Reports for the January 7 meeting have been copied to the Advisory Board home page.

RELATED: Next WHBAB Meeting Set for Early January.

UPDATE: The event will be livestreamed starting at 8 AM local time.

The incident started on November 29.  Results through January 2:

• Scope: Murderer’s Creek HMA, WHT
• Target: Wild horses
• AML: 140
• Pre-gather population: 650
• True AML: TBD
• Type: Emergency
• Method: Bait
• Capture goal: 350 – 400
• Removal goal: 350 – 400
• Captured: 193, up from 190 on Day 31
• Shipped: 186, up from 168 on Day 31
• Released: None
• Deaths: 4, no change from Day 31
• Average daily take: 5.5
• Unaccounted-for animals: 3
• Snippet from statute: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death
• Snippet from manual: To protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death

No reports were given for Days 33 and 34.

The death rate is 2.1%.

The capture total includes 66 stallions, 84 mares and 43 foals.

Youngsters represented 22.3% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of 17% per year.  The Rule of 72 says the herd size will double in 4.2 years.

Of the adults, 44.0% were male and 56.0% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio in the population at large.

Body condition scores were not given.

The location of the trap site was not disclosed.

The name of the contractor was not provided.

There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.

No decisions have made regarding the long-term disposition of horses, which means they could be treated or altered in off range holding, including the stallions.

The status of livestock grazing in the burned area is not known.

RELATED: Murderer’s Creek Roundup, Day 31.

Sevens Ranch offers 17,666 deeded acres intermixed with 49,557 acres of BLM and State lands for a total of 67,223, according to the listing.

The map indicates it has preference on the Disappointment and Cedar Springs Draw allotments.

The Allotment Master Report puts both in the Improve category but shows no active AUMs on either, contrary to the agent’s description.

The allotment dataset posted last April shows 1,610 active AUMs on 22,304 public acres for Disappointment and 2,758 active AUMs on 20,161 public acres for Cedar Springs Draw, equivalent to 364 wild horses on 42,465 public acres, or 8.6 wild horses per thousand public acres.  (Our faithful public servants tell us that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand public acres.)

Buyers should ask the Little Snake Field Office about the AUM discrepancy.

The ranch might be a candidate for Colorado’s new wild horse preserve.

The land ratio is 2.8 public acres for every deeded acre, so it’s close.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring private property associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses as Wild Horse Refuge did at Rio Ro Mo Ranch.