The allotment, located about 40 miles east of Florence, AZ, offers 496 active AUMs on 5,690 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 496 ÷ 12 = 41, 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 41 ÷ (5,690 ÷ 1,000) = 7.2 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 reinforce the narrative with their darting programs.
If the allotment was an HMA, the AML would be 6 and 35 horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.
BLM allotments in Arizona carry livestock equivalent to 53,662 wild horses on 10,090,546 public acres, or 5.3 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 