The permits on these allotments, located west of Hawthorne, NV, are up for renewal.
They offer a combined 5,102 active AUMs on 71,998 public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report.
The forage assigned to horses is zero.
How many wild horses could live there?
Using the principle of forage interchangeability, the True AML would be 5,102 ÷ 12 = 425, the number of horses the land could support if it was managed principally for them as specified in the original statute.
The stocking rate would be 425 ÷ 71,998 × 1,000 = 5.9 wild horses per thousand public acres.
Why is this important?
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).
The advocates, defeated a long time ago and now one of their allies, give their assent through their darting programs.
If the allotments were an HMA, the AML would be 72 and 353 horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.
BLM allotments in Nevada carry livestock equivalent to 173,144 wild horses on 40,194,360 public acres, or 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.
Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses, as American Prairie did for bison in Montana.
RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.
Western Horse Watchers Association 