The mare and foal have reunited, according to a report posted today by AP News.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Arthur to Drench Banker Horses?
Tropical storm warnings were posted this morning, according to a report by OBX Today of Nags Head, NC. The system will bring onshore flow to the area as it approaches from the south. Flooding in low lying areas is expected, with seas building to eight to ten feet.
The storm arrives two weeks ahead of the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which occurs June 1.
Shackleford Mare and Foal Harassed, Separated
Three men who tried to capture the foal for photos separated it from its mother, which puts the foal at risk of death, according to a story posted Friday by OBX Today of Nags Head, NC. The report did not indicate if the two had been reunited.
The barrier island can only be accessed by watercraft.
How Blue Jeans Were Washed in the Old Days
Medium cycle, extra rinse.
No!
Yesterday I was asked by one of the Virginia Range darters if they could ply their trade on my property. No unfair advantage or anything.
When the project was announced a year ago, it was to occur on land owned by Blockchains LLC in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.
But apparently it has morphed into mass targeting of all wild horses across the Virginia Range, which is held up as a model of success. Trailcam photo taken 05-15-20.
Why Is the Water So Dirty?
You try to do them a favor…
Lies of Omission in New WHB Management Strategy
The introductory material in the new WHB management plan, beginning on page 2, is not complete. You might get the impression that wild horses are the problem.
Mustangers were not ordered to harvest them for commercial purposes, such as the production of dog food. That’s how they got rid of the carcasses. They were hired by ranchers to clear the range of anything that robbed forage from their livestock.
Yes, the WHB Act has been amended by Congress on four different occasions—at the behest of ranching interests. That part was not stated. The original Act protected the horses from ranchers, not drillers, loggers and miners.
Velma understood the issues. Today, most wild horse ‘advocates’ do not. In their zeal for contraceptives, they’ve sided with the ranchers.
Yes, the number of wild horses on western rangelands has grown, while the amount of land reserved for them has gone down. That part was carefully omitted. When the Rock Springs RMP amendments are implemented, the loss will be roughly 50% (of the land inhabited by these animals in 1971).
Lands no longer managed for wild horses and burros don’t have enough resources to support them, but somehow, privately owned livestock seem to do just fine.
If nothing is done to reduce growth rates, the on-range population of wild horses and burros could reach 2.8 million by 2040. OK, why is that a problem? Because it will lead to catastrophic harm to the land and to other species—meaning it will put the livestock operators out of business.
This plan is nothing but a shameless defense of the public-lands ranchers, who hide in the shadows while the government does their dirty work. It’s one of the best examples of crony capitalism you’d ever want to investigate.
RELATED: WHB Strategy in the News.
Adoption Incentives One Year In
BLM said today that wild horse and burro adoptions increased 91% during the first year of the program, which pays adopters $500 within 60 days of adoption and $500 within 60 days of receiving title.
The number of animals placed into forever homes was not given in the announcement.
RELATED: Incentives Boost WHB Adoptions.
Corolla Stallion Reappears After Vanishing Into Marsh
He’s plus 150 pounds and minus six mares, but otherwise okay, according to a report posted today by The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC. Band stallions have the toughest job on the range—or beach, as the case may be.
WHB Strategy in the News
A syndicated report by AP News is making its way across major news outlets.
The plan calls for the removal of 20,000 wild horses and burros per year from western rangelands until the population target of 27,000—known as ‘AML’—is achieved.
The current population is 88,000 animals, with herd sizes doubling every five years.
The plan also requires more contraceptives and sterilizations, more adoptions and more off-range warehousing.
All of this to prop up an industry that’s outlived its usefulness.
The 33-page strategy is not necessary, just two sentences:
- End public-lands ranching
- Restore the WHB Act to its original form
RELATED: Strategy for Implementing ‘Path Forward’ Sent to Congress.
‘Path Forward’ Sob Story
Look at the photos on page 25 of the new strategy for controlling wild horse and burro populations on western rangelands. You’re supposed to conclude that the changes were due to free-roaming horses. Wildfires, droughts and overgrazing were not involved.
Why worry about forage and nutritional values? The horses take what they can get.
Zoom in on the storyboard. The photos were taken on the Spruce Allotment, which intersects the Spruce-Pequop HMA.
The tragedy is not that the horses are suffering from malnutrition, but that the land is now less useful to the poor ranchers.
RELATED: Strategy for Implementing ‘Path Forward’ Sent to Congress.
Strategy for Implementing ‘Path Forward’ Sent to Congress
The $21 million authorized in December for the disastrous management plan is another step closer to obligation, according to a news release by Animal Wellness Action, a lobbying group in Washington, DC.
Congress withheld funding until the BLM developed a comprehensive and detailed plan for controlling wild horse and burro populations on public lands in the western U.S.
The plan was issued last week and Congress has 60 days to review it.
The news release did not indicate if it was a draft, subject to revision, or if it would be posted for public comments.
A simple way to assess the validity of the plan is to search it for terms such as ‘AUM,’ ‘livestock,’ ‘forage allocation,’ ‘permit’ and ‘grazing season.’
They’re not in there, as if the grazing program was independent of the WHB program, not intertwined. Everybody knows that AMLs must go down if permitted AUMs go up!
