BLM Goes Dark Again

The outage has resumed. The site now displays the following message.

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RELATED: BLM IT Outage Resolved.

Stone Cabin Roundup Day 33

The incident began on September 1. Gather stats through October 3:

Type: Emergency
Method: Bait
Horses captured: 304, up from 261 on Day 18
Average daily take: 9.2
Capture goal: 450
Removal goal: 450
Returned: 0
Deaths: 8, no change from Day 18
Shipped: 296, up from 231 on Day 18

The daily reports could not be accessed for two days due to a BLM IT outage.

No horses were caught on Days 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32 and 33.

The death rate is 2.6%.

Foals represented 14.8% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 46.3% were male and 53.7% were female.

Body condition scores were not reported.

Day 33 ended with no unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

AML: 364
Forage assigned to horses: 4,368 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,037
Forage liberated to date: 3,648 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 3,040 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: Unknown
Horses displaced from HMA by livestock: Unknown
True AML: Unknown

The Western Watersheds map shows two grazing allotments overlapping the HMA, Stone Cabin and Willow Creek. Click image to open in new tab.

An estimate of the forage assigned to livestock, and the number of wild horses displaced thereby, should be a straightforward task.

The number of horses the HMA can support, the True AML, can be computed from those estimates, even though the advocates say it’s almost impossible to determine.

RELATED: Stone Cabin Roundup Day 18.

No Shedding of Tears for the Public-Lands Ranchers!

A guest column about wild horses published this morning by The Durango Herald concludes with this question: “And what about those ranch families whose income depends on cattle and sheep that have less and less to eat?”

What about them? Nobody’s trying to put them out of business.

Confine them to their base properties and let them pay market rates to feed their animals, like everybody else. No more gravy train.

Manage wild horse areas principally for wild horses, not privately owned cattle and sheep, as specified in the statute.

Pancake Gather Plan

Surprise Complex Roundup Day 11

The incident began on September 28. Gather stats through October 8:

Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 897, up from 555 on Day 7
Average daily take: 81.5
Capture goal: 1,220
Removal goal: 1,050
Returned: 82, up from 16 on Day 7
Deaths: 14, up from 9 on Day 7
Shipped: 592, up from 396 on Day 7

The daily reports could not be accessed for two days due to a BLM IT outage.

Three horses were put down on Day 8 and one died of a broken neck. A yearling was put down on Day 11. The death rate is 1.6%.

On Day 8, 66 horses were returned to the Massacre Lakes, Bitner, Nut Mountain and Wall Canyon HMAs. Mares were treated with fertility control.

Body condition scores have not been reported.

Gather ops on Day 10 and 11 were in the High Rock and Fox Hog HMAs. Six HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Test results for pigeon fever, reported on Day 7, have not been provided.

Day 11 ended with 209 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

AML: 496
Forage assigned to horses: 5,952 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,300
Forage liberated to date: 9,780 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 8,150 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: Unknown
Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: Unknown
True AML: Unknown

Centennial Wild Horse Roundup Starts Tomorrow

The incident will occur at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, where most of the HMA is located, due to conditions related to the drought and two wildfires last year that burned approximately 45,000 acres.

Helicopters and wranglers will push the horses into the traps, according to the news release, but the operation will not be open to public observation.

The capture and removal goals are 250. The roundup is not on the August 30 schedule.

The HMA covers 318,499 acres in central California. The AML is 168 and the stocking rate allowed by plan is 0.5 wild horses per thousand acres.

The pre-gather population was not specified.

The Western Watersheds map, reproduced above, shows one grazing allotment on the northwest side of the HMA but outside of China Lake. Click image to open in new tab.

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Ridgecrest, CA.

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

Wild burros, not allowed by plan, were removed from the HMA earlier this year.

BLM IT Outage Resolved

The following services are now available:

News releases
HMA pages
Gather reports
RAS
ePlanning

The Allotment Information Report in RAS still yields bad data. RSGA receives 1,555,088 AUMs per year on the Rocks Springs Allotment, as noted earlier.

BLM Goes Dark During Peak of Roundup Season

The outage is now well into Day 2, with the top-level page displaying a brief message.

Under Maintenance

DeMayo Blasts Rock Springs Roundup, Tries to Save Face?

BLM is clearing wild horses out of the way for livestock and hunting interests, according to a news release dated October 7.

Yes they are, dear. It’s what you signed up for in the rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward.’

Blockchains Withdraws Plan for Storey County Autonomous Zone

The company announced today that it no longer plans to build a smart city at the north end of the Virginia Range, according to a story by AP News.

CEO Jeffrey Burns was one of the instigators of the 2019 darting program, which the advocates have continued to this day.

VR Darting Injury 09-15-21

Blockchains is the largest landowner in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, on the south side of I-80, east of Reno, NV.

BLM IT Issues Still Not Resolved

The top-level page says ‘Under Maintenance.’

The system has been down for about 24 hours.

RELATED: IT Failure at BLM?

Motorcade to Protest Wild Horse Roundups in Nevada

The event, organized by the Marr Plan, will occur on October 16, according to a report posted today by Nevada Appeal.

IT Failure at BLM?

Western Horse Watchers has been unable to access the following services for the past twelve hours:

News releases
HMA pages
Gather reports
RAS
ePlanning

WHIMS, the fertility control database, is still available, which is great news for the advocates.

