Near the Virginia Range with Roland Schumann.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Saving the Virginia Range Horses by Getting Rid of Them
Foals may be hard to find this year, thanks to the ‘advocacy’ groups.
Best time to see these animals in the higher elevations is May and June.
Water system back in service April 16.
RELATED: PZP Zealots Missed One.
Status of Calico Allotments
Table 4 in the Draft EA does not provide allotment sizes and grazing seasons, nor the percentage of each allotment falling inside the Complex, so key management indicators for the five HMAs involved, such as forage allocations and stocking rates, can’t be determined.
That would be a substantive comment on the EA.
What are the management priorities in these HMAs? Do privately owned livestock receive better treatment than wild horses and burros?
The Proposed Action reads like a pest control program: Roundups, fertility control vaccines, intra-uterine devices, non-reproducing animals (males and females) and sex ratio skewing.
As for the allotments, RAS provides some information. Four are managed by the Black Rock Field Office and one by the Humboldt River Field Office.
The Allotment Master report for Black Rock shows three in the Improve category and one in the Maintain category, while the report for Humboldt River shows one in the Improve category.
Alder Creek
- 123,363 public acres
- Improve category
- 5,913 active AUMs
Paiute Meadows
- 168,538 public acres
- Improve category
- 3,549 active AUMs
Buffalo Hills
- 440,982 public acres
- Improve category
- 4,114 active AUMs
Soldier Meadows
- 329,129 public acres
- Improve category
- 12,168 active AUMs
Leadville
- 54,013 public acres
- Maintain category
- 1,291 active AUMs
The total grazing area is 1,116,025 acres, with 1,062,012 acres in the Improve category.
That means 95% of the BLM grazing land associated with the Calico Complex does not meet standards for rangeland health.
As of today, there is no category for blaming substandard conditions on wild horses and burros.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Calico Gather Plan.
More Signs of Dry Conditions in Western U.S.
Communities served by the Colorado River and its artificial lakes may be facing a water shortage declaration, according to a report posted yesterday by AP News.
An observable effect of drought in the wild horse world might be a jump in emergency roundups, accompanied, perhaps, by AUM reductions in grazing allotments.
The author tries to link the situation to (man-made) climate change, a fake problem that started off as global cooling, which couldn’t be demonstrated, followed by a shift to global warming, also unproven, supplanted again by climate change so its adherents could play it both ways.
Frequently, the term appears with concerns of hotter temperatures, as in the story, suggesting that they still believe in the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Water vapor, belched into the atmosphere by industrial and commercial cooling towers, and also by evaporation from lakes, rivers and oceans, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but you never hear about it!
RELATED: Dry Conditions in California Signal Trouble in Great Basin?
FRANK Launches Tomorrow
Refuting SJR3 or Selling PZP?
Refer to the column titled ‘Wild Horse Tales’ beginning on page 9 of the latest edition of Horse Tales, a monthly newspaper published in Gardnerville, NV.
RELATED: Pushing Back Against SJR3.
Distinguishing Between Cause and Effect
This scene at the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals, photographed yesterday, is a consequence of the resource management process, not a cause of it.
If you want to help America’s wild horses, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being removed from public lands and address those causes for a lasting solution.
RELATED: Many Foals at Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals
PZP Zealots Missed One
Road to Area B
Everything needed for construction and test must have been hauled up this road.
How many have driven by without realizing the historical significance of the area?
RELATED: Palomino Valley’s Mysterious Exhaust Tubes.
Many Foals at Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals
The mares may have been captured at the Eagle or Silver King roundups earlier this year. Some looked like they were very close to foaling. Photos taken today.
Dead Foal Discovered in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests
The filly was found in an area where the Heber wild horses roam but was not identified as a member of the herd, according to a report by the White Mountain Independent of Show Low, AZ.
Residents that routinely observe the animals stated via socialist media that there was no evidence of foul play.
Life as Nature Intended
The presence of youngsters in this video represents a turning over of the genetic soil in the herd, some of whom—if they survive and can stay on the range—will start their own bands, continuing the process.
This characteristic, essential to herd viability and ruggedness, is dismissed by some of the ‘advocacy’ groups, who proudly interfere with breeding patterns.
