Redwood Materials to Expand Storey County Facility

The company secured a $2 billion loan from the Department of Energy for a battery recycling and manufacturing plant east of Reno, according to a story dated February 9 by the Reno Gazette Journal.

The 173-acre facility, south of Tesla’s Gigafactory, will be able to process two-and-a-half Gigafactories worth of materials, enough to supply one million electric vehicles per year.

Why is this important?

The advocates will point to the project as further justification for their Virginia Range darting program.

As noted yesterday, their goal is to convince the bureaucrats, politicians and ranchers that they have a better way to get rid of wild horses.

As for you, they couldn’t care less.

Climate change, a fake problem invented by liberals, and the green energy movement, are designed to enrich the communists and punish the capitalists, while imposing totalitarian control on the American people.

That’s What They’d Like You to Think

Ever wonder what the propagandists at the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses are pushing out to their followers?

You don’t have to subscribe to their feed.

Meredith Hodges of Lucky Three Ranch runs an echo chamber for their news releases.

Let Us Fix Your Wild Horse Problem 02-18-23

You’ll find all the buzzwords and all the lies, punctuated by their shameless attempts to separate you from your money.

What you won’t find is a sincere effort to help America’s wild horses and burros.

We are realists—we work with the bureaucrats and ranchers.

“Our own PZP fertility control program on Nevada’s Virginia Range has reduced foaling rates by 62%. And hard-hitting data like this has helped us demonstrate to the public, Congress, and the BLM that there is a better way to manage our wild herds.”

You are defeatists, turncoats and sellouts.

You say you’re protecting wild horses but your actions prove otherwise.

Senate Committee Tries to Alter Colorado Anti-Slaughter Bill

Two amendments were proposed yesterday in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, L.007 and L.008.

They will not be incorporated into the bill unless adopted by the full Senate.

The changes would turn the measure into a livestock transportation bill, according to a report posted this morning by The Colorado Sun.

Slaughtering horses and burros for human consumption would become a crime under the original bill but with the amendments it would only establish tighter regulations when transporting twenty or more horses for slaughter.

Dan Waldvogle, director of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which represents 17,000 farmers and ranchers in the state, said “Numerous cultures embrace horse consumption and we support their access to culturally relevant products and increasing their food sovereignty.”

You can monitor the status of SB23-038 at this page.

Tips for Writing Letters About Wild Horses

Letters to the editors of newspapers and online news services should focus on two issues, resource management and predation by the advocates.

This example from the Craig Press addresses the former but not the latter.

Mismanagement of resources, indicated by the prevalence of livestock, is largely responsible for the removal and stockpiling of wild horses, but attempts to eradicate the herds with a restricted-use pesticide, favored by most advocates, are far more insidious.

Therefore, one of the best ways to protect wild horses is to put the advocacy groups out of business.

Advocates are the Predators 11-30-21

SB 301 Advances to New Mexico Judiciary Committee

The bill cleared the Senate Conservation Committee yesterday, according to a story by KRQE News.

A representative of Animal Protection Voters spoke in favor of the measure.

An APV fact sheet says the bill allows population suppression (PZP for mares, castration for stallions), relocation to other areas, transfer to rescues and preserves for sanctuary or adoption and euthanasia of horses with untreatable medical conditions.

Curiously, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses opposed the bill, claiming that it could undermine efforts to control free-roaming herds with contraceptives.

The status of the bill can be monitored at this page.

Foal-Free Friday, Spending Your Money Wisely Edition

Would you attend a conference organized by those who say PZP is not a pesticide?

Should you support an organization that

Protects wild mustangs by destroying their ovaries with said pesticide?
Admits they’re getting rid of wild horses and won’t tell you how far they plan to go?
Wants to move free-roaming horses from their lawful homes to remote wilderness areas, leaving all of their food to the public-lands ranchers?

What about groups that

Care far more about their standing with the bureaucrats and ranchers than they do about the horses?
Want to be leaders in the wild horse removal industry?
Won’t provide data for their darting programs, including herd sizes, demographics and changes year over year?

What about individuals that

Refer to sterilized mares as self-boosting?
Describe abnormal sex ratios as mares living longer?
Say preservation when they mean eradication?
Tell you the herds are aging out, not dying off?
Want the ranchers to succeed, not the horses?
Treat their cherished/beloved/innocent wild horses as pests.

