The incident began on February 20, according to the gather page. Eight horses have been captured as of Day 2, with eight shipped and no deaths.
RELATED: Challis Roundup Pending.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Advocates Working Tirelessly to Support Public-Lands Ranchers
The February edition of Horse Tales has been published.
You can still help the Pine Nut permittees by purchasing a calendar from the advocates, as indicated at the bottom of page 3.
Fifteen fun facts about burros are presented at the top of page 4. Fact #16 might be their disdain of coyotes.
The column written by the real estate agent and PZP darter in the Minden/Gardnerville area follows immediately, continuing on page 18. Listings appear on the back cover.
Some of the properties may be related, directly or indirectly, to a Pine Nut permittee, perhaps on the Buckeye Allotment. Who knows? But it would explain why she’s so eager to get rid of the horses.
An article by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses on page 19 discusses the Onaqui roundup and the rescue of a mom-baby pair. Don’t be fooled by the image, they despise youngsters and are only trying to separate you from your money.
Wednesdays are darting days at the HMA, where volunteers trained in the Montana Solution use Gen 2 projectors to keep the resource scales tipped in favor of the ranchers.
Striking Similarities in the Wild Horse World
The advocates want the same thing as the bureaucrats and ranchers: Fewer horses on the range. Ever notice that?
RELATED: Nuttiness of Wild Horse World.
Signs That Your Stocking Rate Is Too High
Note the change to the grassy area 24 hours after the horses were allowed into the space.
What might happen on America’s public lands when livestock fencing concentrates their numbers and impedes their movement?
Mustang Monday
Back to Assateague Island with td adventures. The video owners told Western Horse Watchers in a YouTube comment that they saw no foals during their two-week stay.
Currituck Stallion Euthanized
Refer to this report by OBX Today.
(Un)Intended Consequences of Wild Horse Management?
As the advocates get rid of the horses, other animals move in to fill the void.
Ever notice that?
Filmed on the Virginia Range.
Last Horse Out Get the Lights
Studs on the Virginia Range can’t understand why their mares aren’t bearing any fruit.
Last horse picked up by this camera was on December 6. None seen since.
Stop the Roundups, Get Rid of the Horses with PZP
The BLM says roundups are necessary and humane, but more and more members of Congress aren’t buying it, according to the communications director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses in a column posted this evening by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Western Horse Watchers hopes that more and more Americans aren’t buying their anti-horse agenda, aimed at replacing helicopter roundups with fertility control programs.
They don’t oppose the removals, only the way they are carried out. They, and their army of volunteers, are stooges for the public-lands ranchers.
RELATED: Group Uses Pancake Deaths to Sell Montana Solution.
How Many Wild Horses Can the Cedar Mountain HMA Support?
The forage assigned to livestock inside the allotments is known but the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA is not known.
The preliminary EA is still months away, as noted yesterday, so how do you answer the question?
The management plan assigns 26,337 AUMs per year to livestock across four allotments covering 398,222 public acres, as computed in the post, or 66.1 AUMs per thousand acres per year.
That resource would support 66.1 ÷ 12 = 5.5 wild horses per thousand acres, on top of the 0.9 wild horses per thousand acres allowed by plan.
The total authorized forage inside the HMA, neglecting wildlife, should be able to support 0.9 + 5.5 = 6.4 wild horses per thousand acres, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcels.
The HMA covers 411,636 acres, which may include some non-BLM lands, but a quick estimate of the True AML, the number of animals the HMA could support if it was managed principally for wild horses, is 6.4 × 411,636 ÷ 1,000 = 2,634.
The number horses displaced from the HMA by privately owned livestock is 5.5 × 411,636 ÷ 1,000 = 2,264, about 4.5% of those in off-range holding.
The difference between the two figures, 2,634 – 2,264 = 370 is slightly less than the current AML of 390 due to rounding errors.
In general,
True AML = Current AML + Horses displaced by permitted grazing
RELATED: Cedar Mountain Allotments.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Western Horse Watchers agrees: The numbers show that many areas set aside for wild horses are managed primarily, if not principally, for livestock. That’s why the animals are being forced off their home range at a record pace.
Data from the Pancake roundup, discussed in a BLM blog post, indicate five horses lost (0.24%) due to injuries sustained in the incident. Not mentioned are the 21 horses put down (shot dead?) due to physical defects.
The number of horses that would be lost if the roundup didn’t occur? Zero.
Ten horses were lost in the Rock Springs roundup due to injuries sustained in the incident (0.24%), plus 27 put down due to physical defects, compared to zero if the incident didn’t occur.
The number of horses shipped from the Rock Springs HMAs was not provided, so the results cannot be checked for balance and the number of unaccounted-for animals cannot be determined.
Thus, it is true, the figures don’t lie—if you can get them.
On Day 4 of the Jackson Mountains roundup, not considered in the post, a foal was put down because it was an orphan. That was its only shortcoming. The government has since tried to cover it up.
Links to roundups in 2021 have been removed from the Nevada gather page, but the daily reports for Jackson Mountains can be found here. The final death rate was 5.9%!
The writer(s) of the blog post indicated that the Pancake herd boomed as food and water dwindled, suggesting that other factors may be more important for the support of life on western rangelands.
Rock Springs Roundup for Health and Well-Being of Horses?
