Mustang Monday

Horses have the day off. At the Black Mountain HMA with ZacksRides.

I’m not Running for Office, I’m Trying to Run the Advocates Off

They protect the ranchers, not the horses. Don’t give them a penny!

Pesticide Pushers 07-17-23

Black Mountain Roundup, Day 13

The incident started on January 9. Results through January 21:

Target: Burros
Method: Helicopter
Type: Planned
Category: Cruel and costly*
Goals: Gather 1,000, remove 960
Better way: Thin the herd with PZP, let the ranchers have most of the resources*
Captured: 986, up from 833 on Day 11
Shipped: 772, no change from Day 11
Released: None
Deaths: 2, up from 1 on Day 11
Average daily take: 75.8
Unaccounted-for animals: 212

The figures in this post are based on the daily reports, not the totals in the sidebar.

A jack was put down on Day 12 due to a leg injury.

The death rate is 0.2%.

The capture total includes 404 jacks, 442 jennies and 140 foals.

Youngsters represented 14.2% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 47.8% were male and 52.2% were female.

The name of the contractor was not given and the location of the trap site was not disclosed.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

Forage liberated to date: 5,916 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 4,930 gallons per day

The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and overlapping allotments. Click on map to open in new tab.

The management plan assigns 2.5 times more forage to livestock than the burros.

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

The incident will likely conclude tomorrow.

*According to advocates

Black Mountain Roundup, Day 11

The incident started on January 9. Results through January 19:

Target: Burros
Method: Helicopter
Type: Planned
Category: Cruel and costly*
Goals: Gather 1,000, remove 960
Better way: Beat the population down with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 833, up from 662 on Day 9
Shipped: 772, up from 449 on Day 9
Released: None
Deaths: 1, no change from Day 9
Average daily take: 75.7
Unaccounted-for animals: 60

The figures in this post are based on the daily reports, not the totals in the sidebar.

Helicopters did not fly on Day 11 due to maintenance.

The death rate is 0.1%.

The capture total includes 345 jacks, 375 jennies and 113 foals.

Youngsters represented 13.6% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 47.9% were male and 52.1% were female.

The location of the trap site was not disclosed.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

Forage liberated to date: 4,998 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 4,165 gallons per day

The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and overlapping allotments. Click on map to open in new tab.

The management plan assigns 2.5 times more forage to livestock than the burros.

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

The incident will likely conclude in three days.

*According to advocates

RELATED: Black Mountain Roundup, Day 9.

BLM Sacrificing Ranchers to Green Energy?

Sorry boys, it’s been nice but it hasn’t been real nice. Your sacred status on America’s public lands has been reviewed and found to be, well, inconvenient.

That’s the message in Section 3.11.4.2 of the Draft EIS for the Libra Solar Project southeast of Yerington, NV.

The facility will appropriate 1,722 acres in the Gray Hills allotment and 3,419 acres in the Perry Springs-Deadman allotment, resulting in the loss of 218 AUMs per year.

That’s equivalent to 18 wild horses running free in the allotments.

Why not do that and avoid all the mess?

The Allotment Master Report puts Gray Hills and Perry Springs in the Maintain category, offering a combined 6,065 active AUMs on 158,468 public acres, or 38.3 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, equivalent to 3.2 wild horses per thousand public acres.

This brings more embarrassment to the bureaucrats and ranchers, who insist that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres.

Figure 3.11-2 in the EIS shows water sources for Gray Hills originating southeast of the proposed plant in an area that turns out to be the Wassuk HMA. Another example of resources taken from the horses for the benefit of the ranchers.

If the bureaucrats are willing to subordinate the ranchers to their agenda of weakness and vulnerability—the goals of green energy—you can be sure the horses don’t have a chance.

The advocates won’t complain because they vote for it.

There won’t be much pushback from farm bureaus, stockgrower’s associations and cattlemen’s groups because they’re also run by left-wing kooks.

The EIS and related documents have been copied to the project folder in ePlanning.

Comments will be accepted through March 4 according to the news release.

