Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
This report by AP News has been picked up by some outlets. Includes a link to a story by The Bismarck Tribune.
If you want to see the original wild horses of TRNP, visit the Nokota Horse Conservancy.
RELATED: Scoping Begins for Livestock Management Plan at TRNP.
The method has been demonstrated numerous times on these pages:
The third step yields the number of animals displaced from the HMA by permitted grazing—adopted, sold or shipped to long-term holding.
The final value is the True AML, the number of animals the area could support if it was managed principally for wild horses, as specified in the original statute.
Today’s news release by the BLM regarding the FY 2023 budget suggested that AMLs represent carrying capacities, which they do not, except for four HMAs where permitted grazing does not occur.
The advocates don’t want you looking at the numbers because the rationale for their darting programs would fall to the ground.
You don’t ask a poor man how to get rich and you don’t ask the advocates how to save wild horses.
RELATED: White House Seeks $153 Million for WHB Program in FY 2023.
The expenditure would be part of a $1.6 billion budget for the BLM according to today’s news release.
The amount requested for the program next year exceeds the amount authorized this year by 11.7%.
The fiscal year begins on October 1.
The announcement said the current population of 86,000 animals is more than three times greater than the carrying capacity of BLM-managed lands, which is false.
The current population is three times more than allowed by plan.
Consider this metaphor: Wild horses can use one bedroom but they’re currently using three. It’s a six bedroom home but they didn’t tell you that part.
The other five bedrooms are reserved for privately owned livestock, the illegal aliens of America’s public lands.
RELATED: BLM to Receive $137.1 Million in FY 2022 for WHB Program.
The facility has been closed until a veterinarian determines the animals are no longer showing signs of illness, according to a BLM news release.
It was one of the dropping-off points for horses captured in the Rock Springs roundup.
Back to Shannon County with Tim Layton.
Is Dallas near Fort Worth?
The trap zone is closer to Alpine than Dallas to Fort Worth, by a factor of two, despite the statements in a column dated March 25.
The horses moved into the area, which includes habitat for the New Mexico Jumping Mouse, after the 2011 Wallow Fire, according to the report by ABC15 News of Phoenix.
RELATED: Any Accountability to Public in ASNF Wild Horse Roundup?
A public affairs officer for the Forest Service described it as a law enforcement action, but will the agency release any information from the crime scene as the suspects are apprehended?
The capture and removal goals, for the initial phase of the project, are 20 and 20, and the pre-gather population is thought to be around 400.
Unknown at this time:
A closure notice still appears on the ASNF alerts page but Western Horse Watchers was unable to find any progress reports for the roundup.
Curiously, the Restricted Area (trap zone) does not appear on the ASNF closure map.
RELATED: Jumping Mouse Habitat Subsumed by Permitted Grazing.
The news release dated January 19 referred to the nonprofit as the Foundation for America’s Public Lands but the formal name is the Bureau of Land Management Foundation, according to §1748c of FLPMA.
Apparently, the idea did not win enough support in Congress to pass as a standalone bill, so it was attached to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, the same way the Wild Horse and Burro Task Force was established earlier this month.
Language in the 2017 spending bill was dropped into FLPMA as an amendment.
The Foundation was authorized to
As for conflicts of interest, members of the Board or officers or employees of the Foundation shall not participate in the consideration or determination of any question before the Foundation that affects the financial interests of the member, officer or employee, or the interests of any corporation, partnership, entity or organization in which the member, officer or employee is an officer, director or trustee, or has any direct or indirect financial interest.
RELATED: New Public Lands Foundation to Tackle ‘Challenge’ of Wild Horses.
The BLM announced yesterday that an online meeting regarding the use of motorized equipment has been set for April 26.
Statements will be taken during the meeting but require advance registration.
Written comments can be submitted by email.
A requirement for public hearings appears in §1338a of the statute but Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a provision for meeting frequency.
The use of motorized equipment was authorized in 1976 by FLPMA, the first of several amendments to the WHB Act.
Helicopters are the fastest way of shifting resources back to the public-lands ranchers.
The Montana Solution can achieve the same results but over a much longer timeframe.
The report chronicles the work of Betty Nixon, who has documented the loss of dozens of animals since 2018.
The incidents have occurred in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests near the town of Heber, AZ.
RELATED: Agents Patrol Forest, Killers of Heber Wild Horses Still at Large.
The animal was listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014, according to information provided by the Forest Service, due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
In 2016, the agency designated critical habitat, which includes streams and wetlands in parts of New Mexico, eastern Arizona and southern Colorado.
Approximately 7,713 acres of the Apache-Sitgreaves, Santa Fe and Lincoln National Forests are within the critical habitat, which is overlapped by 14 allotments.
Management actions are designed to ensure that public-lands ranching can continue in close proximity to the protected areas.
However, data for two of forests show that grazing occurs in the protected areas!
In Lincoln, three allotments covering 140,588 acres include 986 acres of critical habitat, but only 209 acres (21%) are off limits to livestock.
In Santa Fe, six allotments covering 180,212 acres contain 2,056 acres of critical habitat, with 615 acres (30%) inaccessible to livestock, at least in theory.
Figures for Apache-Sitgreaves were not provided.
