Livestock grazing represents one layer of forage demand on America’s public lands, followed by wild horses and wildlife.

To estimate the carrying capacity of an HMA or WHT, you have to determine the forage assigned to livestock and the number of wild horses displaced thereby.

The Socorro Field Office recently posted a Draft CX for the renewal of five grazing permits in western New Mexico.

Comments can be submitted at the project site through March 12.

Table 1 in the CX provides livestock types, grazing seasons and active AUMs.

The Allotment Master Report at RAS is not working so the management status and public acres were sourced from the Allotment Information Report.

The allotments are not contiguous and don’t overlap any HMAs, but you can still use the data for practice.

The weighted average forage density is 182.5 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, enough to support 182.5 ÷ 12 = 15.2 wild horses per thousand public acres, or 30.4 wild burros per thousand public acres.

Public lands in the western U.S. can only support one such animal per thousand acres according to the BLM (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

The forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 6,172 ÷ 12 = 514 wild horses.

If the allotments coincided with an HMA that has an AML of 60, the True AML would be 574.

If the current herd was at 4X AML, there would be no excess horses in the HMA but the advocates would try to beat the population down with their favorite pesticide, because they want the ranchers to succeed, not the horses.

RELATED: AMLs and Carrying Capacities.

It’s not ground zero in the wild horse preservation movement.

It’s not the most glaring example in the western U.S. that contradicts the overpopulation narrative and statements by the bureaucrats and ranchers about how many wild horses the land can support.

Instead, the Virginia Range is one of the largest humane management programs for wild mustangs according to the bill text, a product of the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.

Did you know that Velma Johnston advocated for humane management of wild horses, a euphemism for destroying their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide?

A story posted yesterday by KOLO News said the Nevada Senate Committee on Natural Resources will consider the measure on March 7, consistent with the overview at NELIS.

What’s the major difference between roundups and fertility control programs?

The herds bounce back after roundups.

The advocates tell you that PZP is safe and reversible while GonaCon is a sterilant, but the only difference is timing: GonaCon sterilizes with one or two doses while PZP requires five or six.

Thus, the Montana Solution is to wild horses as the Final Solution was to Jews.

Gradual extermination of the pests.

The advocates refer to it as “a better way.”

The current lull in gather activity, and a roundup schedule dominated by fertility control programs, means the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, its affiliates, offshoots and supporters, are now the undisputed leaders in the wild horse removal industry.

Western Horse Watchers does not expect the pattern to continue, because the ranchers are impatient.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Keeping Them Wild and Free Edition.

“They make us happy, we watch them grow, they have names, they have strong family bonds, we practice birth control and watch over them like mother hens.  They are magnificent creatures.”

As suggested by this letter to The Record-Courier of Minden, NV, they don’t see themselves as part of the problem.

RELATED: Advocates Upset as BLM Traps More Pine Nut Horses.

“There is a small faction of people in Nevada pushing for full extermination of wild horses,” according to the writer of a column in today’s edition of The Nevada Independent.

“Some want immediate removal of all wild horses and others want to get rid of wild horses a little at a time by cutting down the size of the herds well below what is needed for healthy breeding by frequent roundups and removals—death by a thousand cuts,” yet he applauds a variant of the latter carried out by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and its army of volunteers.

Many of the mares are now at risk of sterility as the program moves into its fifth year, but because he doesn’t see any adverse effects, it must not be a concern.

The wild horse preservation advocates, as he calls them, look at the Virginia Range as a demonstration project, an opportunity to convince the bureaucrats and ranchers that they have a better way (to get rid of wild horses).

And they want you to pay for it.

How do the advocates protect their cherished/beloved/innocent/treasured wild herds?

By destroying their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide.

RELATED: Nobody’s Getting Rid of More Wild Horses Than the Advocates.

In this paid position, you’ll convince unsuspecting donors that you actually care about wild horses, while your colleagues work behind the scenes to displace as many as possible from their lawful homes.

You’ll carry on a fine tradition of not only caving to the ranching agenda, but actively supporting it.

And, like most advocacy groups, you’ll claim that the only way to save wild horses is to destroy their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide or move them to remote wilderness areas where they’ll welcomed like the Gila livestock.

The site is not going anywhere.

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Thank you for your support.

Today we recognize a remarkable achievement of the advocates.

With an unexpected lull in gather activity and a schedule dominated by fertility control programs, they are now leaders in the wild horse removal industry.

In fact, if they get their way, future schedules will have a limited number of roundups but massive delivery of their favorite pesticide.

This practice, sometimes referred to as keep them wild and free, humane management, or a better way, means few if any youngsters, gradual extermination of the herds and most of their food consumed by livestock, as specified in the land-use plans.

You can learn more about these concepts at the SOWH DC conference.

Pre-conference activity includes a postcard campaign.

Events like this keep their base fired up while accomplishing nothing for wild horses.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Spending Your Money Wisely Edition.