The permittee received an undisclosed sum from The National Wildlife Federation for vacating five BLM allotments and five FS allotments totaling over 100,000 acres in a mountainous area southeast of Telluride.
The deal will separate a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorns from nonnative domestic sheep according to a story dated November 26 by CBS News, reducing the risk of disease and death in the native sheep.
Although optimistic about the agreement, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society said he remains dismayed by inaction of federal land management agencies, noting that grazing is a privilege not a right, and that “We should not be relying upon third party NGOs to negotiate settlements and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in private funds to protect our bighorn sheep herds.”
Touché! But the foot dragging makes sense if you understand the prime directive.
The article suggests that the permittee obtained access to some other allotments closer to home as part of the deal.
The Operator Information Report at RAS tied the permittee to five BLM authorizations and fifteen allotments. The last two authorizations cover the vacated allotments.
- 0503059 – SANDY WASH, PIPELINE, SHAVANO MESA, FRANKLIN MESA, DRY CREEK BASIN, SOUTH PINEY, DAVE WOOD ROAD, CANAL
- 0503501 – LEE LANDS
- 0504436 – BRUSH POINT
- 0503955 – GLADSTONE, EUREKA, DEER PARK, ELK CREEK
- 0504718 – MAGGIE GULCH
Utilization on FS lands cannot be determined at this time.
The Allotment Master Report for the vacated parcels puts all five in the Maintain category, offering a weighted average 68.3 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.
That resource would support 5.7 wild horses per thousand acres, defying claims by the bureaucrats that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).
Although the arrangement offers another approach to protecting wild horses and burros, can you imagine a headline that reads “__________ negotiates a settlement and raises hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect our wild horse herds?”
Fill in the blank with your favorite advocacy group.
You’re much more likely to see a news flash about that same group beating the numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides, much to the delight of the public-lands ranchers.
Western Horse Watchers Association 