The plan puts the crosshairs on America’s wild horses and burros while shielding the ranchers from public scrutiny.
HMAs were supposed to be safe havens for wild horses and burros but the government has turned them into breeding grounds for privately owned livestock.
Meanwhile, the BLM is ‘modernizing’ the grazing program, to streamline the permitting process, provide greater flexibility for managing resources and further enrich the public-lands ranchers.
Havasu Roundup Pending
BLM will remove 120 wild burros from the Havasu HMA starting this month, because they are damaging private property. The operation, not announced on the BLM news page, will be carried out with bait traps and will not be open to public observation.
The HMA covers 450,790 acres in western Arizona, with land on both sides of the Colorado River. The AML is 166 wild burros, equivalent to 83 wild horses.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is equivalent to 0.2 wild horses per thousand acres, compared to a target rate of one wild horse per thousand acres across all HMAs.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Florence.
Gather stats and daily reports will appear on this page.
BLM did not indicate if any resources on the HMA had been diverted to other users of public lands.
As noted last month, stocking rates below 1.0 may denote large percentages of resources assigned to privately owned livestock. The environmental assessment for management actions on the HMA would have to be reviewed to find out if that’s the case.
Cibola-Trigo Nuisance Roundup in Progress
Bait trapping began April 16. To date, 30 burros and 25 horses have been captured, with one death reported. No details were given. The goal is 35 burros and 40 horses.
The operation, not announced on the BLM news page, was necessitated by animals that were damaging private property and creating a safety hazard along roadways.
The HMA covers 179,000 acres in southwestern Arizona. The AML is 165 wild burros, equivalent to 83 horses, and 150 wild horses, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 1.3 wild horses per thousand acres. The target stocking rate across all HMAs is one animal per thousand acres.
The roundup is not open to public observation. Captured animals have been taken to the off-range corrals in Florence.
The pre-gather population was estimated to be 616 wild burros and 274 wild horses.
The report did not indicate if any resources on the HMA had been diverted to other users of public lands.
Lineage of TRNP Horses?
Refer to this report by KX News of Bismarck, ND. No mention of Sitting Bull, the Marquis de Mores or Leo Kuntz.
RELATED: Story of the Nokota Horses, Horses of the Badlands.
Mustang Monday
Horses have the day off. On Lake Pleasant HMA with Somer Bednar.
Shackleford Herd Adds Another Foal
A new foal arrived on Shackleford Banks this weekend, according to a story by OBX Today of Nags Head, NC. The youngster appears to be a chestnut but its sex was not given. The barrier island can only be accessed by watercraft.
RELATED: New Colt on Shackleford Banks.
Growing Footprints
About 2-1/2 inches across as of May 4. Born April 1.
RELATED: Tiny Footprints, Thoughts on New Colt.
Blown Away
Trailcam photos of empty water tank cartwheeling across the Virginia Range, just like a tumbleweed. System was off for the winter.
RELATED: Life in the Mountains.
Big Summit Horses Get Short End of Stick
The Forest Service announced last month that there were too many wild horses on the Big Summit WHT and that the land was deteriorating as a consequence.
A new approach is needed “…to ensure wild horses are managed in a thriving natural ecological balance with other uses…,” according to the Environmental Assessment for the new management plan (page 11 in the pdf file, emphasis mine).
The high end of the AML would be reduced from 65 to 57 under the proposed action, limited mostly by the availability of winter forage. The low end would drop from 55 to 12, opening the door to population control measures such as genetic dilution, sex ratio skewing and contraception.
The WHT contains 25,434 acres. The current AML yields a stocking rate of 2.6 wild horses per thousand acres. The stocking rate under the proposed AML would be 2.2.
The 57 horses allowed by plan would require 684 AUMs per year.
The horses share the land “…with wildlife and seasonally with domestic sheep; there are no permitted cattle,” according to page 10 of the EA.
The WHT intersects one grazing allotment, which is managed for two pastures. Table 21 supplies the acreage, forage allocations and grazing seasons. Map is on the next page.
Approximately 9,000 allotment acres fall outside the WHT. The WHT lies almost entirely within the allotment. Table 21 doesn’t give the percentages of the pastures inside the WHT so they were estimated to be .738, which makes the allotment acreage falling within the WHT is almost as large as the WHT.
Herd sizes and stocking rates for horses can’t be compared directly to those for sheep, at least from a resource viewpoint, so cattle will be used as a proxy. The forage demand of one wild horse is said to be equivalent to that of one cow/calf pair.
The stocking rate allowed by plan on the WHT is 19.3 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres (490 ÷ 25,415 × 1,000), compared to 2.2 wild horses per thousand acres.
The 57 wild horses allowed by the new management plan represent 10% of the grazing animals on the WHT during the summer season (57 ÷ [57 + 490] × 100).
The horses receive 29% of the forage, with the balance going to livestock. These figures are compared in the following charts.
The problem is not lack of winter forage but scarcity of summer forage. The horses can’t put on enough weight for the winter and their numbers have to be carefully monitored because most of their food has been diverted to privately owned livestock.
Never mind that the land was set aside for the horses.
The population controls lock the pattern in, guaranteeing the problem goes on forever.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Changes to Big Summit Management Plan.
Western Horse Watchers Association 