The facility will reopen after a yearlong closure with an online adoption event scheduled for March 13-20, according to a BLM news release.
The announcement did not indicate that nineteen horses died in those pens because of a strangles outbreak.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
TRIC Manager Praises Virginia Range Darting Program
“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.
Today Is Horse Protection Day
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.
Chincoteague Museum Tries to Save Misty’s Ranch
The 10.3 acre farm, popularized by Marguerite Henry’s novel, is on the market and a developer has already offered $625,000, according to a story posted yesterday by Chesapeake Bay Magazine.
Staff with the Museum have launched a fundraising campaign to purchase the property and save it future generations.
The family prefers to sell to the museum, but it has only one month to raise the funds.
Donations are tax-deductible and can be made online or by mail.
Gila Cattle Shoot Fizzles?
Today’s news release says 19 animals were dispatched over three days of operations.
The project area was searched at least four times and no additional cattle were seen.
A news release dated February 16 said the best estimate was 150 head.
The number of animals injured and left to die was not reported.
The closure order covering the area of operations will be lifted tomorrow.
RELATED: Forest Service Acknowledges Source of Gila Livestock.
HJR3 Dead
A story posted today by the Cody Enterprise confirms the resolution failed in a split vote on February 16.
RELATED: HJR3 Stumbles in Senate?
BLM Reopens Clan Alpine Scoping Period
The agency seeks public input regarding historic properties in or near the project area, according to today’s news release.
The preferred method for submitting comments is at the project site on ePlanning, but a Participate Now button has not been added to the documents folder.
The project would gather and remove excess wild horses from in and around the HMA and implement a range of fertility control techniques to maintain the population within AML over a period of ten years.
RELATED: Clan Alpine Scoping Begins.
Mustang Monday
At the Needle Rock Day Use Area, Tonto National Forest, with Will Ohlund.
Last week’s episode was likely filmed at this location.
RTF Seeks Development Director
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.
Western Horse Watchers Moves to No-Subscriber Format
The site is not going anywhere.
The Follow button has been removed and E-mail distribution has been discontinued.
Thank you for your support.
Forest Service Acknowledges Source of Gila Livestock
The issue started when a permittee abandoned cattle on the Redstone Allotment, according to the Decision Memo, copied to the project folder with other documents.
That happened in the 1970s according to remarks at the bottom of page two in the Response to Comments.
Scroll down to the documents section and click on the Decision folder to access these files.
Western Horse Watchers has been unable to find any news reports covering the killings, which were to start on February 23.
The Center for Biological Diversity, instigator of the Apache “Jumping Mouse” horse removal, supports this effort.
RELATED: Gila Cattle Shoot in Progress?
Gila Cattle Shoot in Progress?
The action was to resume yesterday, according to a notice dated February 16 by the Forest Service, and continue through February 26.
The closure area, effective February 20, is bounded by Turkey Creek to the north, the Gila River to the south, and extends eastward into the vacant Redstone Allotment.
The Gila Wilderness is surrounded by USFS grazing allotments, the likely source of the target animals. Click on image to open in new tab.
RELATED: Forest Service to Resume Aerial Shooting of Gila Livestock.
Foal-Free Friday, Keeping Them Wild and Free Edition
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.
LRTC Seeks Volunteers for Large Animal Rescue Team
The 2023 spring training and certification cycle is starting now, according to a report by The Fernley Reporter.
The non-profit serves most of the Virginia Range and surrounding counties.
The article did not indicate if interventions have increased over the last five years as the horses scatter in fear of the advocates.
RELATED: Press Briefing for Virginia Range Horse Program?
Nobody’s Getting Rid of More Wild Horses Than the Advocates
With few if any helicopters forcing them off the range, and a schedule that’s dominated by fertility control programs, the advocates have taken the lead in 2023, fulfilling their goal, at least temporarily, of being leaders in the wild horse removal industry.
Winnemucca Base Property Hits Market for $11.2 Million
The ranch covers 3,621 deeded acres along the Humboldt River, according to the agent’s listing, with grazing preference on the Sonoma Allotment.
The Allotment Master Report puts it in the Improve category, with 1,485 active AUMs.
The Authorization Use Report indicates a four-month grazing season.
Where do you suppose the cattle go during the off season?
Most of the public land, representing about 50% of the total, is in the Sonoma Range HA, as shown in the following map from the National Data Viewer. Click on image to open in new tab.
The new owner need not run cattle on Sonoma.
He could petition the BLM for a change in livestock type and season of use, as American Prairie did in Montana, allowing horses to return to a small part of their lawful home.
On the Nevada Checkerboard
The following maps from the National Data Viewer show land designations along the I-80 corridor from Lovelock to Elko. Click on image to open in new tab.
BLM land is tan, private property is white.
First, areas of critical environmental concern, in gray.
Next, herd areas, in black, where wild horses were found in 1971.
In orange, herd management areas, with non-zero AMLs, a subset of the herd areas.
Finally, in green, the grazing allotments.
What’s the predominant use of public lands in this area?
New Grazing Fee Untouched by Inflation
The price for 2023 is $1.35 per AUM, same as last year, according to a BLM news release dated January 31.
Western Horse Watchers believes it was posted more recently but was backdated to bury it in the archives.
The announcement means the fee has been at rock bottom for three years in a row.
The price of hay in this area has gone from around $95 per AUM in 2021 to $180 per AUM in 2023.
The new fee goes into effect on March 1.
HJR3 Stumbles in Senate?
The bill status indicates that it did not pass an initial vote among the senators in the Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee.
The resolution would ask Congress to enact legislation and make other necessary policy changes to allow the slaughter wild horses and burros for processing and shipment to markets within or outside the United States.
Western Horse Watchers is not aware of any legislature in any state calling for an end to public-lands ranching.
The advocates want to poison their treasured mares and jennies with a restricted-use pesticide.
Such animals would be unfit for human consumption?
RELATED: HJR3 Clears Wyoming House.
Mustang Monday
Somewhere in Arizona with Patrick Patterson.
The exact location was not given but the absence of youngsters suggests one possibility.