East Pershing Roundup, Day 23

The incident began on December 28. Results through January 19:

Scope: Sonoma Range HA, East Range HA, Humboldt HA, Tobin Range HMA, North Stillwater HMA, Augusta Mountains HMA
Purpose: Pest control, resource enforcement, rancher protection
Target: Horses
Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Category: Cruel and costly*
Better way: Get rid of them with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 1,535, up from 1,388 on Day 21
Average daily take: 66.7
Capture goal: 2,875
Removal goal: 2,875
Returned: 3, no change from Day 21
Deaths: 17, up from 14 on Day 21
Shipped: 1,392, up from 1,273 on Day 21

The figures in this post are based on the daily reports, not the totals posted by the BLM.

A mare and stallion were dispatched on Day 22 for pre-existing conditions, followed by another stallion on Day 23, lifting the death rate to 1.1%.

The capture total includes 644 stallions, 706 mares and 185 foals. The sidebar at the gather page says 700 mares captured.

Youngsters represented 12.1% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of seven percent per year.

Of the adults, 47.7% were male and 52.3% were female, no evidence of an abnormal sex ratio.

The location of the trap site was not given.

Body condition scores ranged from 3 to 5 on Days 22 and 23.

The sidebar puts the total shipped at 1,394.

The Complex is managed primarily for animal agriculture. The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and grazing allotments. Click on image to open in new tab.

*According to advocates.

Day 23 ended with 123 unaccounted-for animals.

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

Other statistics:

Forage liberated to date: 18,384 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 15,320 gallons per day
Horses allowed by plan: 555
Pre-gather population: 3,375
Forage assigned to horses: 6,660 AUMs per year
Forage assigned to livestock: Not determined
Horses displaced from Complex by permitted grazing: Not determined
True AML: Not determined
Stocking rate at new AML: Not determined
Horses displaced by drilling and mining: Ask the advocates

Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.

The ability of the Complex to sustain wild horses has been limited by the bureaucrats, who have assigned most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

Refer to these reports for an indication of the problem:

RELATED: East Pershing Roundup, Day 21.

The Incredible Shrinking Family

The advocates lecture us about family and freedom, yet wherever they’re involved the mares are barren, the herds are shrinking and the ranchers are winning.

Better Way 10-25-23

The same pattern appears in the general population, which grew just 7.4% between 2010 and 2020, and apparently Nabisco has noticed.

In 2016, a family-size box of graham crackers contained six packs of nine crackers and weighed 28.8 ounces.

Later that year, the company trimmed the size to 25.6 ounces and reduced the count to eight crackers per pack.

Now the company is rolling out the new and improved version, which consists of four packs of nine.

If it was shrinkflation, the change would be small to evade detection by consumers.

But in this case the change is large and obvious.

What does it say about our culture and the direction we’re heading?

The Incredible Shrinking Family 01-19-24

Foal-Free Friday, Broken Record Edition

Nobody talks about wild horse removal more than the advocates.

Whether it’s the Rancher Protection Act, the Veterans for Pesticides Act or “safe, proven and reversible fertility control,” their babble always points to “humane management,” a codeword for nonmotorized removal.

They have the solution. You don’t need to know about the underlying conditions.

For example, at the Tobin Range HMA, part of the East Pershing Complex, livestock receive 22 times more forage than the horses.

Their answer? More poison. Beat the population down with PZP so ranchers can have most of the resources. In the lawful home of wild horses!

They are wolves in sheep’s clothing and don’t deserve a penny of your financial support.

Pesticide Patrol 08-16-23

Black Mountain Roundup, Day 9

The incident started on January 9. Results through January 17:

Target: Burros
Method: Helicopter
Type: Planned
Category: Cruel and costly*
Goals: Gather 1,000, remove 960
Better way: Beat the population down with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 662, up from 443 on Day 7
Shipped: 449, up from 314 on Day 7
Released: None
Deaths: 1, up from zero on Day 7
Average daily take: 73.6
Unaccounted-for animals: 212

The figures above are based on the daily reports.

A burro was dispatched on Day 9. No details were given.

The death rate is 0.2%.

Youngsters represented 13.3% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 51.2% were male and 48.8% were female.

The location of the trap site was not disclosed.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

Forage liberated to date: 3,972 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 3,310 gallons per day

The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and overlapping allotments. Click on map to open in new tab.