Devil’s Garden Roundup Day 20

The incident began on September 16. Reports covering activity through October 5 have been posted to the Modoc news page:

Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 345, up from 298 on Day 18
Average daily take: 17.3
Capture goal: 600
Removal goal: 600
Returned: 1, no change from Day 18
Deaths: Unknown
Shipped: Unknown

Foals represented 13.9% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.2% were males and 50.8% were female.

Body condition scores were not provided.

The death rate and number of unaccounted-for animals cannot be determined.

Other statistics:

AML: 402
Forage assigned to horses: 4,824 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,926
Forage liberated to date: 4,128 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 3,440 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: 15,711 AUMs per year (estimated)
Horses displaced from WHT by livestock: 1,309 (2.6% of off-range holding)
True AML: 1,711

RELATED: Devil’s Garden Roundup Day 18.

Status of Owyhee Allotments

Six grazing allotments that overlap the five HMAs in the Owyhee Complex are listed in Table 5 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein.

The Western Watersheds map, reproduced below, shows the arrangement.

Two of the allotments are managed by the Humboldt River Field Office. Four are managed by the Tuscarora Field Office.

Table 6 in the EA provides forage allocations from 2012, which were copied into the following table. Other values were sourced from the Allotment Master Report in RAS, one dataset for each field office [Humboldt River, Tuscarora].

Owyhee Allotment Data 10-06-21

Although the total forage allocation declined slightly over the past nine years, all six allotments are in the Improve category, along with all of the public acres.

The 999 horses allowed by plan receive 11,988 AUMs per year.

RELATED: Owyhee Roundup Announced.

Barren Valley Roundup Day 27

The incident began on September 8. Gather stats through October 4:

Type: Emergency
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 1,133, up from 1,032 on Day 19
Average daily take: 42.0
Capture goal: 1,900
Removal goal: 1,900
Returned: 0
Deaths: 16, up from 14 on Day 19
Shipped: 1,067, up from 965 on Day 19

Reports for Days 23 to 27 were posted today. No horses were taken on Days 21, 23, 24, 26 and 27. No explanations were given.

The cumulative total at the gather page is 1,124, with 1,097 shipped.

Two horses were euthanized on Day 20 due to pre-existing conditions. The death rate is unchanged at 1.4%.

Foals represented 21.4% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 45.2% were male and 54.8% were female.

Body condition scores ranged from 3 to 4.

The location of gather activity is not known. Three HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Day 27 ended with 50 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

AML: 892 (total for three HMAs)
Forage assigned to horses: 10,704 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 2,500
Forage liberated to date: 13,596 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 11,330 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: 27,011 AUMs per year (estimated)
Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: 2,258 (4.5% of off-range holding)
True AML: 3,150

RELATED: Barren Valley Roundup Day 19.

Surprise Complex Roundup Day 7

The incident began on September 28. Gather stats through October 4:

Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 555, up from 441 on Day 5
Average daily take: 79.3
Capture goal: 1,220
Removal goal: 1,050
Returned: 16, up from 15 on Day 5
Deaths: 9, up from 7 on Day 5
Shipped: 396, up from 281 on Day 5

Two stallions were put down for pre-existing conditions on Day 6, leaving the death rate at 1.6%. Another stallion was released.

The number of stallions, mares and foals caught each day have not been reported.

Body condition scores are not known.

Gather operations concluded at Wall Canyon on Day 6. Day 7 saw helicopters flying beyond the HMA boundaries. Six HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Pigeon fever may have affected some of the horses. Tests have been ordered.

Another release is set for Day 8.

Day 7 ended with 134 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

AML: 496
Forage assigned to horses: 5,952 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,300
Forage liberated to date: 6,468 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 5,390 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: Unknown
Horses displaced from Complex by livestock: Unknown
True AML: Unknown

Can’t Blame Ranchers for Rock Springs Roundup?

So says the operations manager of the Rock Springs Grazing Association in a report posted this morning by WyoFile, a public-interest news service in Wyoming.

The incident will comply with a 2013 court order resulting from a case brought by RSGA, according a BLM news release.

The roundup may be a prelude to the RMP amendments that will close three of the HMAs and downsize a fourth if approved.

The writer acknowledged that one of the goals was to reduce trespass onto 899,308 acres of private land in the Wyoming checkerboard, much of it owned by RSGA.

He did not say if Wyoming was a fence-out state.

What’s Up With Barren Valley?

No activity has been reported since September 29, when gather ops commenced at Coyote Lake.

Owyhee Roundup Announced

The incident will begin on or about October 11, according to the new release.

It was on the schedule dated August 2 but was dropped from the current schedule, dated August 30.

Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and the operation will be open to public observation. Five HMAs are involved.

The capture goal is 947 and the removal goal is 615. Mares returned to the Complex will be treated with PZP.

The Complex covers about one million acres and has an AML of 999, as shown in Table 1 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein. The stocking rate allowed by plan is one wild horse per thousand acres, in line with the target rate across all HMAs.

The pre-gather population was estimated to be 1,188.

The Complex intersects six grazing allotments, listed in Table 5 of the EA. Figure 13 shows the arrangement. The image above is from the Western Watersheds map.

Captured animals will be taken to the Sutherland off-range corrals in Utah.

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

The EA was posted with other project documents in ePlanning.

Western Horse Watchers does not see the wisdom of mobilizing a contractor in an area that is only 20% above AML and almost certainly below the True AML.