, as scheduled, with 231 horses captured, 104 shipped and two dead.
The Day 1 report at the gather page said that 11 members of the public observed the action, including a TV production crew working on “Human Footprint, the Film,” to be aired on PBS, a reporter from KUNR public radio in Reno and a freelance filmmaker and videographer.
In the latest amendment, FOA seeks an order prohibiting future Onaqui roundups and a return of the horses to the HMA.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office issued a statement last week indicating that the court had granted its motion to intervene in the case, in opposition to FOA.
Refer to Section II, Course of Proceedings, in the State’s motion for a case history.
The next step will be a hearing for summary judgment according to the announcement.
The State says it’s motivated by an interest in wildlife, not permitted grazing.
Allotments in the Improve Category exhibit vegetative and watershed conditions that don’t meet objectives and standards for rangeland health.
The allotment offers 3,192 active AUMs on 284,533 public acres, with forage availability coming in at a paltry 11.2 AUMs per year per thousand acres—not quite enough to support a stocking rate of two wild burros (or one wild horse) per thousand acres.
The government will collect $4,309 per year from the permittee in grazing fees while it spends $485,450 per year to care for the 266 wild horses (or 532 wild burros) that the allotment would support.
The HA has an AML of zero and is no longer managed for wild burros.
The move was applauded by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, according to a story posted yesterday by Fox21 News of Colorado Springs, a group that views the contractors as competitors in the wild horse removal business.
In their quest to become the industry leader, legislative action that knocks the pilots and wranglers out of contention would be most welcome.
The article did not indicate if the amendment would ban the use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft for catch-treat-release, which the advocates support.
They claim that wild horses in Nevada are threatened by drilling and mining, and the loss of water associated therewith, according to a bulletin picked up by AP News.
Are they suggesting that those companies are draining ponds and creeks to supply their operations? Or maybe they’re tapping into underground sources that will somehow deplete surface water needed by wildlife and the horses?
Sounds like rape and pillage. How did that get through the NEPA process?
Where are the environmental impact statements and findings of no significant impacts that authorized the destruction?
If the plans allow water to be used for drilling and mining in HMAs, then so will the HMAPs.
If the plans assign most of the authorized forage to privately owned livestock, then so will the HMAPs.
If you disagree with that, the problem is not HMAPs or the absence thereof.
The problem is in the planning and decision documents that determine how the HMAs are managed.
The advocates don’t want you thinking about them because changes would actually help the horses and they prosper under the status quo.
Drilling and mining require anywhere from a few acres to a few thousand acres while pubic-lands ranching devours entire HMAs and beyond. There’s no comparison.
A report posted yesterday by Courthouse News Service confirms that horses removed from the Apache Sitgreaves National Forests earlier this year in a law enforcement action are the subject of the case.
The Forest Service stated they were unauthorized livestock, not unclaimed/unbranded horses entitled to protection by the WHB Act, which ISPMB disputes.
The roundup occurred in an area southwest of Alpine, AZ designated as critical habitat for the New Mexico Jumping Mouse but overlapped by grazing allotments.
Curiously, in other such areas, the agency allows permitted grazing not just in close proximity to the habitats but in the habitats.
The judge said he would take the matter under advisement and rule in due course.
“This population management effort is required under the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act because the population of wild horses and burros has exceeded the populations established in the BLM’s land use plan for the area.” There are more horses and burros in the HMA than allowed by plan.
“The goal of the Act is to preserve and protect wild horses and burros as integral parts of a thriving ecological system in balance with other public resource values, including wildlife, livestock grazing, resource development, and recreational access. This requires controlling populations.” The horses and burros are consuming resources assigned to privately owned livestock.
“The BLM’s overall goal is managing healthy wild horse herds on healthy rangelands in balance with other authorized uses.” You can have your wild horse and burro program as long as it doesn’t interfere with the grazing program.
A writer with Outdoor Life hit the trail with one of the permittees to bring you this report about conditions on the ground now that the burros are gone.
The HMA covers about 1.1 million acres in western Arizona and has an AML of 478.
A roundup in May took almost 1,100 animals off their home range.
The Operator Information Report in RAS ties the rancher to two grazing authorizations, 0202009 and 0202017.
The Allotment Information Report associates the authorizations with the Black Mt Unit A and Castle Rock allotments.
The Western Watersheds map puts Black Mt Unit A inside the HMA and Castle Rock on the eastern flank. Click on image to open in new tab.
Black Mt Unit A is in the Maintain category while Castle Rock is in Improve.
Allotments in the Improve Category exhibit vegetative and watershed conditions that don’t meet objectives and standards for rangeland health.
Allotments in the Maintain Category comply with those standards.
Unit A likely achieved this status before the burros were removed.
The 1,247 AUMs per year sold to the permittee would support 207 wild burros.
If the rancher was confined to his base property and expected to pay the going rate to feed his animals, taxpayers would not have to pick up the tab for 207 wild burros.
Western Horse Watchers Association 