The complaint brought by the Center for Biological Diversity may have been prompted in part by failures of livestock exclosures, barriers that keep large animals out.
If the fences were in good condition, horses would not be able to enter the protected areas either. But only a fraction of the protected areas are actually protected.
The fences can be repaired but the horses have to go, not to save an endangered species, but to protect big game and the most noble and deserving non-native species on America’s public lands, privately owned livestock.
And, as usual, the advocates, in offering to help the government get rid of the horses, come down on the wrong side of the issue.
RELATED: Jumping on the Jumping Mouse Bandwagon.
The colt that was taken off beach due to illness earlier this month has been replaced, according to a report posted today by The Outer Banks Voice.
Birth rates and breeding patterns are determined by the advocates, not the horses.
The complaint against the ASNF wild horses was brought in 2019 by the Center for Biological Diversity in response to deteriorating conditions in the New Mexico Jumping Mouse habitat, but others now see it as an opportunity to advance their agenda.
A column in the Kingman Miner dated March 22 arguing for their removal describes the headwaters of the Black River, the area where the traps have been set, as some of the best elk and mule deer habitat in Arizona, referring perhaps to its hunting potential.
A story by the White Mountain Independent posted March 22 included remarks from a rancher who said the horses need to go because they’re robbing forage from his cattle.
Then, as noted yesterday, the advocates roll in, offering to facilitate the removal while keeping the remaining herd in check with the Montana Solution.
RELATED: ASNF Wild Horse Removal Now Law Enforcement Action.
This article by The Guardian is not about wild horses but it explains why their habitats, which are often subject to multiple uses, contain few if any predators.
On the Salt River with woodbine36.
Can you imagine if the advocates were put in charge of an endangered species?
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Highlighting the Work of the Advocates.
This story by ABC15 News features the ringleader of the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group and field marshal of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, who offered to facilitate the removal of some of the horses while keeping the remnant in check with the Montana Solution.
Not one word about public-lands ranching and the allotments that overlap the area.
RELATED: ASNF Wild Horse Removal Now Law Enforcement Action.
A closure notice appears on the ASNF alerts page for removal of unauthorized livestock under Order 03-01-22-06.
The justification statement refers to the capture of unauthorized horses in the Alpine and Springerville Ranger Districts, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. Paragraph 2.
No EIS or EA required. Paragraph 3.
Forest Service law enforcement officers, forest protection officers, sheriff deputies, fire wardens and fire prevention technicians will patrol the affected area. Paragraph 5.
The closure notice prohibits the following acts:
Going into or being upon the Restricted Area
The order went into effect on March 14 and runs through April 14.
A map provided with the closure order puts the trap zone southwest of Alpine.
A public affairs officer with the Forest Service would not respond to these questions:
1. Is the action associated with the case brought by the Center for Biological Diversity?
2. If so, is the gather area in the jumping mouse habitat?
3. Are the gather area and surrounding lands subject to permitted grazing?
Western Horse Watchers believes the answers are “Yes.”
The 2019 complaint by CBD describes damage to jumping mouse habitat by horses, cattle and elk in and around the West Fork of the Black River, Boggy Creek and Centerfire Creek, all of which appear on the closure map. Page 45.
The Restricted Area (trap zone) overlaps two grazing allotments according to the Western Watersheds map. (Click on image to open in new tab.)
The PAO said that unauthorized cattle had been removed from the area between September 2020 and September 2021 but did not comment on authorized cattle.
He did not indicate if said livestock were returned to the forest to graze on the other side of the fence, a benefit for which the horses are not eligible.
A story posted today by Colorado Public Radio refers to the thousands of acres of public land he leases from the federal government every summer, but does not indicate if those areas are managed by the BLM or Forest Service.
The permittee tried to obtain the burros directly from the BLM but ran into bureaucratic hurdles, according to the article, but everything changed when CPW got involved.
The project is discussed in an article posted today by The Dickinson Press of Dickinson, ND, which can only be viewed by subscribers.
A newsletter was posted by the Park Service for public review.
Comments will be accepted until April 15.
A public meeting will occur on March 30. An online option is available.
Alternatives for management of cattle and horses include:
The preferred action was not identified.
The original wild horses of TRNP, thought to be descendants of Sitting Bull’s herd, were removed but some were rescued by Frank and Leo Kuntz. The horses you see today are only an exhibit and this is acknowledged in the newsletter.
Artwork supplied by participants.
1. Public-lands ranching
LIVESTOCK BELONG IN FEEDLOTS
NOT WILD HORSES
CONFINE THE RANCHERS
TO THEIR BASE PROPERTIES
2. Land-use plans
THE PROBLEM IS
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
NOT WILD HORSES
3. The Montana Solution
DARTING PROGRAMS ARE
HELICOPTER ROUNDUPS
IN SLOW MOTION
4. The advocates
NEXT TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
NOBODY’S GETTING RID OF MORE WILD HORSES
THAN THE ADVOCATES
5. News and information
BIG TECH AND MEDIA
DON’T BRING YOU THE TRUTH
ABOUT WILD HORSES
THEY BURY IT
RELATED: Carson City Wild Horse Rally Part of Nationwide Protest.
Western Horse Watchers Association 