The management plan assigns 2.5 times more forage to livestock than the burros.

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

*According to advocates

RELATED: Black Mountain Roundup, Day 7.

East Pershing Roundup, Day 21

The incident began on December 28. Results through January 17:

Scope: Sonoma Range HA, East Range HA, Humboldt HA, Tobin Range HMA, North Stillwater HMA, Augusta Mountains HMA
Purpose: Pest control, resource enforcement, rancher protection
Target: Horses
Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Category: Cruel and costly*
Better way: Beat the population down with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 1,388, up from 1,245 on Day 19
Average daily take: 66.1
Capture goal: 2,875
Removal goal: 2,875
Returned: 3, no change from Day 19
Deaths: 14, up from 13 on Day 19
Shipped: 1,273, up from 1,115 on Day 19

The figures above are based on the daily reports, not the totals posted by the BLM.

A stallion was dispatched on Day 21 for club feet.

The death rate is 1.0%.

The capture total includes 601 stallions, 630 mares and 157 foals. The sidebar at the gather page says 624 mares captured.

Youngsters represented 11.3% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of six percent per year.

Of the adults, 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female, no evidence of an abnormal sex ratio.

The location of the trap site was not given.

Body condition scores ranged from 3 to 5 on Days 20 and 21.

The Complex is managed primarily for animal agriculture. The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and grazing allotments. Click on image to open in new tab.

*According to advocates.

Day 21 ended with 98 unaccounted-for animals.

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

Other statistics:

Forage liberated to date: 16,620 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 13,850 gallons per day
Horses allowed by plan: 555
Pre-gather population: 3,375
Forage assigned to horses: 6,660 AUMs per year
Forage assigned to livestock: Not determined
Horses displaced from Complex by permitted grazing: Not determined
True AML: Not determined
Stocking rate at new AML: Not determined
Horses displaced by drilling and mining: Ask the advocates

Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.

The ability of the Complex to sustain wild horses has been limited by the bureaucrats, who have assigned most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

Refer to these reports for an indication of the problem:

RELATED: East Pershing Roundup, Day 19.

BLM to Extend Pryor Mountain Land Withdrawal

The action will protect wild horse and wildlife habitat within the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range for an additional 20-year term, according to a notice appearing this morning in the Federal Register.

The original withdrawal occurred under Public Land Order No. 7628.

The National Data Viewer puts the affected parcels at the southern end of the WHR.

Persons wishing to submit comments must send them in writing to the Billings Field Office as described in the announcement.

How Is Solar Energy Like Wild Horses?

The BLM announced today the beginning of a public scoping period for the Pinyon Solar Project west of Maricopa, AZ.

The news release was the only document copied to the project folder.

The map at ePlanning puts the project area, which consists of 1,730 acres of public land, at the edge of the Sonoran Desert National Monument.

The National Data Viewer puts it inside the Conley Allotment.

The allotment offers 4,158 active AUMs on 90,946 public acres, or 45.7 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report.

Therefore, the facility will take an estimated 45.7 × 1,730 ÷ 1,000 = 79 AUMs per year out of action for the life of the project, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the allotment.

That’s like turning six to seven wild horses loose in the allotment to rob forage from the poor rancher!

Livestock grazing inside the NM was authorized by the BLM in a 2020 decision.

Black Mountain Roundup, Day 7

The incident started on January 9. Results through January 15:

Target: Burros
Method: Helicopter
Type: Planned
Category: Cruel and costly*
Goals: Gather 1,000, remove 960
Better way: Eradicate the herd with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 443, up from 284 on Day 5
Shipped: 314, up from 199 on Day 5
Released: None
Deaths: None
Average daily take: 63.3
Unaccounted-for animals: 129

The figures above are based on the daily reports.

Youngsters represented 14.0% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 55.1% were male and 44.9% were female.

The location of the trap site was not disclosed.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

Forage liberated to date: 2,658 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 2,215 gallons per day

The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and overlapping allotments. Click on map to open in new tab.

The management plan assigns 2.5 times more forage to livestock than the burros.

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

*According to advocates

RELATED: Black Mountain Roundup, Day 5.