Don’t give them a penny.
RELATED: Wild Horse Mesa Confirmed, Trajectory of a Fertility Control Program.
Riders Promote Adoption
Perhaps they mean well. Maybe they’re shills for the public-lands ranchers.
Who knows.
What will be the condition of their horses when their journey is complete?
Do they understand that if livestock grazing was discontinued in a just a few dozen HMAs all wild horses could be removed from holding pens, not just 5,000?
If you want to help America’s wild horses, don’t focus on the horses.
Instead, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being removed from public lands and address those causes for a lasting solution.
More Assateague Foals Expected
A story posted this morning by the Maryland Coast Dispatch says that eight more are on the way.
With the fertility control program shut off five years ago, the birth rate may now be catching up with and surpassing the death rate. Refer to the chart in this post.
The fertility police often point to the island as a model of wild horse management.
Comments Invited on Draft EA for Calico Gather Plan
The 30-day review period started today, according to a BLM news release.
The new Environmental Assessment looks at the consequences of resource enforcement actions in the five HMAs that make up the Complex. A Finding of No Significant Impact will not apply to horses and burros found therein.
The Proposed Action features roundups and growth suppression techniques, such as fertility control vaccines, intra-uterine devices, non-reproducing animals (males and females) and sex ratio skewing. Refer to Section 2.0 in the EA.
The plan will be valid for ten years.
The Complex covers 584,101 acres and has an AML of 952 wild horses and 65 wild burros, per Table 1 in the EA. The equivalent AML is 985 horses, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 1.7 wild horses per thousand acres, slightly above the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.
The current population is estimated to be 1,692 horses and 73 burros.
The Complex intersects five grazing allotments per Section 3.3.3 of the EA but there is not enough information to know which HMAs are affected and by how much.
Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a map in the appendices showing the allotment boundaries relative to those of the HMAs.
The Calico Complex is adjacent to the Surprise Complex in northwestern Nevada, the subject of a new gather plan and EA earlier this year.
Comments on the Calico EA can be submitted through May 13.
NCBA Responds to Coalition’s Letter About Livestock Grazing
The Executive Director of Natural Resources and the Public Lands Council said in a report dated April 13 by FarmProgress, an online news service, that “The path toward healthy horses, healthy rangelands, and healthy wildlife is championed by those who have been stewards of the land for generations—ranchers.”
Unfortunately, data from RAS show otherwise: Approximately 60% of BLM grazing land does not meet standards for rangeland health.
The letter calls for an end to livestock grazing on all “horse-occupied” HMAs, as if it didn’t occur on lands set aside for wild burros and included no data to support the claim that forage allocations “are severely biased against horse populations.”
Western Horse Watchers does not dispute the claim but believes the letter would have been more effective if submitted with some examples, such as the Little Colorado and Sand Wash Basin HMAs.
The letter also calls for a revamp of RMPs affecting such areas, which is essential, but may go nowhere without a court order.
Yesterday’s news release did not indicate if a similar request was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture regarding WHTs.
RELATED: Letter to Haaland Seeks Thriving Ecological Balance?
Palomino Valley’s Mysterious Exhaust Tubes
A photograph in the online gallery by the Reno Gazette Journal shows Area B as it existed in 1968. The two pieces remaining today are clearly visible.
They’re at the end of Axe Handle Road on land now owned by Boeing.
No trespassing, please.
RELATED: Palomino Valley Not Just Famous for Wild Horses.
Letter to Haaland Seeks Thriving Ecological Balance?
We already have that. It means 80 to 95% of the authorized forage going to privately owned livestock on land set aside for wild horses and burros.
It’s the six-bedroom home where the horses can use up to one bedroom but in no case less than half a broom closet.
Why not seek the ‘principally but not exclusively’ concept of the original statute?
Curiously, the term appears nowhere in the letter.
RELATED: Haaland Urged to End Livestock Grazing in HMAs.
Haaland Urged to End Livestock Grazing in HMAs
Refer to this news release by Animal Wellness Action. The announcement did not say if a similar request was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture regarding WHTs.
Fertility Police and Their Targets in the News
The NYT article has been picked up by Drudge.
RELATED: Marketing the Virginia Range Mustangs to Job Seekers?
