The incident will begin on October 1 according to today’s news release.
The capture and removal goals are 940 and 870, respectively.
The announcement does not indicate the method of capture but the FY25 schedule, just out, suggests helicopter.
Operations will be open to public observation.
The destination of animals identified for removal is not known.
A link to the daily reports was not provided.
The HMA covers 758,128 total acres on the CA-NV state line, including 635,356 public acres, and the management plan allows 758 horses and 116 burros.
The current population is thought to be around 1,800 wild horses and 140 wild burros.
The news release said that the horses were using more than their allocated share of the forage but did not say who gets the remainder.
Section 3.2.2 in the Final EA for management actions in the HMA indicates that cattle and sheep receive 26,644 AUMs per year while the horses and burros receive 9,792 AUMs per year according to section 1.2.
Thus the HMA supports livestock equivalent to 2,220 wild horses.
The True AML is 2,978, so it’s far from overpopulated.
The announcement should have said that the horses are trying to reclaim some of their food from the government dependents.
Western Horse Watchers Association 