Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range and celebrations have already started, as explained in a story dated 06/28/18 in the Lovell Chronicle.
Friday, June 29th is Wild Horse Watcher Day at the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.
Events associated with Lovell Mustang Days will continue through the weekend.
See this headline at E&E News dated 06/27/18. No other details known at this time, more info as story develops.
UPDATE 1: Refer to this story in Courthouse News Service dated 06/28/18. Includes link to complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Also this news release from Western Watersheds Project dated 06/27/18.
UPDATE 2: Added map. Affected area is Caliente HA Complex, consisting of Applewhite, Blue Nose Peak, Clover Creek, Clover Mountains, Delamar Mountains, Little Mountain, Meadow Valley Mountains, Miller Flat and Mormon Mountains Herd Areas. Between I-15 and Hwy 93 in eastern Nevada.
No AMLs for these areas, not managed for WHB due to inadequate resources. But the horses are there. Go figure.
The chart below shows the stocking rate in animals per thousand acres as a function of land area for HMAs in Oregon. Stocking rates are based on the upper values of the AMLs (mostly horses, a few burros and mules).
Three observations from the chart:
The Cold Springs HMA has the largest stocking rate.
The largest HMA is Coyote Lake / Alvord Tule Springs, the smallest is Hog Creek.
The average stocking rate for the state is 0.97 animals per thousand acres (1031 acres per animal).
The Kiger and Riddle Mountain HMAs, which produce the popular dun-factor horses, have stocking rates of 2.3 and 2.0 animals per thousand acres, respectively. The next gather of these animals will probably be in the third quarter of 2019.
Given that the HMAs are fairly close to each other in the southeastern corner of the state, if a smaller parcel can sustain two or more animals per thousand acres, why can’t the larger ones?
The Beaty’s Butte HMA, one of the largest in the state, has a population density of just 0.57 animals per thousand acres. Could it be the government serfs who run cattle on public rangelands put pressure on the BLM to reduce the number of horses in the area? The same ranchers who pushed for the Beaty’s Butte Wild Horse Training Facility?
Anyone with information leading to the prosecution of the person or persons who illegally removed a twelve-foot sign from the Saylor Creek HMA is asked to call the BLM at 208-735-4600, according to a news release dated 06/27/18.
The Saylor Creek HMA lies about fifteen miles south of Glenns Ferry, ID, covers 101,876 acres, and has a population density of 0.49 horses per thousand acres.
The BLM has asked for public comment on a proposed ten-year special recreation permit for Burning Man, held each year at the end of August in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, NV, according to a news release dated 06/20/18.
Sponsors of the event have asked for an increase in the number of people attending the event from 70,000 to 100,000, enlargement of Black Rock City to 1250 acres and installation of more large-scale art pieces, among other things.
If you go to Google Maps and zoom in to the area near Gerlach, NV, just to the east of the horseshoe bend in Hwy 34, you’ll find the C-shaped grid where the festival occurs.
The dry lake bed is surrounded by mountainous areas inhabited by horses and burros of the Lava Beds HMA, Granite Range HMA and Calico Mountains HMA.
Although you may find a few horse-themed sculptures and vehicles in and around BRC, you probably won’t see any horses coming out of the hills to check out ‘Decadence in the Desert.’
Today marks the 41st anniversary of her passing.
Deaths attributed to drought in southwestern U.S. See the report dated 06/26/18 in Grand Canyon News. They were not wild horses but were probably roaming the area in search of water. Owner not known. Incident occurred along the south rim.
Conceived on the range but born in captivity, this colt turned two on 06/25/18. On the left is his sister, about a year older. She carries a freezemark, he does not. She is a mustang, he is not.
Mom appears in third photo, also a mustang. They are family.
The folks in Washington state sure do like to name things after wild horses, even though most of them were eradicated 50 years ago. Maybe the thought pricks their conscience.
A notable example is the Horse Heaven Hills. The hills survived but the horses did not.
A few months ago, you could learn about it in this post, but the video and article have been scrubbed. The following excerpt appeared at the end of the article.
The label on a bottle of cabernet produced in the area mentions the horses that once roamed the hills and drank from the river. Not the horses that died off ten thousand years ago. The horses that were rounded up and slaughtered in middle of the last century.
Another example is the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, operated by Puget Sound Energy, near Ellensburg. It has 127 turbines on 10,800 acres, according to this Wikipedia entry.
Consumers in the area are probably paying twenty to thirty cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity because of boondoggles like this, when at today’s natural gas prices, they should be paying half of that. Traditional energy-conversion technologies are clean, dependable and affordable, but liberals reject them.
As for the wind farm, the only place you’ll see wild horses is the sign at the entrance.
Your new mustang will be afraid of you for weeks, maybe months. Don’t turn it into years by doing things like this. H/T Rick Gore.
“God is on our side.” Don’t you love these lectures on morality by whores, psychopaths, adulterers, fornicators, baby murderers, sodomites and idolaters? H/T The American Mirror.
On the Outer Banks of North Carolina (Corolla).
The chart below shows the population target for HMAs in Oregon as a function of HMA size.
The chart yields three conclusions:
Imagine a line starting at (0, 0) and extending diagonally to the right. The average size of HMAs less than 100,00 acres is about 50,000 acres. The average AML for that subgroup is roughly 85 animals. Therefore, line would pass through (50, 85).
Now let x = 500. The proportional AML should be ten times larger, y = 10 × 85 = 850, establishing another point at (500, 850). The three HMAs close to x = 500 have AMLs far less than 850.
This leads to the topic of population density (subject of next post in the series). If you’re expecting to find some of the smaller densities (animals per thousand acres) on the larger HMAs, you’d be right. That is the same pattern observed in Nevada.
RELATED: Oregon HMA Stats.
Wild Horses of the Washoe by Donald Cool.
Band stallions on the Virginia Range, 06/15/18. Always fighting off young upstart bachelors who try to steal their mares. You won’t see them pushed off their food by ‘lead mares.’ Sorry ladies.
Eventually, they’ll be overpowered by other stallions and will transition to more-or-less solitary lives in pasture.
BLM plans to remove 125 wild horses from the Goshute HMA beginning 06/25/18, due to public safety concerns and private land issues. Refer to this news release dated 06/22/18.
The method of capture will be bait traps. Horses not returned to the range will be transported to the Indian Lakes Off-Range Corrals in Fallon, NV.
The HMA lies in northeastern Nevada, near I-80 and the Utah border, and covers an area of 267,277 acres (418 square miles).
The population density at the upper end of the AML is 0.46 horses per thousand acres, almost nothing. Domestic livestock are present on the HMA, along with wildlife such as deer and antelope.
News report from KTVH (NBC affiliate) in Helena, MT. Bad horses aren’t born, they’re made.
RELATED: BLM Event in Missoula, MT to Feature WHB.
Trail ride into the Grand Canyon, south rim. H/T West Taylor.
Saddle-started horses for $300 to $500. Can’t beat that. H/T Friends of R3C.
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