Map Shows Grazing Allotments, HMAs and WHTs

Western Watersheds Project released an interactive map last week that shows areas identified for livestock grazing relative to areas reserved for wild horses and burros.

No more guessing if an HMA or WHT is subject to permitted grazing!

See if you can find the Rock Springs HMAs in southwest Wyoming. Table 8 in the Final EA for resource enforcement actions shows the HMAs and the allotments that overlap them. Zoom in to see the boundaries.

One problem is the pop-up box that appears when you click on an allotment. It may it hide the area you’re trying to view. You can’t drag it out of the way so the workaround is to click on the eastern side of the parcel.

The map shows the BLM Field Offices so you can get additional information about the allotments from RAS. The map also shows the USFS Ranger Districts but as of today, Western Horse Watchers has not found a similar reporting tool for their allotments.

Mustang Monday

Commentary on the Sand Wash roundup and roundups in general by Aspire Ranch.

The document mentioned at 4:30 was posted here.

The views expressed in the video are those of its owner and not necessarily those of Western Horse Watchers.

Profile of a Wild Horse Centrist

You won’t be respected by all sides if you think their land should be managed as specified in the original statute (horses and wildlife, no livestock, no PZP).

Beliefs like that may get you branded as a wild horse conservative.

Management Priorities at Rock Springs HMAs

Table 1 in the Final EA for resource enforcement actions provides AMLs for the five HMAs, from which forage requirements can be computed. Table 8 provides forage allocations to livestock inside the HMAs.

Rock Springs Forage Allocations 09-25-21

The 2,165 horses allowed by plan receive 25,980 AUMs per year, compared to 191,791 AUMs per year for privately owned livestock.

The HMAs cover 3,436,096 acres of public and private lands in southwestern Wyoming.

Livestock receive 7.4 times more forage than the horses. Would you call that a thriving ecological balance? Would you call it a balance? Would you say the HMAs are managed principally for wild horses?

The forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 15,982 wild horses, 32% of the horses in off-range holding!

The True AML for the five HMAs would be 18,147. The pre-gather population of 5,105 is well within that range.

If the HMAs were managed according to plan, livestock would be the primary consumer of resources in Adobe Town, Great Divide Basin and White Mountain. They would be the principal consumer of resources in Salt Wells Creek and Little Colorado.

The Rock Springs RMP Amendments, not yet approved, will make things worse, by closing three of the HMAs and downsizing a fourth. Little Colorado won’t be affected, because, as you can see from the data above, it’s been zeroed out already.

Thriving Ecological Balance-3

Jackson Mountains Roundup Day 10

The incident began on September 15. Gather stats through September 24:

Type: Emergency
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 346, up from 252 on Day 7
Average daily take: 34.6
Capture goal: 600
Removal goal: 600
Returned: 1, on Day 10
Deaths: 12, up from 6 on Day 7
Shipped: 277, up from 142 on Day 7

Two horses were put down on Day 8, two on Day 9 and two on Day 10, all due to pre-existing conditions. The death rate is now 3.5%, up from 2.4% on Day 7.

The daily reports point to IM 2021-007, Euthanasia of Wild Horses and Burros Related to Acts of Mercy, Health or Safety, as justification for the deaths.

Foals represented 23.1% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 37.2% were male and 62.8% were female.

Body condition scores were not provided.

Day 10 ended with 56 unaccounted-for animals. The report did not indicate if the stallion returned that day was an escape or a release.

Other statistics:

AML: 217
Forage assigned to horses: 2,604 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,018
Forage liberated to date: 4,140 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 3,450 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: 7,394 AUMs per year (estimated)
Horses displaced from HMA by livestock: 616 (1.2% of off-range holding)
True AML: 833

New Wild Horse Documentary Avoids Public-Lands Ranching?

Not mentioned in the following trailer:

The off-range corrals at 1:13, flooded with horses, displaced from their home range by privately owned livestock.

The trainers, competitions and shows at 1:34, boosting interest in adoptions, so more can be removed from the range.

The advocates at 2:24, darting rifles in hand, helping the government get rid of the horses, with benefits accruing to the ranchers.

If the film has a downstream focus, as suggested in the video, it will be of little help to America’s wild horses. The problem is upstream, in the land-use plans and the rules that tilt the playing field in favor of the ranchers.

