The bill cleared the Senate Conservation Committee yesterday, according to a story by KRQE News.

A representative of Animal Protection Voters spoke in favor of the measure.

An APV fact sheet says the bill allows population suppression (PZP for mares, castration for stallions), relocation to other areas, transfer to rescues and preserves for sanctuary or adoption and euthanasia of horses with untreatable medical conditions.

Curiously, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses opposed the bill, claiming that it could undermine efforts to control free-roaming herds with contraceptives.

The status of the bill can be monitored at this page.

RELATED: New Mexico Lawmakers Tackle Wild Horse Problem?

Would you attend a conference organized by those who say PZP is not a pesticide?

Should you support an organization that

• Protects wild mustangs by destroying their ovaries with said pesticide?
• Admits they’re getting rid of wild horses and won’t tell you how far they plan to go?
• Wants to move free-roaming horses from their lawful homes to remote wilderness areas, leaving all of their food to the public-lands ranchers?

What about groups that

• Care far more about their standing with the bureaucrats and ranchers than they do about the horses?
• Want to be leaders in the wild horse removal industry?
• Won’t provide data for their darting programs, including herd sizes, demographics and changes year over year?

What about individuals that

• Refer to sterilized mares as self-boosting?
• Describe abnormal sex ratios as mares living longer?
• Say preservation when they mean eradication?
• Tell you the herds are aging out, not dying off?
• Want the ranchers to succeed, not the horses?
• Treat their cherished/beloved/innocent wild horses as pests.

What should you believe?  Their words or their deeds?

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Fooling You with Euphemisms Edition.

Thirteen more have been captured, according to a report by The Record-Courier of Minden, NV, bringing the total to 18.

All of the mares had been treated with the Montana Solution.

Although a nuisance gather appears at the bottom of the FY 2023 roundup schedule, with a removal goal of 22, there are no gather stats and daily reports at the Nevada roundup page.

The Pine Nut Mountains HMA, shown in orange on the following map, is roughly half the size of the HA, shown in black.

Operations may be on private lands west of the HA.

RELATED: Advocates Fuming After BLM Nabs Pine Nut Horses.

Commenting on a February 6 story about the agency’s plan to install fixed trap stations and increase the use of fertility control, he stated in a February 15 letter that the purpose of roundups is to destroy wild horse herds at the behest of sheep and cattle ranchers.

Although he referred to them as cruel and unnecessary, he did not point to the Montana Solution as an alternative.

RELATED: Management Paradigm Shifting at Sand Wash Basin?

The incident occurred on February 9 at the entrance to the Ten-X Campground of the Kaibab National Forest, according to a report posted today by Williams News of Williams, AZ.

The facility is located two miles south of Tusayan, AZ on the east side of Highway 64.

The article did not indicate if the guard had been installed by our stewards of the public lands.

The Western Watersheds map indicates that the campground is surrounded by the Anita Allotment of the Tusayan Ranger District.

The mishap follows two other calls in the past year involving horses in cattle guards.

UPDATE: More information about the allotment can be found in the 2022 Annual Operating Instructions.

Today we recognize the Love Triangle on America’s public lands.

How do the advocates protect wild horses?  By stalking the mares in their lawful homes and destroying their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide, eventually leaving most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

The statement last week by the BLM that the AML for Sand Wash Basin represents the carrying capacity of the land was false.

If an HMA is subject to permitted grazing, the carrying capacity will be higher.

Same for WHTs.

Sand Wash Basin covers 156,502 total acres, according to the 2022 HA/HMA Report, including 151,435 public acres.

The AML is 362.

The 362 horses allowed by plan, the correct interpretation of the term, require 4,344 AUMs per year, or 28.7 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 362 ÷ 151,435 × 1,000 = 2.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

The National Data Viewer shows four allotments that overlap the HMA: Lang Spring, Nipple Rim, Sheepherder Spring and Sand Wash.

