Author: Western Horse Watchers

Aim of Wild Horse Rallies?

Roundups are not the problem, they are a symptom of the problem.

If you want to help the horses, don’t focus on the horses.

The advocates focus on the horses.

Instead, look upstream in the management process: Land-use plans that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.

Roundups don’t allocate resources.  They can’t change resource allocations.  They enforce resource allocations already on the books.

Demand that the government manage their congressionally designated habitats principally for them, not privately owned livestock, as specified in the original statute.

RELATED: Carson City Wild Horse Rally Part of Nationwide Protest.

How Many Wild Horses Can the Four Mile HMA Support?

A new resource enforcement project for the Bible Springs Complex has been created but no documents have been posted and public involvement has not been requested.

The Complex includes the Tilly Creek, Bible Spring and Four Mile HMAs.

The preliminary environmental assessment is still months away so let’s use other data sources, such as the Western Watersheds map and RAS to bootstrap the answer.

  • Identify allotments that overlap the HMA
  • Determine average forage production on those allotments
  • Convert to wild horses
  • Calculate the True AML

The HMA covers 61,273 acres and the 60 horses currently allowed by plan require 60 × 12 = 720 AUMs per year.  The stocking rate allowed by plan is about one wild horse per thousand acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

The land must produce 720 ÷ 61,273 × 1,000 = 11.8 AUMs per year per thousand acres to support the horses.

Can it produce more?

The HMA intersects six grazing allotments according to the map.  (Click on image to open in new tab.)

Four Mile HMA Allotments 03-20-22

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

Four Mile Allotment Calcs 03-20-22

Three of the allotments are in the Improve category along with 56.1% of the public acres.

The average forage production for livestock across the six allotments, the total AUMs divided by the total acres times 1,000, is 44.7 AUMs per year per thousand acres, almost four times higher than the amount needed for the horses.

The total forage production in the HMA is 11.8 + 44.7 = 56.5 AUMs per year per thousand acres, which would support 56.5 ÷ 12 = 4.7 wild horses per thousand acres.

The HMA contains 61,000 acres so the True AML should be around 4.7 × 61 = 286.

The number of horses displaced from the HMA by permitted grazing is 286 – 60 = 226.

The True AML can be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties and letting them pay market rates to feed their animals.

What do you think happens during the off season?

RELATED: New Resource Enforcement Plan for Bible Springs Complex?

Isolating Horses from Water?

The March edition of Horse Tales is out and the column on page 4 by the real estate agent and PZP darter in the Minden/Gardnerville area has a few suggestions for land owners that can help wild horses.

If you’re going to place a deed restriction on your property to protect springs and creeks, why not add a prohibition for the Montana Solution?

The advocates are a much greater threat to the horses than droughts, motorists and developers.

PZP-Free Zone 03-19-22

How Did CPW Acquire Axtell Wild Burros?

Were they sale eligible?  Their ages ranged from five to eleven years.

Have they already been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least three times?

Adopters are usually limited to four animals per year but six were supplied.

Was title transferred from BLM?  Who is the official owner?

Are they still federally protected?

The donation, as it was billed in the story by The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, has become a pilot program to see if wild burros can prevent wolf attacks on privately owned livestock.

Or maybe they’re just decoys, a new method for disposing excess animals?

RELATED: Axtell Burros Shipped to Cattle Ranch Came from Nevada WHR?

Axtell Burros Shipped to Cattle Ranch Came from Nevada WHR?

A story posted this morning by The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel says the animals “had just come off the high country in Nevada.”

The only burros captured recently in the state were taken from the Nevada WHR, according to records maintained by Western Horse Watchers.

The AML for burros in that area is zero but it is not subject to permitted grazing.

The gather page indicated that captured horses would be shipped to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley but the burros would be transported to Axtell.

The incident concluded on January 3.

RELATED: Axtell Burros Have New Job: Protecting Cattle from Wolves.

Axtell Burros Have New Job: Protecting Cattle from Wolves

Two jacks and four jennies were taken from the off-range corrals in Utah to a ranch near Walden, CO, according to a story posted yesterday by KDVR News of Denver, courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The agency is required to restore and manage gray wolves in the state by the end of 2023, following the passing of Proposition 114, and wolf kills are already increasing.

The ranch covers 11,000 acres but Western Horse Watchers was unable to determine if it secures grazing preference on public lands.

Best Way to Control Wild Horses

Yesterday’s column by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses in The Salt Lake Tribune referred to helicopter roundups as “pointless,” as if the government routinely engages in the capture, branding, harassment and death of the animals without regard to the statute.

Section 1331 notwithstanding, removal of wild horses from their congressionally designated habitats, by any method, including helicopters, wranglers and PZP, shifts resources back to the public-lands ranchers, as specified in management plans that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.

Did the writer explain that?

Of course not.

She starts with the premise that the horses have to go, then tries to convince her readers that the Montana Solution is best suited to the task, forgetting that darted mares still eat, exactly what the bureaucrats and ranchers don’t want.

As noted previously, the technique will likely find favor in a mopping-up role, protecting the ranchers after the fact by making sure the herds don’t bounce back.

RELATED: Advocates to America: Let Us Get Rid of Your Wild Horses.

Advocates to America: Let Us Get Rid of Your Wild Horses

Refer to this column in The Salt Lake Tribune by the communications director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.

They want the horses off the range as much as the bureaucrats and ranchers, but they want it done with PZP not helicopters.

You’ll never hear them talk about resource allocations, mismanagement of HMAs and confining the ranchers to their base properties because those discussions might make life better for the horses.

RELATED: Do “Stay Wild” Caps Absolve the Advocates from Wrongdoing?

Love Triangle 03-17-22

Horses Clash with Livestock at Blackfeet Nation?

The Reservation covers 1.5 million acres in northwest Montana and is home to around 16,000 free-roaming horses, according to a story posted yesterday by the Cut Bank Pioneer Press of Cut Bank, MT.

The Branch of Agriculture and Rangeland Development, Bureau of Indian Affairs, offers oversight and technical assistance for rangeland protection and improvements, among other things, and provides leasing and permitting services for farmers and ranchers.

Wild Horses Destroying Jumping Mouse Habitat?

The Western Watersheds map shows the area around Alpine in eastern Arizona, habitat for the New Mexico Jumping Mouse according to yesterday’s story by Arizona’s Family, is covered by grazing allotments.  (Click on image to open in new tab.)

Apache Forest Allotments 03-16-22

The advocate interviewed for the report, ringleader of the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group and field marshal for the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, is not a voice for the horses and discussions later this week with the Forest Service will likely include options for humane management, code words for getting rid of them with PZP.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a project associated with the removal at the ASNF NEPA site.

RELATED: Forest Service to Remove Horses from Apache-Sitgreaves Forests.

Forest Service to Remove Horses from Apache-Sitgreaves Forests

The incident, prompted by legal action, will begin on March 21, according to a report posted today by KPHO News of Phoenix, AZ.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement on the ASNF news page.

The horses will be drawn into the traps by bait.

The pre-gather population is thought to be around 400.

Delegates from the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group will meet with Forest Service personnel later this week to discuss options.

The story did not indicate if the area was subject to permitted grazing.