On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Steve Hostetler.

The incident started on September 23.  Gather stats through October 9:

• Burros captured: 149
• Goal: 500
• Deaths: 1
• Returned: 0
• Shipped: 112

Foals accounted for 13.4% of the total.

The numbers balance if BLM staff are holding 36 burros on site.

RELATED: Black Mountain Roundup in Progress.

The operation started yesterday, with 112 horses captured.  It is an enforcement action, designed to achieve the resource allocations of the Rawlins and Lander RMPs.

No deaths were reported and foals accounted for 21.4% of the total.

Gather stats and daily reports can be found on this page.

RELATED: Red Desert Gather, Part 2, Starts Next Month.

Foal #12 has been spotted on Shackleford Island, according to a story by OBX Today.

Helicopters will be flying over the Lost Creek HMA, one of five HMAs in the Red Desert Complex, any day now.  Their mission is to enforce the resource allocations of the Rawlins RMP.

The HMA covers 251,000 acres in central Wyoming and has an AML of 82.  The horses require 984 AUMs per year and the stocking rate allowed by plan is 0.3 wild horses per thousand acres.

What do these numbers tell you about the way the HMA is managed?  The fractional stocking rate may indicate large amounts of forage diverted to livestock.

The HMA intersects one allotment according to Map 2 in the Final EA for wild horse management actions in the Complex.  The allotment extends into the Antelope Hills HMA but the EA does not provide the percentage in each.

Western Horse Watchers estimates that it’s one part in Antelope Hills and five parts in Lost Creek, or 83% in Lost Creek.  The estimated size of the allotment is 251,000 ÷ .83 = 302,410 acres.  Both HMAs are 100% subject to permitted grazing.

Table 5 in the EA provides the grazing season and permitted AUMs.  Although cattle and sheep are allowed on the allotment, the calculations are based on cow/calf pairs only, for a direct comparison to wild horses.  The resource requirements of cow/calf pairs and wild horses are said to be equivalent.

The forage available to livestock inside the HMA is .83 × 27,292 = 22,652 AUMs per year, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel.

The Cyclone Rim permittees would have to place 3,539 cow/calf pairs inside the HMA to graze off 22,652 AUMs in 6.4 months.  The stocking rate allowed by plan is 3,539 ÷ 251,000 × 1,000 = 14.1 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.

These management indicators are compared in the following charts.

The HMA is managed primarily for livestock, with the horses receiving just four percent of the total authorized forage (excluding wildlife).  The HMA doesn’t have a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) but if it did do you think you could revise it independently of the RMP?

The pre-gather population in the HMA, thought to be around 4X AML (per the news release for the Complex), would include 246 excess horses, so the need for a roundup, along with other population controls, is obvious.

However, the forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 1,888 horses, for a true AML of 1,970.  There are no excess horses in the HMA, the roundup is not needed and there is no justification for a fertility control program.

RELATED: Red Desert Gather, Part 2, Starts Next Month.

BLM announced today that 750 wild horses will be removed from the Paisley Desert HMA, beginning on October 10, due to lack of water.

The operation will be carried out with helicopters, according to the news release, and will be open to public observation, except for horses found on private land.

The HMA covers 271,667 acres in central Oregon and has an AML of 150, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 0.6 wild horses per thousand acres.

As noted earlier this year, the fractional stocking rate may indicate large amounts of forage diverted to privately owned livestock.

An environmental assessment from 2009 indicates the HMA intersects four grazing allotments, with livestock receiving 10,151 AUMs per year, compared to 1,800 AUMs per year for the horses.  Curiously, the HMA has a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP).

The pre-gather population is thought to be around 1,050.  The true AML is 996.

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Hines, OR.

Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.

The loss of a popular stallion at Sand Wash Basin HMA over the weekend has prompted a meeting with the Colorado Department of Transportation to discuss fencing along Highway 318, according to a report posted this morning by Craig Press of Craig, CO.

RELATED: Volunteers Push for Fencing at Sand Wash Basin.

BLM is aware of the contraption but describes it as “unproven” in Section 2.4.11 of the Final EA for wild horse management actions in the Confusion HMA.  If the machine is modified to read RFID chips in the neck, it may be suitable for providing booster doses of GonaCon-Equine in the field, according to the discussion.

