Author: Western Horse Watchers

America’s Public Lands Dominated by a Failed Industry

Pick a random acre.

Is it subject to drilling or mining?  Probably not.

How about logging?  Maybe.

Permitted grazing?  Almost certainly.

Does it stand on its own two feet?  Pull its own weight?  No.

The ranchers pay almost nothing for the resources they consume and the services rendered on their behalf by the government and its partners.

  • Promotion and propaganda
  • Access to forage for pennies on the dollar
  • Removal of competing animals
  • Control of predators
  • Wildfire recovery
  • Cheatgrass mitigation
  • Fuels reduction
  • Range improvements
  • Administrative and clerical

The grazing fee would have to be raised to $15 per AUM just to pay for the wild horse and burro program.

10,000,000 AUMs sold per year × $15 per AUM = $150,000,000 per year

The current fee is $1.35 per AUM.

The advocates portray drillers and miners as the bad guys while giving the ranchers a pass.

Makes you wonder whose side they’re on.

How to Win the Salt River Management Contract

As stated previously:

1. Acquire or nominate land that meets the requirements of a base property.

2. Attach it to one or more vacant allotments in the Tonto National Forest, such as St. Clair or Bartlett, and change the livestock type to horses.

3. Move the horses from the contested area to their new and much larger home.

4. Obtain a court order blocking the advocates from the area.

RELATED: State Not Happy with Salt River Sterilization Program?

If Wild Horses Had Principal Use of Wall Canyon West

The allotment, site of a spring improvement project and new livestock pen, borders the Fox Hog HMA on the north side.

The Allotment Master Report puts it in the Improve category, suggesting that your stewards of the public lands have not been taking their responsibilities seriously.

The permittees receive 2,609 active AUMs on 36,475 public acres.

If the area was designated for wild horses, how many could live there?

The forage assigned to livestock is equivalent to 217 wild horses, or 5.9 per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The advocates reinforce the narrative with their darting programs.

If the allotment was an HMA, the AML would be 36 and 181 wild horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.

BLM allotments in Nevada support livestock equivalent to 173,144 wild horses on 40,194,360 public acres, or 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses.

RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.

Fifteenmile DNA Out for Review, No Announcement

A new project has been opened in ePlanning with comments due by June 13.

The DNA asserts that a 2018 EA covers the Proposed Action, which would capture most of the horses in the HMA and return up to 100 in a ratio of 60% males to 40% females.

There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides.

Ideally, the incident would occur in the fall but it is not on the latest schedule.

UPDATE: The news release appeared after this post went live.  The HMA, considerably smaller than the HA, is subject to permitted grazing.

BLM Dispatches Pryor Stallion, Advocates Cry Foul

The order was given because he had a body condition score of 2 and a poor prognosis for recovery according to a report by KULR News.

Advocates with The Cloud Foundation argued that his condition was normal for a horse coming out of winter and that the agency should “…let nature call the shots.”

They don’t believe that!

Although the culling of unfit horses occurs most frequently during roundups, it is an ongoing process and is not limited thereto.