At least six feet high if you’re adopting a wild horse.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Mustang Monday
On South Steens HMA with Lori Walker.
What’s Your Social Credit Score?
And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13:17).
Wild Horse Transactions in the Pryor Mountains
On the Pryor Mountain WHR with Kris Collett. Somebody done somebody wrong.
Fish Creek Horses Get Short End of Stick
The Environmental Assessment for the Fish Creek Gather Plan considers the portion of the HMA on the south side of Highway 50, omitting 19,394 acres to the north. The AML for that parcel is ten.
The area of interest therefore covers 230,675 acres with an AML of 170, for an aimed-at population density of 0.7 animals per thousand acres. The target density across all HMAs is one animal per thousand acres (the land—27 million acres—can only support 27,000 wild horses and burros).
The plan allocates 2,040 AUMs per year to the Fish Creek horses (170 × 12).
The HMA intersects four grazing allotments. See Map 1 on page 4 of the EA and section 3.3 starting on page 66.
Information about livestock grazing is incomplete. The size of the allotments was not provided in the EA and the grazing season for two of them was omitted.
The plan allocates 8,855 AUMs per year to the four allotments, with an estimated 5,279 AUMs per year falling within the HMA. (An assumption here is that forage is uniformly distributed across the allotments. If the HMA contains 60% of an allotment, then it contributes 60% of its forage to livestock inside the HMA.)
If the weighted average grazing season is seven months (a guess), then 754 cow/calf pairs would be found in the HMA (5,279 ÷ 7). Sheep are also permitted in the HMA but results are based on cow/calf pairs, whose forage demand is said to be equivalent to that of wild horses.
The livestock density allowed by plan would be roughly 3.3 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres (754 ÷ 230,675 × 1,000).
These figures are presented in the following charts.
Together, the four allotments cover 417,000 acres (south side of Hwy 50). A seven month grazing season yields a total of 1,265 cow/calf pairs on those parcels, with a population density of 3.0 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.
Are the horses being denied their fair share of the resources or were they forced to live in an area that is less desirable from a grazing viewpoint?
The current wild horse density is 3.6 animals per thousand acres, comparable to that of the livestock, but the roundup that starts in a few days will shift the numbers closer to those allowed by plan.
RELATED: Fish Creek Roundup Starts Next Week.
Park Service Reviews Mesa Verde Gather Plan
A story posted this morning by The Durango Herald says the Park Service is working with the Colorado Chapter of the National Mustang Association to find homes for wild horses that will be removed from Mesa Verde National Park.
The gather will be effected with bait traps, according to the report, and captured animals will be offered to qualified adopters. Gentling may be available through Mustang Camp of Milan, NM.
RELATED: Park Service Denies Media Access to Mesa Verde Roundup.
PZP Is Not the Answer!
Public-lands ranchers can access six times as much acreage and twelve times as much forage as America’s wild horses and burros. Off-range corrals and long-term pastures are flooded with these animals because the WHB Act no longer affords the protections sought by Velma, not because there are too many of them!
How exactly do contraceptives roll back the changes to the Act, fix the AUM imbalance and put an end to the crony capitalism?
The PZP zealots are on the same side of the debate as the public-lands ranchers, differing only in methodology. The ranchers want the horses gone now while the darters want their numbers to decline gradually. Not quite what Velma had in mind.
RELATED: Sanctuaries Are Not the Answer!
Onaqui Mountain Gather Starts on 9/11
BLM said today that 200 excess wild horses will be removed from the Onaqui Mountain HMA and surrounding lands in northwestern Utah, starting September 11.
The roundup will be open to public observation and captured animals will be taken to the WHB Facility in Delta, UT.
The news release suggested that the reason for the gather was overpopulation.
The HMA covers 205,394 acres and has an AML of 210, for an aimed-at population density of one animal per thousand acres, in line with the average density for all HMAs.
The final environmental assessment gives few details about domestic livestock grazing.
Page 19 of a document from 2003 says cattle are allowed on the HMA between May and October, with sheep permitted in the Riverbed area between November and April.
The roundup will liberate 2,400 AUMs per year, making greater forage utilization by livestock operators possible. It will not change permitted AUMs on those allotments.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page (link not working at the time this post went live).
BLM Moves Ahead with Modified Sterilization Research
A story posted today by The Argus Observer of Ontario, OR says the agency has ‘altered’ its plan for sterilizing the Warm Springs mares: Animals receiving the procedure would not be pregnant. Otherwise, all aspects of the study remain the same.
None of the horses and burros removed from the HMA last October have been returned to their home range and none have been adopted, according to the report.
The agency is pushing the plan despite objections from the Animal Protection Caucus in Congress, along with many advocacy groups. See for example the commentary by IDA posted last week.
