The BLM allows 11,987 wild horses and 824 wild burros on 14,032,947 public acres in Nevada, according to the statistics released earlier this week.
The current population is thought to be 28,314 wild horses and 3,804 wild burros.
The Nevada WHR and Marietta WBR are not subject to permitted grazing so let’s deduct their acreage, AMLs and current populations from the totals.
- Nevada WHR – AML is 500 wild horses, no BLM acreage (land controlled by DoD), current population is 337 horses
- Marietta WBR – AML is 104 wild burros, 64,466 BLM acres, current population is 38 horses and 556 burros
The management plans for Nevada HMAs allow 11,487 wild horses and 720 wild burros on 13,968,481 public acres, compared to a current population of 27,939 horses and 3,248 burros.
That’s equivalent to 11,487 + (720 ÷ 2) = 11,847 horses allowed by plan on 13,968,481 public acres, compared to a current population of 27,939 + (3,248 ÷ 2) = 29,563.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 11,847 ÷ 13,968,481 × 1.000 = 0.8 wild horses per thousand public acres.
The bureaucrats and ranchers tell us that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres), so Nevada comes up on the short side of the target.
The current stocking rate is 29,563 ÷ 13,968,481 × 1,000 = 2.1 wild horses per thousand public acres.
We know from previous discussion that BLM allotments in Nevada can support 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, for an estimated carrying capacity of 0.8 + 4.3 = 5.1 wild horses per thousand public acres, which surpasses the current stocking rate by a factor of 2.4.
You don’t have a wild horse problem, you have a resource management problem.
For every horse allowed on Nevada public lands, five have been consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.
The HMAs in Nevada should be able to support an additional 60,000 wild horses.
The advocates couldn’t care less. They want to end wild horse reproduction, not public-lands ranching.
To wit, here is the arithmetic they understand and use on a daily basis:
0.5 cc PZP solution + 0.5 cc modified Freund’s Complete Adjuvant = 1 dose of primer
0.5 cc PZP solution + 0.5 cc modified Freund’s Incomplete Adjuvant = 1 dose of booster
Give one primer and five to six boosters until the mares are sterile.
RELATED; Foal-Free Friday, Holier Than Thou Edition.
Western Horse Watchers Association 