East Pershing Roundup, Day 19

The incident began on December 28. Results through January 15:

Scope: Sonoma Range HA, East Range HA, Humboldt HA, Tobin Range HMA, North Stillwater HMA, Augusta Mountains HMA
Purpose: Pest control, resource enforcement, rancher protection
Target: Horses
Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Category: Cruel and costly*
Better way: Sterilize the mares with PZP, let the ranchers have their way*
Captured: 1,245, up from 1,139 on Day 17
Average daily take: 65.5
Capture goal: 2,875
Removal goal: 2,875
Returned: 3, no change from Day 17
Deaths: 13, no change from Day 17
Shipped: 1,115, no change from Day 17

The figures above are based on the daily reports, not the totals posted by the BLM.

Helicopters did not fly on Day 18.

The trap site has been moved to a new but undisclosed location.

The death rate is 1.0%.

The capture total includes 531 stallions, 578 mares and 136 foals. The sidebar at the gather page says 572 mares captured.

Youngsters represented 10.9% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of five to six percent per year.

Of the adults, 47.9% were male and 52.1% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.

The Complex is managed primarily for animal agriculture. The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and grazing allotments. Click on image to open in new tab.

*According to advocates.

Day 19 ended with 114 unaccounted-for animals.

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

Other statistics:

Forage liberated to date: 14,904 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 12,420 gallons per day
Horses allowed by plan: 555
Pre-gather population: 3,375
Forage assigned to horses: 6,660 AUMs per year
Forage assigned to livestock: Not determined
Horses displaced from Complex by permitted grazing: Not determined
True AML: Not determined
Stocking rate at new AML: Not determined
Horses displaced by drilling and mining: Ask the advocates

Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.

The ability of the Complex to sustain wild horses has been limited by the bureaucrats, who have assigned most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

Refer to these reports for an indication of the problem:

RELATED: East Pershing Roundup, Day 17.

How Many Wild Horses Can the North Stillwater HMA Support?

It’s the third of three HMAs in the East Pershing Complex, now subject to the largest roundup of FY24.

The HMA covers 178,927 total acres, including 176,800 public acres, and the 205 horses allowed by plan receive 2,460 AUMs per year.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.2 wild horses per thousand public acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

Table 8 in the Final EA for pest control and resource enforcement in the Complex shows seven allotments that intersect the HMA.

Three Field Offices are involved:

Humboldt River – Pleasant Valley, Rawhide, Rochester, Jersey Valley
Mount Lewis – South Buffalo
Stillwater – Copper Kettle, Boyer Ranch

Three more steps are needed to determine the carrying capacity.

The overlap percentages in the table seem reasonable based on the arrangement in the National Data Viewer, except for Boyer Ranch and Copper Kettle.

The estimated overlaps for those two allotments are 20% and 25%, not 91% and 94% per table 8. These values will be used in the calculations.

The Allotment Master Report at RAS provides management status, acreage and active AUMs, with three iterations required (HRFO | MLFO | SFO).

North Stillwater Allotment Calcs 01-14-24

Approximately 41% of the public acreage does not meet standards for rangeland health.

The allotments offer a weighted average 34.6 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, not very attractive from a ranching viewpoint.

The management plan assigns an estimated 4,212 AUMs per year to livestock inside the HMA, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the allotments.

The number of wild horses displaced from their lawful home by permitted grazing is therefore 4,212 ÷ 12 = 351.

The True AML is 205 + 351 = 556, the number of horses the HMA could support is it was managed principally them as specified in the original statute.

As of today, it’s managed primarily for livestock.

The new AML can be achieved by confining the ranchers to their multi-million-dollar base properties in a year-round off season.

The private corrals operated by JS Livestock, destination of horses captured in the roundup, demonstrate the feasibility of this idea.

Instead of allowing the horses to fill their niche on public lands, the bureaucrats cram them into taxpayer-supported feedlots, while giving most of their food and water to the government dependents.

As a result, the agency collects 4,212 × 1.35 = $5,686 per year from ranching activity inside the HMA, while it spends 351 × 5 × 365 = $640,575 per year to care for the horses displaced thereby.

Would you say that’s a wise use of the public lands?

None of this is necessary according to the advocates. Just beat the horse populations down with ovary-killing pesticides and let the ranchers have their way. Problem solved.