RELATED: New Machine Darts Wild Horses Automatically.

The fire is not near the gather area but the BLM corrals at Rock Springs, one of the destinations for captured horses, are on standby in case the horses at Deerwood Ranch must be evacuated.

A roundup in the Red Desert Complex was cut short two years ago due to inadequate corral space.  The 2020 roundup is set to begin this week.

RELATED: Deerwood Off-Range Pasture Threatened by Mullen Fire?

BLM announced today the signing of a Decision Record, allowing plans for a roundup to move ahead, subject to a 30-day appeal period.  The DR authorized the Proposed Action (Alternative D) in the EA.  Both documents were posted as one file.

The operation would capture 560 wild horses and return 60, including those who received ‘population growth suppression.’  The news release did not indicate if the treatments applied to males and females.

The Confusion HMA covers about 235,000 acres in western Utah and has an AML of 115, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 0.5 horses per thousand acres.  As mentioned earlier this year, fractional stocking rates may indicate large amounts of forage diverted to privately owned livestock.

The current population is thought to be 661, including 546 excess horses.

The HMA intersects five grazing allotments, with the horses receiving just 12% of the total authorized forage, excluding wildlife.

The forage allocated to livestock puts the true AML at 932, meaning there are no excess horses in the HMA and the roundup is unnecessary.

RELATED: Confusion Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.

The Forest Service reported this morning that the operation ended on October 3, with 506 horses gathered and one death.  The number of horses shipped was not provided.

The sum of the daily reports indicates 502 horses captured.  Foals accounted for approximately 16% of the total.

Do the numbers balance?  Who knows.

The WHT was not overpopulated.  The AML was minimized to maximize the resources available to privately owned livestock, referred to as the ‘economy of Modoc county’ in the news release.

RELATED: Devil’s Garden Roundup, Part 3, Starts Next Week.

The daily reports show no activity since September 18, when the incident began.

RELATED: Pokegama Roundup Underway.

Horses have the day off.  On the Black Mountain HMA with Ednei Ferreira.

The Red Desert roundup begins this week, affecting five HMAs.  The news release said the current wild horse population in the Complex is approximately 3,000, compared to a total AML of 724.

If each HMA is at 4X AML, the need for this and other management actions, such as fertility control, is obvious.

The operation was originally authorized in 2016 but the supporting documents were revised in 2017.  Data in the Final EA are not sufficient for a report on the entire Complex but do allow reports for a few of the HMAs.

The Stewart Creek HMA covers 168,000 acres and has an AML of 175.  The horses allowed by plan require 2,100 AUMs per year and the stocking rate is approximately one wild horse per thousand acres, in line with the average rate across all HMAs.

The HMA intersects one allotment, shown in white on the following map.  The EA states on page 54 (page 58 in the pdf) that the allotment boundary is similar to the HMA boundary except the allotment includes about 5,000 acres outside the HMA.  Thus, the estimated size of the allotment is 173,000 acres.

Table 5 in the EA provides the grazing season and authorized forage.  Livestock calculations are based on cow/calf pairs for a direct comparison to wild horses.  The resource requirements of wild horses and cow/calf pairs are said to be equivalent.

The portion of the allotment inside the HMA is 168,000 ÷ 173,000 = .971.

The estimated forage available to livestock inside the HMA is 8,138 AUMs per year, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel (97.1% of 8,380).

The Stewart Creek permittees would have to place 1,292 cow/calf pairs inside the HMA to graze off 8,138 AUMs in 6.3 months.  The stocking rate would be 7.7 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.

These management indicators are compared in the following charts.

The HMA is managed primarily for livestock, with the horses receiving 21% of the total authorized forage (excluding wildlife).

If the HMA is at 4X AML, the pre-gather population of 700 would include 525 excess horses and the area would be classified as ‘overpopulated.’.

However, the forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 678 wild horses, for a true AML of 853.  There are no excess horses in the HMA, there is no need for a roundup and there is no justification for a fertility control program.

RELATED: Red Desert Horses Get Short End of Stick?, Rationale for AMLs?