The four HMAs affected by the Rock Springs RMP amendment contain ‘checkerboard’ lands, areas where every other square mile alternates between public land and private or state lands.

The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) owns many of the private parcels inside the HMAs.  Historically, RSGA had agreed to a limited number of wild horses on private land within the checkerboard areas.

However, in 2010 RSGA revoked their consent and requested that all wild horses be removed from private lands.  The loss of this consent has complicated the management of wild horses on checkerboard lands, prompting the RMP amendment and actions resulting therefrom.  Refer to Section 3.1 in the draft EIS.

The problem could be resolved at the state level: Require property owners to install legal fences if they don’t want horses on their land.  Let the ranchers bear the cost of keeping their property private, not the taxpayers.  A longer-term objective, not related to the amendment, would be to deny them access to public lands, so the fencing would serve two purposes.

If you wanted to submit a substantive comment on the draft EIS, that would be one.

RELATED: Rock Springs EIS Posted.

Cumulative totals through 01-31-20, per the BLM roundup page for the Eagle Complex:

• 949 animals gathered
• 12 deaths (1.3%)
• 417 studs (44.1%)
• 528 mares (55.9%)
• 4 new foals (2019 foals counted as adults)

The proportions of studs and mares are still outside of statistical limits corresponding to n = 945 and p-bar = .50.  These results do not look like they came from a process that produces 50% males and 50% females.  Why?

The thriving ecological balance is now only 651 wild horses away (1,700 horses to be gathered − 100 to be returned − 949).

RELATED: Eagle Roundup Day 13, Eagle Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.

The 24-mile gravel road, running along the southeastern border of the White Mountain HMA, provides wild horse viewing opportunities between the towns of Rock Springs and Green River in southwestern Wyoming.

The HMA is subject to permitted livestock grazing in the summer and winter.

Alternatives C and D in the draft RMP Amendment and EIS for wild horse management in that area will convert the HMA to an HA, no longer managed for horses.

Who wants to spend their summer vacation looking at cattle and sheep on land where horses once roamed?

RELATED: Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Tour.

BLM said today the grazing fee for 2020 will be $1.35 per AUM, the same as in 2019.

The new season begins on March 1.

An AUM is the amount of forage consumed by one wild horse, two wild burros, one cow/calf pair or five sheep in one month.

The base value in 1966 was $1.23 per AUM, according to the news release.

RELATED: 2019 Grazing Fee Announced.

UPDATE: News release from Forest Service on 01-31-20.

Refer to this document.  The 90-day public comment period begins today.

Alternative D, preferred, involves the following changes:

• The Rock Springs Field Office portion of the Adobe Town HMA would revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses.  For the RFO portion of the HMA, all checkerboard land and the portion of the HMA north of the existing Corson Springs southern allotment boundary fence would revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses.  The remainder of the HMA would be retained and managed with an AML of 259 – 536
• The entire Great Divide Basin HMA would revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses
• The entire Salt Wells Creek HMA would revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses
• The entire White Mountain HMA would revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses.

Forage previously allocated to wild horses may be reassigned to wildlife, livestock or other ecosystem functions, following an in-depth review of intensive monitoring data, according to the Alternative D narrative.

A news release had not been issued by the BLM at the time this post went live.

RELATED: Rock Springs RMP Amendment to Target Wild Horses.

UPDATE: The Draft EIS and other documents have been moved to a new project folder.

The BLM has drafted a Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement for proposed changes to wild horse management by the Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices, according to an announcement published this morning in the Federal Register.

• Change the Salt Wells Creek HMA to a herd area, which would be managed for zero wild horses, and re-gather the herd area to zero wild horses if its wild horse population exceeds 200
• Change the Great Divide Basin HMA to a herd area, which would be managed for zero wild horses, and re-gather the herd area to zero wild horses if its wild horse population exceeds 100
• Change the AML for Adobe Town HMA to 225-450 wild horses or lower, and do not relocate horses gathered from Adobe Town to Salt Wells Creek
• Manage the White Mountain HMA as a non-reproducing herd with a population of 205 wild horses by utilizing fertility control and sterilization methods, and initiate gathers if the HMA’s population exceeds 205 wild horses

The draft RMP and EIS had not been included with other project documents at the time this post went live.

The driver of these changes is the infamous Rock Springs consent decree, a court order resulting from legal action by the Rock Springs Grazing Association.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Scope of Rock Springs Gather Plan.

BLM announced yesterday the opening of a comment period on proposed changes to the management plan for the Spring Creek Basin HMA in western Colorado.

The HMA covers 21,932 acres and has an AML of 65, for an aimed-at population density (stocking rate) of three wild horses per thousand acres.

Details were not provided in the letter to interested parties but the scope includes two new water catchment structures, presumably within the HMA.

Comments can be submitted at this page.  The environmental assessment is pending.

The letter did not indicate if the horses must share the land with other mandated users.

Animal Wellness Action, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C., said today that the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee heard testimony on legislation that would stop the export of American horses for slaughter.

As for wild horses, they are also at risk of such action, thanks to the $1000 adoption incentive and ill-conceived ‘Path Forward.’

Sadly, the measure does nothing to stop the roundups, contraceptives and shrinking amount of territory available to the horses.

RELATED: SAFE Act Introduced in Senate.

Cumulative totals through 01-28-20, per the BLM roundup page for the Eagle Complex:

• 855 animals gathered
• 12 deaths (1.4%)
• 379 studs (44.5%)
• 472 mares (55.5%)
• 4 new foals (2019 foals counted as adults)

The proportions of studs and mares are still outside of statistical limits corresponding to 50% males / 50% females (n = 851, p-bar = .50).  Is the contractor targeting family bands, whose mares are now heavily pregnant?

The thriving ecological balance is now only 745 wild horses away (1,700 horses to be gathered − 100 to be returned − 855).

RELATED: Eagle Roundup Day 10, Eagle Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.

The horses captured in late November and offered for adoption last week have bids.

RELATED: Fish Springs Auction Underway.

Including the burros.  Report by Hey, it’s a way out of the house!

Lecture by David Toledo, rangeland management specialist with the USDA, on March 12, 2019, sponsored by the State Historical Society of North Dakota et al.

You can’t have a conversation about wild horses without having a conversation about public-lands ranching, and you can’t have a discussion about the horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park without having a discussion about Sitting Bull, the Marquis de Mores and Leo Kuntz.

RELATED: Management of Western Rangelands in 2018.

On the Salt River with tribphotog.

Cumulative totals through 01-25-20, per the BLM roundup page for the Eagle Complex:

• 667 animals gathered
• 10 deaths (1.5%)
• 284 studs (42.8%)
• 379 mares (57.2%)
• 4 new foals (2019 foals counted as adults)

The proportions of studs and mares are now outside of statistical limits corresponding to 50% males / 50% females (n = 663, p-bar = .50).  Why would more mares be found in the traps compared to studs?

The thriving ecological balance is now only 933 wild horses away (1,700 horses to be gathered − 100 to be returned − 667).

RELATED: Eagle Roundup Day 7, Eagle Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.

A local advocacy group hosted a rally today at the Coon Bluff Campground to bring awareness to a new fence along the Lower Salt River that will stop wild horses from crossing the Bush Highway.

Organizers said the fence would separate the horses from valuable resources, such as water, food and land to roam.

The Forest Service says it will reduce collisions with vehicles, which kill about 20 horses per year, and also stop livestock from joining the herd, according to a report posted this evening by Phoenix-based AZCentral.

RELATED: Local Advocacy Group Opposes Salt River Fencing.