How to Help the Clan Alpine and Desatoya Permittees

The simplest way is to give money to the advocates.

They oppose principal use and management at the minimum feasible level.

They’re always talking about wild horse removal.

They want the ranchers to win.

Better Way 10-25-23

There is another option that requires more effort on your part but the pass-through cost is zero.

Go cut a Christmas tree in one of the HMAs.

You’ll need a permit as explained in this announcement.

Only pinyon pines and junipers may be taken.

The Pine Nut Mountains and Virginia Range are off limits.

These trees are subject to hand thinning, mastication, chaining and “lop and scatter” because they crowd out forage preferred by livestock.

The projects are usually peddled as sagebrush restoration and fuels reduction, as in this example by the Ely District Office.

Junipers would not make very good Christmas trees in this writer’s opinion but pinyon pines would make a nice addition to your holiday decor.

Better yet buy some land in Nevada and you can decorate them in place year after year.

RELATED: Who Benefits from Cheatgrass Mitigation Projects?

Clan Alpine and Desatoya Christmas Trees 11-16-24

Foal-Free Friday, Catching Them Red-Handed Edition

Field audits are a good way to ensnare the advocates in their own destructive activity.

A pesticide label (PZP | Gonacon) tells you how the product can be used.

The first requirement is that the field workers have it with them.  Ask to see it.

GonaCon Violation of Federal Law 08-05-23

Are they wearing the proper PPE?

Are they following the specified interval between doses?

Are they adhering to the approved uses of the pesticide?  For example, PZP can only be used on female horses and burros capable of doing environmental damage.

The Salt River advocates say the horses are good for the environment but they’re using the product to shrink the herd.

Not only do they contradict themselves but thinning overpopulated herds is not an approved use of the pesticide.

Using it to control herds that interfere or could interfere with animal agriculture is not an approved use.  Same for herds that pose safety hazards to motorists.

Referring to pesticides as vaccines may constitute misbranding, another unlawful act.

The EPA offers several options for reporting illegal use:

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Army of Nitwits Edition.

Pesticide Patrol 08-16-23

What Are Musk and Ramaswamy Being Told About Wild Horses?

President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 12 that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new task force on government efficiency according to a report by AP News.

The Department of Government Efficiency will work outside the bureaucracy to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government.

You can be sure the farm bureaus, stock grower’s associations and public lands councils, already circling their wagons, will point to the wild horse and burro program as wasteful government spending, when most of its costs are incurred because of them.

The same is true for wildfire restoration, fuels reduction, cheatgrass mitigation, predator control and pinyon-juniper management on America’s public lands.

Hundreds of millions of dollars spent every year on affluent ranchers who pocket the profits and pay almost nothing for the services, as nearly 70,000 wild animals rot in government holding.

If Musk and Ramaswamy understood the waste and sleaze, and they had the authority, they’d kill this boondoggle Monday morning and put those animals back on the range.

BLM Acknowledges Onaqui Wild Horse Shooting

The agency has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible according to today’s news release.

In an effort to trick you into thinking they care about wild horses, the pesticide pushers and ranching sympathizers have pledged $14,000, bringing the total to $19,000.

They know they won’t have to make good on their promises.

RELATED: Onaqui Stallion Found Dead.

Cumberland Island Horses Safe for Now

A federal judge has dismissed the case seeking their removal from the barrier island off the coast of Georgia, according to a report by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The original article was placed behind a paywall but was reprinted in full by the Union-Bulletin of Walla Walla WA.

The writer said the court ruled against them because the do-gooders in the coalition named them as plaintiffs.

RELATED: Coalition Seeks Removal of Cumberland Island Horses.

BLM Earmarks $25 Million for Wild Horse Outplacement

Five new public-private partnerships could place an additional 11,000 wild horses and burros into private care over the next five years in exchange for $25 million in funding, according to today’s news release.

That’s on top of the existing adoption program.

Leading the way is Forever Branded, a Texas nonprofit that will receive over $16 million.

Western Horse Watchers believes that these programs will not reduce expenditures for off-range holding but will accelerate turnover so more wild horses can be removed from their lawful homes.

The off-range corrals could be emptied several times over by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.

The agency spends tens of millions of dollars every year stockpiling wild horses so it can collect a few million dollars in grazing fees from the ranchers.

Nobody in the private sector would do that.

Onaqui Stallion Found Dead

He was found in the HMA on November 10 according to a report by KSL News, killed by gunfire.

Your host was unable to find a statement from the BLM at their news site.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

Advocates with the Wild Horses of America Foundation are poisoning the Onaqui mares with PZP and Gonacon Equine.