RELATED: Warm Springs Gather Complete.
Sanctuaries Are Not the Answer!
The adoption pipeline is flooded with wild horses and burros because the WHB Act no longer affords the protections sought by Velma Johnston. These animals are being forced off public lands in the western U.S. to make way for privately owned cattle and sheep. The problem is not wild horse overpopulation, it is public-lands ranching.
RELATED: Private Sanctuaries: End-Game of Wild Horse Management Plan.
Clark Mountain Burros Still in the News
Report by ABC7 News of Los Angeles. All of the shootings have occurred in the Clark Mountain Herd Area on the north side of I-15 (see page 8 in the California HMA maps).
RELATED: Clark Mountain Reward Increases to $58K.
Another Devil’s Garden Roundup Starts Next Week
Approximately 500 wild horses will be removed from the Devil’s Garden Plateau WHT, beginning September 5, according to an undated news release from the Forest Service.
The WHT covers 308,000 acres in northeastern California and has an AML of 402, for an aimed-at population density of 1.3 animals per thousand acres. The target density for WHB on public lands in the western U.S. is about one animal per thousand acres.
The gather will be open to public observation, with roughly 60% of the captured animals going to the Double Devil corrals in Alturas and 40% taken to the BLM off-range corrals in Litchfield.
The announcement said the roundup would support wild horse health by reducing competition for food and water but did not identify the leading contenders for those resources, namely, public-lands ranchers.
The WHT intersects eight grazing allotments, see map on page 80 of the environmental assessment. The roundup will liberate 6,000 AUMs per year, allowing greater forage utilization by livestock operators—on land set aside for the horses. The action will not increase permitted AUMs on those allotments.
A link to the gather stats and daily reports was not provided.
RELATED: Double Devil Corrals Emptied.
Clark Mountain Reward Increases to $58K
BLM said today that additional groups have pledged their support, bringing the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the deaths of 42 wild burros to $58,000. The events occurred along I-15 near the CA-NV border.
Each count carries a penalty of one year in prison and a $2,000 fine, according to the news release. The announcement did not indicate if any of the shootings took place on permitted grazing allotments.
Fish Creek Roundup Starts Next Week
BLM said today that approximately 600 excess wild horses would be removed from the Fish Creek HMA in central Nevada beginning September 6, with fifty to be returned.
Mares released back to the HMA will be treated with contraceptives, according to the news release.
The HMA covers 252,771 acres and has an AML of 180, for an aimed-at population density of 0.7 horses per thousand acres. The average density for all HMAs is one animal per thousand acres.
The operation will be open to public observation and captured animals will be taken to the Palomino Valley off-range corrals, twenty miles north of Sparks, NV.
The announcement said the roundup will reduce wild horse overpopulation and prevent rangeland degradation by balancing the herd size, but did not say what’s on the other side of the scales.
The HMA intersects four grazing allotments (see map on page four of the environmental assessment along with section 3.3 beginning on page 66).
The roundup will liberate 6,600 AUMs per year, allowing higher utilization rates by privately owned livestock…on land set aside for the horses. (The action will not increase permitted AUMs on those allotments.)
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
Will the Clark Mountain Reward Loosen Any Lips?
Who knows? The absence of one surely won’t.
About a year ago, several wild horses were shot on the Spruce-Pequop HMA, at the beginning of a roundup. The story was ignored by major news outlets (including Drudge) and is now totally off the radar screen.
RELATED: Clark Mountain Burro Update.
Petition Started to Replace Fence That Killed Corolla Stallion
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund wants 2,000 signatures on its request to the FWS asking for a safer alternative, according to a story by WTKR News of Norfolk, VA. The petition is hosted by left wing political action group Moveon.org.
RELATED: Corolla Stallion Dies After Hitting Barbed Wire Fence.
Clark Mountain Burro Update
Reward has increased to $50,000, according to 8 News Now of Las Vegas.
Note the plug by AWHC for ‘humane management practices.’ When all you have is a darting rifle, everything else looks like a mare’s butt.
RELATED: Deaths of Clark Mountain Burros in the News.
UPDATE: See this story in the Las Vegas Sun for more information on the reward.
Mustang Monday
On the Virginia Range with Nancy Kilian.
Wild Horse Highway Dedicated
State and local officials were on hand yesterday to dedicate the Wild Horse Highway, a portion of highway 14/16/20 near the McCullough Peaks HMA in northern Wyoming.
Grant Bulltail of the Crow Nation blessed the ceremony and sang a Crow song, according to a report by KULR News of Billings, MT.
On the other side of the road is the Fifteenmile HMA, target of a roundup later this year.
RELATED: ‘Wild Horse Highway’ Created.
He’s Just a Mustang
At the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center with Venessa Carpenter.
