A new project was opened in ePlanning yesterday and a preliminary environmental assessment was copied to the folder with other supporting documents.
The scoping phase was apparently skipped.
The project covers the Carter Reservoir HMA, Coppersmith HMA and Buckhorn HMA on the northern CA-NV border.
Alternative 1, the Proposed Action, features forcible removal, fertility control and sex ratio skewing. Refer to Section 2.2.3 in the EA.
As in the Kiger-Riddle EA, the discussion of GonaCon Equine on page 49 (50 in pdf) refers to outdated registrations: “GonaCon-Equine is approved for use by authorized federal, state, tribal, public, and private personnel, for application to wild and feral equids in the United States (EPA, 2013; 2015).”
The 2017 amendment, which increased the interval between treatments from 30 days to 90 days, is ignored.
The BLM news release said the current population is at least 700 wild horses, compared to a combined AML of 195.
The HMAs do not appear on the FY25 roundup schedule.
They are subject to permitted grazing.
The new plan supports three tenets of rangeland management.
Western Horse Watchers Association 