They should be investigated for unlawful use of pesticides.

RELATED: Reward Offered as Two Onaqui Stallions Found Dead.

Statutory Basis for Warning on Pesticide Labels

Refer to §136j(a)(2)(G) in FIFRA.

If the Gonacon label says a second dose can be given 90 days after the first and you give it after 30 days, you violated federal law.

If the Zonastat label tells you what PPE to wear when applying the product and you don’t, you violated federal law.

If persons using these products don’t have the labels in their possession when applying them to equines, they’re violating federal law.

These requirements are easy to check during field audits.

RELATED: There’s a Cancer on the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Statutory Basis for Warning on Pesticide Labels 11-11-24

There’s a Cancer on the Wild Horse and Burro Program

ALLEGATION: The federal agencies responsible for wild horses and burros knew about the 2017 labeling amendment for GonaCon Equine but ignored the parts they didn’t like, referring instead to specifications of the 2013 and 2015 registrations which better served their anti-horse agenda.

In the 2017 edition, persons injecting the pesticide need not be certified applicators, which they liked, but the minimum interval between treatments was 90 days, which they didn’t like.

In the previous editions, persons injecting the pesticide had to be certified applicators, which they didn’t like, but the interval between treatments was 30 days, which they could tolerate.

So they invented a hybrid registration, without the consent of the EPA, consisting of certification-free application with 30 days between treatments and fed it to the public through the planning process.

Let the denials and coverups begin.

RELATED: Gonacongate: What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?

Gonacongate: What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?

The case centers around the unlawful use of pesticides and falsification of government documents.

If BLM staff knew about the 2017 registration amendment, and recent EAs for wild horse roundups suggest they did, but referred to the 2013 and 2015 registrations because they better served their anti-horse agenda, that would constitute falsification of official government records.

The Kiger-Riddle management plan, published in July, is one example.

Initiated in early 2020, the project took over four years to complete.

The EA refers to the 2013 registration, according to which the product was a restricted-use pesticide requiring applicator certification, and the minimum interval between doses was 30 days.

But, unlike the discussion of PZP, the EA is silent about the certification requirement, which is consistent with the 2017 update.

The Pancake EA provides the same evidence.

In addition to dropping the RUP designation, the 2017 update increased the minimum interval between doses from 30 days to 90 days.

Yet the agency typically waits only 30 days to administer the booster, which constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.

GonaCon Violation of Federal Law 08-05-23

The driver may be cost avoidance—the goal is to spend more of your budget on wild horse removals, not temporary holding of mares that will go back on the range and rob the poor ranchers of their birthright.

How many of the GonaCon darters at Piceance Mustangs and High Desert Strategies are certified applicators?  More evidence that our faithful public servants knew about the 2017 amendment but ignored the parts they didn’t like.

This is a matter for law enforcement.

The response to a comment in the Buffalo Hills DNA indicates they’re aware of the 2017 update but want to shrink the treatment window to 7 days.

GonaCon Comment Buffalo Hills DNA 11-08-24

Unfortunately for them, asking the EPA to change the registration does not absolve prior wrongdoing.

RELATED: Another Amendment to Gonacon Registration in the Works?

Advocates Send Currituck Mule to Beach in the Sky

Some headlines said he died, such as this one by WITN News, but he was killed by the advocates.

Seems like there’s a steady stream of negative results coming from areas where the advocates are involved.

The winner for 2024 will likely be the loss of 24 Virginia Range mustangs in a botched attempt to rescue them from a construction area in south Reno.

RELATED: Advocates Let Currituck Stallion Die Naturally?

Another Amendment to Gonacon Registration in the Works?

The Buffalo Hills DNA indicates the BLM has asked the EPA to revise the label, changing the interval between treatments from 90 days to 7 days.

This means that they know about, and probably knew about, the 2017 update, which increased the interval of the 2013 and 2015 registrations, which they usually cite in their planning documents, from 30 days to 90 days.

Moreover, mares captured in roundups typically receive two doses 30 days apart, which constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.

GonaCon Violation of Federal Law 08-05-23

When will law enforcement get involved?

And what about the ranching sympathizers at Piceance Mustangs and High Desert Strategies who apply the product with the agency’s blessing?

Western Horse Watchers searched the EPA web site for “Gonacon” and did not find any recent updates for the equine version.

RELATED: An Incomplete History of GonaCon Equine.

Virginia Range Darting Update for October 2024

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal and fierce opponent of principal use, reported today that 107 mares received 108 doses of PZP during the month, 19 given as primers and 89 as boosters.

