Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
The facility would be located on an 80 acre farm near Burns and could hold 5,000 excess horses, according to a story appearing today in the Pine Bluffs Post.
Residents within a three mile radius must agree with the idea, per current rules, and so far the applicant has failed to win their support.
The facility would fill quickly if the disastrous ‘Path Forward‘ is implemented.
Time-lapse photos of an unexpected guest on the Virginia Range.
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Voris explains the situation with Orange Man and the soon-to-be Late Justice.
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The daily reports ended on 10-18-19 but the conclusion was not announced until today.
The second phase of the roundup, which began on 10-17-19, netted seven horses outside the HMAs. The operation ended the next day.
RELATED: Antelope Roundup Moves Into Second Phase.
Here are the figures from Section 3.7 in the EA. Too many unknowns.
The AML for Porter Canyon is 67 according to Section 3.8 in the EA. Roughly 80% of that allotment coincides with the HMA (see Map 2). The management plan therefore allows only 67 wild horses on a parcel that can support 484 cow/calf pairs (605 × .8).
Yep, 12% of the forage to horses and 88% to livestock—on land set aside for the horses.
Refer to this story in Roadtrippers magazine. The town lies within the Black Mountain HMA in northwestern Arizona.
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BLM said today that 431 excess wild horses will be removed from the Desatoya HMA, starting on December 4. The operation will be carried out with helicopters and will be open to public observation.
The roundup will restore a thriving ecological balance and multiple-use relationship on public lands, according to the news release.
The HMA covers 161,678 acres in central Nevada an has an AML of 180, for an aimed-at population density of 1.1 horses per thousand acres.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley, about 20 miles north of Sparks, NV.
Section 3.7 in the Environmental Assessment suggests that permitted livestock grazing occurs in and around the HMA, but there is not enough information for a comparison of horse AUMs to cattle AUMs within the HMA.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
UPDATE: Map 2 in Appendix G shows that the HMA intersects four grazing allotments: Clan Alpine, Edwards Creek, Porter Canyon and South Smith Creek. As usual, the AUMs offered to the poor ranchers far exceed the crumbs allocated to the horses.
Restoration of the old cabin visited by Ginger Kathrens in the Cloud documentary began this summer and will carry over into next year, according to a story posted today by the Billings Gazette.
Its owner, Perrin Leander Cummings, died at the age of 26 in an accident involving wild horses. He was better known by the nickname ‘Penn.’
The land on which the cabin was built is now part of the Pryor Mountains WHR.
On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Karen King. Feature length!
Can Justice Ginsburg survive Trump’s second term? Almost certainly not.
Here’s the latest from AP News.
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A Forest Service ranger says he’s hopeful that cattle can return to their allotments in 2020, according to a report posted yesterday by the Elko Daily Free Press. The fire began August 17 last year and burned over 233,000 acres.
An interesting and valuable follow-up to the story would be to find out if livestock displaced from public lands had to be moved to (gasp) private pastures and if the owners had to pay (OMG) market rates to feed them.
From whom do you suppose these horses flee?
(a) Drillers
(b) Miners
(c) Loggers
(d) Campers
(e) Ranchers
Darters would be a correct answer but they were not a problem in Velma’s day.
Refer to this story by NBC News in Los Angeles. Video courtesy of Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
BLM announced yesterday the opening of a thirty day comment period on a the scope of a proposed plan for managing wild horses on five HMAs in the Wyoming Checkerboard, a patchwork quilt of public and private lands along the I-80 corridor in southern part of the state.
Affected HMAs include Adobe Town, Divide Basin, Little Colorado, Salt Wells Creek and White Mountain, home of the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Tour.
Public comments are the first step in preparing an Environmental Assessment for a proposed action, according to the scoping statement.
Roundups in this area are driven by the infamous Rock Springs consent decree, a court order resulting from legal action by the Rock Springs Grazing Association.
The scoping documents include maps of the HMAs but do not provide any information on domestic livestock grazing, such as the number and size of the allotments, permitted AUMs and grazing seasons. Those figures will likely appear in the draft EA.
BLM said today that the gather was suspended due to weather conditions that allowed the mustangs to move to higher elevations, evading capture.
As of yesterday, 294 excess horses had been removed from their home range, with nine deaths and no animals returned.
The operation will resume in January, according to the news release, when the horses are expected to return to the valleys.
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The WHB Act no longer affords the protections sought by Velma.
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In Section 3 of the original WHB Act, Congress ordered the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to balance the needs of horses and burros with those of wildlife, especially endangered species. There was no provision for domestic livestock.
Overpopulation was to be determined relative to wildlife in the affected area, not privately owned cattle and sheep.
The ranchers, realizing they had been cut out of the will, demanded changes from their political toadies, who gave them FLPMA, PRIA and a watered-down WHB Act.
Today, the ranchers have endorsed a plan that will reduce the number of free-roaming horses and burros to an ‘acceptable’ level, unrelated to the carrying capacity of the land.
Eighty percent of those animals will end up in off-range facilities and the remaining herds will be managed to extinction.
The Marr Plan is a step in the right direction but its scope is too small.
It’s time to get all the livestock off public lands and restore the Wild Horse and Burro Act to its original form.
An unexpected guest startles a Virginia Range mustang on 10-31-19.
Animal Wellness Action, a lobbying group in Washington D.C., said today that wild horse advocates met at the U.S. Capital on Saturday to protest the ill-conceived management plan for wild horses and burros.
They said the Marr Plan was a better option, according to the news release.
The proposal calls for the removal of livestock from public lands—not all, just some—but it’s a step in the right direction.
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The mustangs have been nibbling on the posts that hold up their shelter but two weeks ago they really got serious about it. This 4 x 6 post was reduced to about two inches in just a few days. The 2 x 6 board in the background was hastily added as a splint, to keep the roof from caving in, and they’ve been chewing on that was well.
The folks at the feed store suggested a product called Raplast.
It has an orange tint and can be very irritating to the nose and eyes. Spray application not recommended. Took a piece of hay string, dipped it in the bottle and dabbed some onto the post. Seems to be working.
As with anything new around horses, start off small and check for adverse reactions.
You may only have to treat a small area for them to get the message.
Western Horse Watchers Association 