What should you believe? Their words or their deeds?

For Your Innocent Ants and Roaches 10-23-22

Forest Service to Resume Aerial Shooting of Gila Livestock

They will be dispatched from the Gila Wilderness, starting on February 23, according to a report posted today by KQRE News of Albuquerque.

Unlike privately owned livestock covered by a permit, these animals have been aggressive towards visitors, graze all year and trample stream banks and springs, causing erosion and sedimentation.

And you thought only horses did that.

Speaking of wilderness, isn’t this where the Wild Horse Fire Brigade would ship our free-roaming horses?

Advocates Upset as BLM Traps More Pine Nut Horses

Thirteen more have been captured, according to a report by The Record-Courier of Minden, NV, bringing the total to 18.

All of the mares had been treated with the Montana Solution.

Although a nuisance gather appears at the bottom of the FY 2023 roundup schedule, with a removal goal of 22, there are no gather stats and daily reports at the Nevada roundup page.

The Pine Nut Mountains HMA, shown in orange on the following map, is roughly half the size of the HA, shown in black.

Operations may be on private lands west of the HA.

Writer Doubts BLM’s Investment in Sand Wash Basin

Commenting on a February 6 story about the agency’s plan to install fixed trap stations and increase the use of fertility control, he stated in a February 15 letter that the purpose of roundups is to destroy wild horse herds at the behest of sheep and cattle ranchers.

Although he referred to them as cruel and unnecessary, he did not point to the Montana Solution as an alternative.

Fire Department Rescues Wild Horse from Cattle Guard

The incident occurred on February 9 at the entrance to the Ten-X Campground of the Kaibab National Forest, according to a report posted today by Williams News of Williams, AZ.

The facility is located two miles south of Tusayan, AZ on the east side of Highway 64.

The article did not indicate if the guard had been installed by our stewards of the public lands.

The Western Watersheds map indicates that the campground is surrounded by the Anita Allotment of the Tusayan Ranger District.

The mishap follows two other calls in the past year involving horses in cattle guards.

UPDATE: More information about the allotment can be found in the 2022 Annual Operating Instructions.

Valentine’s Day 2023

Today we recognize the Love Triangle on America’s public lands.

How do the advocates protect wild horses? By stalking the mares in their lawful homes and destroying their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide, eventually leaving most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

Working Together for a Horse-Free Future 12-21-22

AMLs and Carrying Capacities

The statement last week by the BLM that the AML for Sand Wash Basin represents the carrying capacity of the land was false.

If an HMA is subject to permitted grazing, the carrying capacity will be higher.

Same for WHTs.

Sand Wash Basin covers 156,502 total acres, according to the 2022 HA/HMA Report, including 151,435 public acres.

The AML is 362.

The 362 horses allowed by plan, the correct interpretation of the term, require 4,344 AUMs per year, or 28.7 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 362 ÷ 151,435 × 1,000 = 2.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

The National Data Viewer shows four allotments that overlap the HMA: Lang Spring, Nipple Rim, Sheepherder Spring and Sand Wash.

The allotment boundaries deviate slightly from the HMA boundary and roughly half of Nipple Rim extends beyond the HMA, but the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA—the reason why AMLs are not synonymous with carrying capacities—can be estimated on a per-acre basis.

The Allotment Master Report provides acreage, management status and active AUMs.

Sand Wash Basin Allotment Calcs 02-12-23

Approximately 98% of the public acreage is in the Improve category.

The forage assigned to livestock would support 117.6 ÷ 12 = 9.8 horses per thousand public acres, on top of the 2.4 allowed by plan, despite claims by the BLM that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

There are three layers of forage demand across the HMA: Horses, livestock and wildlife.

Livestock receive 117.6 × 151,435 ÷ 1,000 = 17,809 AUMs per year per year inside the HMA, enough to support 17,809 ÷ 12 = 1,484 wild horses.

The horses receive 4,344 AUMs per year as noted above.

The forage assigned to wildlife is not known but is probably around 200 AUMs per year.

These figures are presented in the pie charts below.

The estimated carrying capacity is 362 + 1,484 = 1,846, the True AML, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a rear-round off season.

