If you attended the 2022 Save Our Wild Horses conference, you probably went home thinking that herd management area plans (HMAPs) were the be-all/end-all for wild horses.
It was a bunch of crap but that’s what the advocates do to separate you from your money.
The Forest Service has crafted one for the Murderer’s Creek JMA and an assessment of the environmental effects is out for public review.
Appendix L, copied to the Analysis folder of the project, indicates at the top of page 13 (page 18 in the pdf) that livestock receive 7,770 head-months of forage in the JMA, roughly equal to 7,770 AUMs per year, compared to 1,680 AUMs per year for horses.
This means that 647 wild horses have been displaced from their lawful home by permitted grazing and livestock receive 82% of the authorized forage, neglecting wildlife.
The JMA is managed primarily for animal agriculture and the new HMAP will ratify and reinforce that, as explained last year.
The horses have been cheated by the bureaucrats in favor of the ranchers with the approval of the advocates.
Welcome to the wild horse world.
RELATED: Draft EA for Murderer’s Creek HMAP Out for Public Review.
Western Horse Watchers Association 