The Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act would phase out the use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft for rounding up free-roaming horses and burros, a practice that leads to population growth according to the advocates.
The alternative would likely be long-term use of immunocontraceptives, sometimes referred to as mass sterilization, a service they provide.
The bill would not link Appropriate Management Level, an undefined concept in the statute, to principal use.
The allotment covers 81,960 public acres but there is only one pasture so it may operate as a general use area shared by two permittees, with cattle and sheep moving across the land as specified in the AMR.
The actual arrangement is unknown.
If free-roaming horses replaced cattle, the other permittee would still be entitled to graze sheep.
The advocates may never make such a request as they have been working for years to cement their relationship with the bureaucrats and ranchers.
Thus, the land ratio is very good. Up to 81,960 public acres can be accessed through the acquisition of 944 deeded acres.
Unfortunately, the allotment overlaps the Pine Nut Mountains HA, an area that could be returned to the horses not by spending millions of dollars on a base property but by purging the bureaucracy of ranchers and ranching sympathizers and overturning the planning process that zeroed it out.
A refuge should increase territory for wild horses while decreasing lands occupied by livestock.
In summary, the allotment satisfies two of four requirements for a refuge:
If the project moves ahead and the cattlemen are howling, along with their cheerleaders, it might be worthy of your support.
The Authorization Use Report shows their portion is still permitted for cattle with a 5.5 month grazing season.
Western Horse Watchers does not know if the advocates have asked the BLM to change the livestock type to horses and the grazing season to 12 months, turning the area into a refuge for up to 122 equines.
The advocates tell us that wild horses face competition from livestock, unfair resource allocations and shrinking habitats but their solution—mass sterilization—aligns with and can only aggravate the problem.
The ranchers couldn’t have asked for more feckless opponents.
The Decision Record authorizes Alternative A, the Proposed Action, discussed in section 2.4 of the Final EA.
Details of the new HMAP can be found in Appendix XIII.
No changes to AMLs or authorized AUMs
Forcible removal
Application of fertility control pesticides
Skewing of sex ratios in favor of males
Monitoring of genetic diversity
Massive interference in natural order
Recall the rallying cry in the Nevada Current op-ed: “America’s wild horses have faced competition from livestock, unfair resource allocation, and shrinking habitat for generations.”
How does the new plan fix any of that?
It doesn’t. The only change the advocates want is more government spending on services they provide.