Table 15 in the Draft EA for resource enforcement actions provides data for the four allotments that intersect the Complex. Map 2 in the SIR shows the arrangement.
The Allotment Master Report provides acreage, management status and active AUMs, which may differ slightly from the AUMs in the table.
The condition of Lucky C is unknown. Western Horse Watchers is unable to explain how it qualifies for Custodial status.
The other three allotments, representing 73.5% of the public acres, do not meet one or more standards for rangeland health. Our stewards of the public lands may not be taking their responsibilities seriously.
Forage production across the four allotments averages 49.7 AUMs per year per thousand acres, enough to support 4.1 wild horses per thousand acres.
When public lands are designated for wild horses, they can only sustain one such animal per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).
Livestock receive an estimated 8,122 AUMs per year inside the Complex, which would support 676 wild horses, on top of the 184 allowed by plan.
The True AML would be 860, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties and expecting them to pay the going rate to feed their animals.
Meanwhile, the BLM will collect 8,122 × 1.35 = $10,965 per year in grazing fees from ranching activity inside the Complex while it spends 676 × 5 × 365 = $1,233,700 per year to care for the horses displaced thereby.
Would you say that permitted grazing is a wise use of the public lands?
Western Horse Watchers Association 