Over the life of the program, which began in 2019, 2,068 mares have received 9,967 doses of the pesticide, for an average of 4.8 doses per mare.

The results fell 33 doses short of the 10,000-dose milestone predicted for October.

The epicenter of the program is in and around the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, listed as USA Parkway in the page 3 chart.

Since the beginning of the year, 165 foals have been born and 66 died.

The current population is thought to be 3,465 with 294 horses listed as missing, compared to 3,501 with 299 horses listed as missing in September.

The population was 3,515 with 302 horses listed as missing in August and 3,548 with 311 listed as missing in July.

The Year 6 agreement with NDA has not been posted to the darting resources page.

The Year 5 summary has not been posted to the monthly reports page.

A goal for November is to maximize booster treatments so the herd will continue to shrink and to complete the training of newly certified darters.

Not discussed in the October update:

  • Long-term population goal
  • Number of viable mares
  • Size of breeding population
  • Loss of genetic diversity
  • Changes in death rate and sex ratio
  • Unlawful use of pesticides

The report will be submitted to the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Update for September 2024.

Adjectives for Pests 12-01-23

Starting a Nonprofit That Actually Helps Wild Horses

Where would you get ideas for your business model?

Forget about the advocates.  They’re obsessed with pesticides and HMAPs.  They want the ranchers to win.

Sanctuaries help the bureaucrats move wild horses off the range.  They represent victory for the ranchers and failure for the horses.

Adoption and training free-up space in the off-range corrals so more wild horses can be removed from their lawful homes.  Another dead end.

Mustang Monument provides a few hints.

The project would end permitted grazing on the Spruce Allotment.  This is good, put it on the list of desired characteristics.

The land ratio is excellent, 14,000 deeded acres provide access to over 500,000 public acres.  Another item for the list.

Three HMAs were threatened.  Spruce-Pequop would probably be lost.  Unacceptable.

The new herd would consist of 900 nonreproducing animals.  Unacceptable if you’re trying to preserve the bloodlines for future generations.

American Prairie purchases base properties tied to public lands to achieve their conservation goals, a technique they call “leverage.”

The aim of the new nonprofit would be to displace privately owned cattle and sheep from America’s public lands by acquiring deeded acreage associated therewith and flipping the grazing preference to wild horses (or burros).

Highly leveraged properties, with land ratios of ten or more public acres for every private acre, are most desirable.

They should not overlap areas identified for wild horses and burros.

With the ranchers out of the picture, other techniques, such as the reintroduction of predators and self-managing herds, can be considered to promote genetic diversity while keeping the breeding populations in balance with their environment.

Socialist Media Update for October 2024

Traffic from Facebook and Twitter accounted for 2.3% of the total during the month, down considerably from the same period two years ago.

Except for a small blip on October 25, there was no traffic from Facebook after October 11.

Did you know the Triple B Complex can support 4,500 wild horses?

You didn’t hear that from the advocates.

Instead of defending the horses they defend the ranchers.

The aim of socialist media is to get you to vote for liberals.

RELATED: Socialist Media Update for September 2024.

Traffic from Socialist Media October 2024

Pancake EA Refers to Outdated GonaCon Registration

The discussion of PZP and Gonacon begins at the bottom of page 146 in the Draft EA.

References to the EPA registrations appear on page 147:

  • The EPA-required product label associated with the registration for ZonaStat-H is cited in the EA as EPA (2012)
  • The EPA-required product label associated with the registration for GonaCon-Equine is cited in the EA as EPA (2013)

In 2012 Zonastat-H (PZP) was a restricted-use pesticide.

It’s true today and explains why the advocates spend three days at the Billings School of PZP Darting and Public Deception.

The EA reiterates the policy on page 148: In keeping with the EPA registration for ZonaStat-H (EPA 2012; reg. no. 6833-1), certification through the Science and Conservation Center in Billings Montana is required to apply that vaccine to equids.

In 2013 GonaCon was an RUP.  There should be a similar remark about certification on page 148 or 149 but it’s not there.

The 30-day interval between doses on page 151 is consistent with the 2013 registration.

The RUP designation and certification requirement were dropped in 2017.

Like the Kiger-Riddle EA, the BLM appears to be crafting a plan based on an à la carte reading of the EPA registrations.

The advocates will likely dispute the claim on page 145 that contraception alone does not remove excess horses from an HMA’s population, as they are proving otherwise at the Salt River and Virginia Range.

Mass Sterilization and Motorized Removal 08-10-24

RELATED: EA for Pancake HMAP Out for Public Review.