Rock Springs Roundup Starts in Two Weeks

Approximately 70% of the wild horses in five HMAs will be removed from public and private lands in the Wyoming checkerboard, beginning on or after October 7, according to a BLM news release.

The roundup will fulfill a court order known as the Rock Springs Consent Decree.

Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and the operation will be open to public observation.

The capture goal is 4,400 and the removal goal is 3,500. Mares returned to the HMAs will be treated with contraceptives.

The pre-gather population is approximately 5,100 and the combined AML is 2,145.

Rock Springs HMA Map 03-31-21

All of the HMAs are subject to permitted grazing, as shown in Table 8 of the Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein. Maps were posted with other project documents.

The destination of captured animals was not specified in the announcement.

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

Overpopulation Putting Virginia Range Mustangs at Risk?

Yep, the horses are being hit by cars because there are too many of them, according to this Q&A by the Reno Gazette Journal.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses agree that the Virginia Range can only support 300 to 600 horses, even though it’s been carrying around 3,000 for several years.

It’s an outlier that needs to be brought in line with the anti-horse narrative of the federal government. (That’s one wild horse per thousand acres for those of you in Rio Linda.)

Sad as it is, the loss last week of two wild horses was almost nothing compared to what the advocates are doing to the herd.

Why are you still giving them money?

Mid Year Status Report 06-09-21

PEER Report in the News

A story in today’s edition of The Salt Lake Tribune looks at HMAs and grazing allotments in Utah, especially those managed by the Fillmore Field Office.

The article said the office reported 1% of the allotments by acreage with substandard conditions due to grazing, but the Allotment Information report in RAS shows 33.6% of the public acres in the Improve category.

Earlier this year Western Horse Watchers found that approximately 57% of the public acres in Utah grazing allotments do not meet standards for rangeland health.

Rally Tomorrow Opposing Rock Springs Roundup

The Marr Plan Action Team will hold a rally at the BLM Rock Springs Field Office, 280 US Highway 191 in Rock Springs, WY, according to a story posted today by Wyo4News.

Although indicated when the Decision Record was signed in July, the incident does not appear in the latest schedule.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a web site for the Marr Plan Action Team.

Barren Valley Roundup Day 15

The incident began on September 8. Gather stats through September 22:

Type: Emergency
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 886, up from 721 on Day 12
Average daily take: 59.1
Capture goal: 1,900
Removal goal: 1,900
Returned: 0
Deaths: 11, up from 7 on Day 12
Shipped: 735, up from 659 on Day 12

The cumulative total at the gather page is 844.

A colt and and two studs were put down on Day 13, and a filly on Day 14, due to pre-existing conditions. The death rate is now 1.2%.

Foals represented 20.8% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 44.4% were male and 55.6% were female.

Body condition scores ranged from 2.5 to 4.

The location of gather activity was not reported. Three HMAs are involved in the roundup.

Day 15 ended with 140 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: 10,632 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 8,860 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 12.

Unabashed and Unapologetic, DeMayo Pushes ‘Path Forward’

The driver of the plan was a threat by Congress in 2017 to allow the BLM to euthanize tens of thousands of wild horses in off-range holding, according to an opinion piece in today’s edition of The Colorado Sun.

The incident brought animal welfare groups to the table with other stakeholders, including public-lands ranchers, in an effort to find common ground.

That those animals—every one of them—had been denied a spot on their home range by privately owned livestock apparently wasn’t part of the dialogue.

The issue is so pervasive that all of the off-range corrals and long-term pastures could be emptied at least three times over if permitted grazing was banned in HMAs and WHTs.

It’s not about saving money, it’s about coddling the ranchers.

Today, the goals remain the same—achieve and maintain AMLs—so they can be the primary, if not principal, consumer of resources in areas set aside for wild horses.

Most of the advocacy groups accept this idea. Only they want to get rid of the horses with PZP, not helicopters.

The ranchers want their lopsided share of the resources now and are unwilling to wait for the herds to die off as the advocates drive birth rates to zero.

So most the horses will be forced off the range by helicopters, giving the advocates a better chance of preventing their comeback, as seen recently at Sand Wash Basin.

Jackson Mountains Roundup Day 7

The incident began on September 15. Gather stats through September 21:

Type: Emergency
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 252, up from 126 on Day 5
Average daily take: 36.0
Capture goal: 600
Removal goal: 600
Returned: 0
Deaths: 6, up from 4 on Day 5
Shipped: 142, up from 88 on Day 5

A mare was put down on Day 6 because of starvation, followed by another on Day 7 for the same reason. The death rate is now 2.4%.