That’s what a Rock Springs resident told Wyoming Public Media in a story posted yesterday. They won’t be starving to death in the winter.
The government, media and advocates have done a fine job covering for the public-lands ranchers, brainwashing the American people about the situation out west.
The Rock Springs HMAs could not be overpopulated with 5,105 wild horses (before the roundup), when the BLM authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 15,982 horses in the same area, on top of the 2,145 horses allowed by plan.
The horses displaced from the HMAs by permitted grazing represent almost one third of those in off-range holding.
The advocates won’t tell you the truth about wild horses because the rationale for their darting programs would fall to the ground. They are far more concerned about their standing with the bureaucrats and ranchers.
NPS Getting Rid of TRNP Wild Horses with GonaCon?
The original inhabitants, thought to be descendants of Sitting Bull’s horses, were removed from the park over 20 years ago.
The current inhabitants are now test subjects for a drug that may act as a sterilant, according to a story by KX News of Bismarck, ND.
Cedar Mountain Allotments
The new pest control plan is still in the scoping phase and a preliminary EA is still months away, but the Western Watersheds map indicates the HMA intersects four grazing allotments. Click on image to open in new tab.
The Allotment Master report puts all of the BLM/public acres in the Improve category.
The forage densities (AUMs per thousand acres) provide a basis for estimating the carrying capacities of the allotments.
For example, Aragonite should be able to support 61.5 ÷ 12 = 5.1 wild horses per thousand acres. North Cedar Mountain should be able to support 7.7 wild horses per thousand acres.
This would be in addition to the horses already allowed by plan.
The aimed-at stocking rate for Cedar Mountain is 0.9 wild horses per thousand acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.
Why are those numbers so low? Because most of the resources have been assigned to privately owned livestock.
RELATED: Scoping Begins for Cedar Mountain Pest Control Plan.
Save the Land Not the Horses!
Sulphur Roundup Over
The incident concluded yesterday, according to a statement at the gather page, with 383 horses captured, 352 shipped, 11 dead and 20 returned.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
The death rate was 2.9%.
The number of horses removed from the HMA was 363.
The capture goal was 376 and the removal goal was 326.
The cumulative total includes 184 stallions, 199 mares and no foals.
Of the adults, 48% were stallions and 52% were mares.
With no youngsters, the herd will shrink without the aid of helicopters.
Body condition scores were not reported.
The BLM claimed the HMA was overpopulated with 600 wild horses, when it authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 854 horses in the same area, on top of the 250 horses allowed by plan.
The advocates will likely point to the HMA as a model of wild horse management.
- No youngsters
- Ongoing fertility control program
- Shrinking herd size
- Over 850 horses displaced by permitted grazing
- AML corresponds to 23% of authorized forage
- Has herd management area plan (HMAP)
It might even replace Assateague Island as their favorite.
RELATED: Sulphur Roundup Announced.
PBS to Look at American Horses
Unlike cattle and sheep, horses do appear in the North American fossil record and their story will be told in the next episode of the long-running ‘Nature’ series, set to air on February 23, according to an announcement posted earlier this week by Arizona PBS.
The extent to which the wild vs. feral debate will be considered is not known.
The remark about horses racing across the Pony Express trail may be a reference to the Onaqui Mountain herd, most of them removed from their Congressionally designated habitat last summer, in favor of privately owned livestock.
Refer to local listings for dates and times in your area.
Titus Admits Helicopter Ban Won’t Help Wild Horses
Refer to the audio segment posted today by KNPR Radio of Las Vegas.
The herds must still be managed (for the benefit of the public-lands ranchers).
There will be fewer injuries (but there will still be roundups).
Management plans (that favor the ranchers) won’t change.
Just use a more humane approach (but keep the gravy train going).
Resource enforcement goal before the ban: 22,000 captured and 19,000 removed.
Resource enforcement goal after the ban: 22,000 captured and 19,000 removed.
RELATED: Anti-Helicopter Chatter Too Far Downstream to Help Wild Horses.
Roy Blames Dearth of Virginia Range Foals on Mountain Lions!
The executive director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses told Nevada Current in a story posted today that the herd is probably at a point of population reduction, “because there is a high mortality rate of foals out on the Virginia range, in large measure because of mountain lions.”
If that’s true, why are they darting the mares? Let the predators keep the herd in check.
On the contrary, the mountain lions are probably going hungry, thanks to her and her army of volunteers.
RELATED: Lower Speed, More Fencing for Virginia Range Mustangs?
Sinbad Decision Announced
The BLM has opted for the Proposed Action, minus the use of IUDs, according to the Decision Record signed on February 15.
The news release said a wild burro roundup will occur later this year, although it does not appear on the latest schedule.
Section 3.2.1 of the Final EA notes that “Wild burros, wildlife, and livestock compete directly for the same space, water, and forage resources,” but the DR, which ties substandard conditions and lack of forage to heavy utilization by the burros, indicates that the animals “are also competing heavily with native wildlife” for food and water.
A burro consumes about half as much forage as a horse or cow/calf pair.
The Proposed Action, valid for ten years, is discussed in Section 2.1 of the EA.
The DR and EA have been posted to ePlanning with other project documents.
The HMA is in eastern Utah.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Sinbad Management Actions.