The allotment boundaries deviate slightly from the HMA boundary and roughly half of Nipple Rim extends beyond the HMA, but the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA—the reason why AMLs are not synonymous with carrying capacities—can be estimated on a per-acre basis.

The Allotment Master Report provides acreage, management status and active AUMs.

Approximately 98% of the public acreage is in the Improve category.

The forage assigned to livestock would support 117.6 ÷ 12 = 9.8 horses per thousand public acres, on top of the 2.4 allowed by plan, despite claims by the BLM that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

There are three layers of forage demand across the HMA: Horses, livestock and wildlife.

Livestock receive 117.6 × 151,435 ÷ 1,000 = 17,809 AUMs per year per year inside the HMA, enough to support 17,809 ÷ 12 = 1,484 wild horses.

The horses receive 4,344 AUMs per year as noted above.

The forage assigned to wildlife is not known but is probably around 200 AUMs per year.

These figures are presented in the pie charts below.

The estimated carrying capacity is 362 + 1,484 = 1,846, the True AML, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a rear-round off season.

The Sand Wash Advocates beat the horse population down with their favorite pesticide so livestock can access most of their food.

The Wild Horse Fire Brigade would ship them to a remote wilderness area, never to be seen again, so livestock can access all of their food.

The 2021 roundup took over 600 horses off the range.  The pre-gather population was 896, well within the carrying capacity of the HMA.

RELATED: Management Paradigm Shifting at Sand Wash Basin?

There were eight on the list in December but now there are fifteen.

Some use PZP and some use GonaCon.

The advocates promote the former while condemning the latter, arguing that only the Montana Solution is safe and reversible.

Both cause sterility.

RELATED: First Installment of FY 2023 Roundup Schedule Posted.

On the eastern Sierra with Meyer Flier.

The Assateague Island Alliance counted 78 horses on the Maryland side of the island as of February 8, no change from January.

No births were indicated.

The number of males and females was not given.

The Park Service no longer provides census results.

The herd, barely able to keep up with deaths, shows little if any growth since the safe, proven and reversible darting program was shut off in 2016.

The sex ratio is likely skewed in favor of females, a side-effect of the Montana Solution.

RELATED: Assateague Census, January 2023.

Has Staci-lee lost her marbles?

Instead of moving the horses, end the conflict: Confine the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season and let them pay the going rate to feed their animals.

RELATED: ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’ Means Victory for Permittees.

The project is in the research stage according to a story by Cowboy State Daily.

The announcement coincides with a brief report about “Women in the Wilderness,” an unbiased documentary that trumpets the ranching agenda.

RELATED: New Documentary Peddles Overpopulation Narrative.

A fundraiser, to cover post-production expenses, is set for February 15, according to a story by The Other Paper of South Burlington, VT.

The film will educate the public about wild horses on America’s public lands while inspiring women to pursue their dreams.

Problem statement here.

He had drifted onto private property and the plan was to ship him to California, but he acted aggressively, according to a story by KLAS News of Las Vegas.

The report did not indicate how he was killed.

Mount Charleston is in Forest Service land that’s surrounded by the Johnnie, Wheeler Pass and Red Rock HMAs, west of Las Vegas.

There are no remarks about livestock, grazing, forage allocations and management priorities in their response to the scoping letter, appearing in today’s edition of the Powell Tribune.

The group provides darting services to the BLM, beating down the horse population while leaving most of their food for the public-lands ranchers.

Perhaps we should refer to them as Friends of Authorized Livestock.

Of interest is their take on sterility and sex ratio skewing.

GonaCon causes sterility, not in females but in males.  How did they come up with that?

Mares that respond to the Montana Solution live longer, according to their statement, meaning that females will outnumber males, if they don’t already, and the sex ratio will be skewed in favor of females.

The pattern has been evident at Assateague Island for many years, a documented side-effect of PZP that the advocates deny.

They don’t talk much about sterility either, referring to such mares as self-boosting.

RELATED: Hallelujah, McCullough Comment Period Ends Today!