The Sand Wash Advocates beat the horse population down with their favorite pesticide so livestock can access most of their food.

The Wild Horse Fire Brigade would ship them to a remote wilderness area, never to be seen again, so livestock can access all of their food.

The 2021 roundup took over 600 horses off the range. The pre-gather population was 896, well within the carrying capacity of the HMA.

FY 2023 Roundup Schedule Adds Darting Programs

There were eight on the list in December but now there are fifteen.

Some use PZP and some use GonaCon.

The advocates promote the former while condemning the latter, arguing that only the Montana Solution is safe and reversible.

Both cause sterility.

Mustang Monday

On the eastern Sierra with Meyer Flier.

Move Over McCullough Peaks, Solar Energy Tops Most Active

Refer to the list at ePlanning. The numbers change minute by minute.

As of this morning, over 2,600 comments have been submitted.

There is only one document up for public review, a map.

The project would expand the 2012 Western Solar Plan from six states to eleven, among other things.

A February 7 news release indicated that an additional online meeting will be held on February 14, from 9:00 to 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Pre-registration is required.

The driver, of course, is man-made climate change, a fake problem invented by liberals to enrich the peddlers of renewable energy while imposing authoritarian control on the American people.

This is the watermelon theory of radical environmentalism: Green on the outside, red on the inside.

Dilemma for Ranchers: How to Support WHFB Inconspicuously

In the interview posted yesterday about the Wild Horse Fire Brigade, Simpson tells Sherwood that his mission is to resolve conflicts by moving wild horses from areas where they’re not wanted, sometimes referred to as their lawful homes, to remote wilderness areas not particularly suited to livestock grazing.

Not wanted by whom?

Why aren’t the horses there already?

Sherwood isn’t curious who might be backing the nonprofit and does not ask for disclosure of its supporters.

Although Simpson comes down on the right side of many issues, such as rangeland health and fertility control, he goes off the rails with WHFB. It is a scam, exactly what the ranchers ordered.

He does not acknowledge that the conflict can be resolved and the animals can be rewilded, several times over, by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.

As for Sherwood, her fawning support of the project represents total defeat.

The video description, presumably of her authorship, says “The Wild Horse Fire Brigade has the only viable sensible realistic solution if we really want to save the last remaining wild horses of America.”

You just screwed up, dear, big time.

McKinney Fire 08-08-22

Assateague Pony Census, February 2023

The Assateague Island Alliance counted 78 horses on the Maryland side of the island as of February 8, no change from January.

No births were indicated.

The number of males and females was not given.

The Park Service no longer provides census results.

The herd, barely able to keep up with deaths, shows little if any growth since the safe, proven and reversible darting program was shut off in 2016.

The sex ratio is likely skewed in favor of females, a side-effect of the Montana Solution.

Capitulation, Surrender, Defeat

Has Staci-lee lost her marbles?

Instead of moving the horses, end the conflict: Confine the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season and let them pay the going rate to feed their animals.

British Filmmakers Mull Wild Horse Documentary?

The project is in the research stage according to a story by Cowboy State Daily.

The announcement coincides with a brief report about “Women in the Wilderness,” an unbiased documentary that trumpets the ranching agenda.

Foal-Free Friday, Fooling You with Euphemisms Edition

The wild horse advocates are experts at concealing their true intentions and loyalties, much like the Democrat Party.

For example, “protect wild horses” means get rid of them with the Montana Solution, leave most of their food to the public-lands ranchers.

“Humane management” means beat down the horse population with a restricted-use pesticide in their lawful home so livestock can access most of the resources.

Systematic elimination by helicopter must be replaced with systematic elimination by poison-filled darts.

Vaccines don’t prevent illness, they cause it.

VR Darting Injury 09-15-21

Mares ruined by the treatments aren’t sterile, they’re self-boosting.

On the Virginia Range, the herd isn’t dying off, it’s aging out.

McCullough Peaks doesn’t have an abnormal sex ratio, mares are living longer.

At Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the herd should be large enough to have a healthy breeding population but breeding should be limited with a fertility control program.

Makes perfect sense.

The advocates are voices for the bureaucrats and ranchers, not wild horses.

Why are you still giving them money?