The HMA covers 30,305 total acres in eastern Oregon, including 19,998 public acres, according to the 2023 HA/HMA Report.
The 82 horses allowed by plan receive 984 AUMs per year.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 4.1 wild horses per thousand public acres, four times higher than the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.
There are three layers of forage demand in the HMA: Wildlife, wild horses and privately owned livestock.
To estimate the carrying capacity, calculate the forage assigned to livestock, add the result to the allocation above and convert the total to wild horses.
In their zeal to install humane management wherever possible, the advocates ignore the livestock layer because it’s incompatible with the overpopulation narrative, which they ratify with their darting programs.
Chapter IIIB in a 2011 EA for pest control and resource enforcement discusses two allotments that overlap the HMA: Smyth-Kiger and Happy Valley.
Table 2 indicates that 77% of Smyth-Kiger falls within the HMA, which seems reasonable based on the arrangement in the National Data Viewer.
The table indicates that 32% of Happy Valley is inside the HMA but the NDV suggests it’s closer to 60% so that figure will be used in the calculations.
The Allotment Master Report provides management status, acreage and active AUMs.
Both allotments are in the Improve category.
The estimated forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA is 3,031 AUMs per year, equivalent to 252 wild horses.
The True AML would be 82 + 252 = 334, the number of horses the HMA could support if it was managed principally for them as specified in the original statute, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.
The stocking rate at the new AML would be 16.7 wild horses per thousand public acres.
This brings more embarrassment to the bureaucrats who claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres as noted above.
The BLM collects 3,031 × 1.35 = $4,092 per year from ranching activity inside the HMA while it spends 5 × 252 × 365 = $459,900 per year to care for horses displaced thereby.
Would you say that’s a wise use of the public lands?
RELATED: Pest Control Plan for Kiger and Riddle Mountain HMAs Stalled?
Western Horse Watchers Association 