Advocate Claims BLM Evaded Oversight in Jakes Fire Roundup

Observers were unable to determine the condition of an injured horse according to an opinion piece in the Reno Gazette Journal.

But should you criticize the agency for lack of transparency when you’re guilty of that yourself?

The column was written by the Nevada State Director for the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in mass sterilization and servant of the public lands ranchers, who scrubbed the Virginia Range Darting Resources page from its website, and the monthly reports posted thereto, leaving the public in the dark about the largest attempted eradication of wild horses in the state.

Why are you still giving them money?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Purdue Researchers Invent New Fertility Control Pesticide?

They are trying to develop it into a controlled-release formulation that induces long-lasting infertility with a single injection according to a March 3 news release.

Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, provided financial support for the research.

The BLM has funded a three-year project to test it on horses.

What’s the difference between long-term infertility and sterility?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

AZDA Posts Salt River Contract Award Notice

The announcement, dated February 18, was published to its news site yesterday.

To wit, the new management plan balances the population with available resources while maintaining genetic integrity, which is nonsense, not when the advocates have ruined the mares with PZP.

Breeding, not mass sterilization, assures long-term viability.

Horses removed from their habitat can only go to sanctuaries approved by AZDA.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Win New Contract with AZDA.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

How Many Wild Horses Can the Callaghan HMA Support?

The HMA overlaps the Austin, Grass Valley and Simpson Park allotments, with 51% in Austin, 42% in Grass Valley and 7% in Simpson Park according to Table 5 of the Final EA for the Callaghan Complex.

The 237 wild horses allowed by plan require 2,844 AUMs per year.

Austin offers 14,478 active AUMs on 235,185 public acres, equivalent to 5.1 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Grass Valley offers 17,701 active AUMs on 267,201 public acres, equivalent to 5.5 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Simpson Park offers 3,406 active AUMs on 96,818 public acres, equivalent to 2.9 wild horses per thousand public acres.

These resources are present in the HMA, assuming they’re evenly distributed across the allotments, but they’ve been assigned to livestock.

To estimate the carrying capacity, shift them back to the horses.  Forage assigned to wildlife stays with wildlife.

The HMA covers 152,726 public acres so the forage allocated to the Austin permittees inside the HMA should support 152,726 × .51 × 5.1 ÷ 1,000 = 397 wild horses.

The forage allocated to the Grass Valley ranchers should support 152,726 × .42 × 5.5 ÷ 1,000 = 353 wild horses.

The forage assigned to the Simpson Park ranchers should support 152,726 × .07 × 2.9 ÷ 1,000 = 31 wild horses.

The HMA should be able to sustain 237 + 397 + 353 + 31 = 1,018 wild horses (4X AML) if it was managed principally for them as specified in the original statute.

The new stocking rate would be 1,018 ÷ 152,726 × 1,000 = 6.7 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres.

The allotment master report puts all of the acreage in the Improve category.

Austin has more AUMs in the suspended column than active, while everything is active at Simpson Park.

The allotments would not make a good wild horse preserve because they overlap areas identified for wild horses and there is more than one authorization attached to each, so you’d have to acquire or control several base properties to access all of the AUMs.

Simpson Park contains Spencer Hot Springs, a water source for the Hickison burros.

RELATED: BLM Publishes Callaghan Final Planning Documents.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Scoping Begins for Muddy Creek HMAP?

Two projects have been added to ePlanning, both with the same NEPA numbers but different URLs.

The second project has an open comment period for a management evaluation report.

The scoping statement gives a due date of April 1.

Western Horse Watchers has not seen any announcements or news reports on the topic.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

UPDATE: The link in the news release, issued on March 3, points to the second project.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Would Sanpete Allotments Make a Good Wild Horse Preserve?

They’re on the small side and not contiguous but the permits are up for renewal with comments due by March 4.

The allotment master report puts Hayes Canyon, Little Valley, Swedes Canyon and West Side in the Maintain category with equivalent stocking rates ranging from 3.6 to 12.6 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that rangeland health will suffer if wild horse stocking rates exceed one animal per thousand acres.

If a lying contest was held next week, who would win?  The bureaucrats or advocates?

RELATED: How Many Wild Horses Can Public Lands Really Support?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.