Table 1 in the Draft EA for resource enforcement actions in the Complex shows more horses than allowed by plan.
The current population is thought to be 651, compared to an AML of 364.
Are there more horses than the land can support?
The advocates aren’t even curious. Defeated a long time ago and now solidly in the ranchers’ corner, they are lost in their darting paradigm.
To answer the question, you have to look at a map and the data in Table 3 and do a few simple calculations.
The HMA overlaps two allotments according to the Western Watersheds map, Willow Creek and Stone Cabin.
The Allotment Master Report puts them in the Improve category. The report provides a check on the data in the table.
The management plan assigns 1,990 + 11,973 + 338 = 14,301 AUMs per year to livestock inside the HMA, enough to support an additional 14,301 ÷ 12 = 1,192 wild horses.
How can the HMA be overpopulated with 651 wild horses when the BLM authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 1,192 wild horses in the same area, on top of the 364 horses allowed by plan?
The current population is not even close to the True AML of 364 + 1,192 = 1,556, so there are no excess animals.
The BLM collects 14,301 × 1.35 = $19,306 per year in grazing fees from ranchers inside the HMA while it spends 1,192 × 5 × 365 = $2,175,400 per year to care for the horses in off-range holding that could be returned to the HMA if livestock grazing was stopped.
The savings are huge but why would you change anything when you can prolong the scam and lay the costs off on American taxpayers?
RELATED: Stone Cabin Pest Control Plan Out for Public Review.
Western Horse Watchers Association 