Could those mares be nursed back to health at a rescue? The rationale for both deaths was given by IM 2021-007, Euthanasia of Wild Horses and Burros Related to Acts of Mercy, Health or Safety.

Foals represented 23.0% of the horses gathered. Of the adults, 35.6% were male and 64.4% were female.

Body condition scores were not provided.

Day 7 ended with 104 unaccounted-for animals.

Other statistics:

AML: 217
Forage assigned to horses: 2,604 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,018
Forage liberated to date: 3,024 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 2,520 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: 7,394 AUMs per year (estimated)
Horses displaced from HMA by livestock: 616 (1.2% of off-range holding)
True AML: 833

Devil’s Garden Roundup Day 6

The incident began on September 16. Reports covering activity through September 21 have been posted to the Modoc news page:

Type: Planned
Method: Helicopter
Horses captured: 100
Average daily take: 16.7
Capture goal: 600
Removal goal: 600
Returned: Unknown
Deaths: Unknown
Shipped: Unknown

The progress report for Days 3 and 4 was a bit confusing. The correct interpretation is that helicopters were grounded on Day 4 and no horses were gathered. The cumulative total through Day 4 was 49, not 98.

Foals represented 14.0% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 51.2% were male and 48.8% were female.

Body condition scores were not provided.

The number of unaccounted-for animals is not known.

Other statistics:

AML: 402
Forage assigned to horses: 4,824 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,926
Forage liberated to date: 1,200 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 1,000 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 4.

Livestock Impede Sage-Grouse Recovery on Public Lands?

Wild horses were blamed for most of the problems in a USGS study published earlier this year, while the effects of public-lands ranching were overlooked, according to a news release by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The announcement said the study is being used as part of the rationale for removing thousands of free-ranging horses from their habitat.

Roundup Starts Next Week at Surprise Complex

Resource enforcement actions will begin on September 27, according to yesterday’s news release. The driver is overpopulation, not inadequate food or water.

Helicopters will push the animals into the traps and the operation will be open to public observation.

The capture goal is 1,220 and the removal goal is 1,050. Mares returned to the area will be treated with contraceptives. All burros will be removed.

The six HMAs in the Complex cover 396,674 acres. The stocking rate for the 496 horses allowed by plan is 1.3 animals per thousand acres.

The pre-gather population is thought to be around 1,300.

Surprise Complex Map

The six grazing allotments that overlap the Complex are listed in Table 3-2 and shown in Appendix G of the Final EA. The amount of forage shifted to livestock inside the HMAs is not known.

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Litchfield, east of Susanville, CA, and potentially other holding facilities.

A link to the gather stats and daily reports was not provided, but will likely be found on this page.

Ranchers and Advocates Snub McCullough Peaks Wild Horses

A rancher interviewed for a story by the Cody Enterprise grazes six allotments in the area, with authorization numbers 4901330 and 4901633, according to the Operator Information and Allotment Information reports at RAS.

Four overlap the HMA, two do not.

The Allotment Master report shows four of them in the Improve category, with two in the Maintain category. As for the public acres, 94.4% are in the Improve category, with 5.6% in Maintain.

Should this guy be lecturing us on wild horses and rangeland degradation?

McCullough Peaks Allotment Map 06-18-21

He receives a total of 5,709 AUMs per year across the six allotments.

One of the advocates, speaking to the Park County Commissioners about the horses, said “I am constantly out there telling tourists and tour people we can’t have that many more babies.”

Another advocate, who darted the McCullough Peaks horses for several years, wants the BLM to use PZP on every wild horse herd in America.

If things get out of control, the government will send in the helicopters to get rid of excess horses and restore the lopsided resource allocations of the land-use plans, or, if you prefer, the thriving ecological imbalance.

The advocates can then resume their efforts to make sure the herd never comes back, leaving the ranchers as the primary, if not principal, consumer of resources in the HMA.

McGregor Auction Results

Ranchers bid $565,203 for 21,590 AUMs, according to a BLM news release, yielding an average price of $26.18 per AUM, 19.4 times higher than the fee for livestock grazing in areas set aside for wild horses.

You could argue that Congress has been shielding those ranchers from the realities of a free market for over 40 years, while denying the United States a fair price for their use of public lands.