Grazing Service Alive and Well at BLM

This article in the Daily Camera of Boulder, CO refers to the anti-horse bias at the BLM, which dates back to its predecessor, the Grazing Service.

But it’s not just horses. Anything that interferes with public-lands ranching is targeted.

Examples include wildlife, invasive weeds and trees that crowd out forage.

BLM3

The article includes a post-roundup photo of Sand Wash Basin showing hundreds, if not thousands, of sheep dotting the landscape.

But it does not mention the BLM’s partners in the management process, who protect the ranchers after the fact with the Montana Solution.

In the case of Sand Wash Basin, it’s SWAT, a group that helps the agency enforce the RMP that assigns 79% of the available forage to livestock while guaranteeing that the 1,402 horses displaced from the HMA by permitted grazing never come back.

Good job guys, a fine example of the Love Triangle on America’s public lands.

How to Help Three Fingers and Jackies Butte Horses

Like other HMAs, their AMLs are small relative to the available resources because most of them have been assigned to privately owned livestock.

This is a condition that the PZP fanatics won’t even acknowledge, let alone challenge.

Their mission is to protect the ranchers, not the horses, which is why you shouldn’t be giving them money.

Would Herd Management Area Plans (HMAPs) help?

The BLM allocated forage for livestock in the 2002 Record of Decision for the Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan, which was carried forward from the 1984 Southern Malheur Rangeland Program Summary, according to Section 3.2.2 of the Draft EA for resource enforcement actions in the HMAs.

If the HMAPs did not alter the specifications of the RMP, they could only ratify and reinforce current practices, which are biased in favor of the ranchers.

Pancake Gather Plan

CAAWH Marks Three Years on Virginia Range

There is no column in the current edition of Horse Tales by the real estate agent and PZP darter in the Minden/Gardnerville area but there is an acknowledgement by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses at the bottom of page 18 about the outpouring of support for their work.

Their goal is to convince the bureaucrats that PZP darting is a viable alternative to helicopter roundups and that there is better way of enforcing the lopsided resource allocations that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.

Rescue of Salt River Stallion Captured on Film

The story begins at 0:52. The advocates get involved at 3:15.

Why is there a cattle guard in an area frequented by wild horses and why would they offer assistance to an animal they’re trying to eradicate?

The woman on the ground at 4:17 might be wearing a “Stay Wild” cap, a signal to others that she’s down with the Montana Solution.

Crocodile Tears at Currituck Outer Banks?

The advocates are devastated, or so they say, according to a post on socialist media.

Advocates Devastated 04-16-22

If you’re a purveyor of the Montana Solution, are you really annoyed by the loss of a wild horse?

The death of Charlie, first foal of 2022, is the latest in a string of incidents in the area.

These are the headlines from the past year!

All of this while the advocates bill themselves as “The Official & Only Non-Profit Protectors of the Wild Horses.”

What Will Happen to Mom of New Currituck Foal?

She’s reached her quota. The herd is too important to leave its genetics to nature.

Will the advocates put her back on PZP for the rest of her life or at least until she’s sterile so another mare can have her turn?

From this viewpoint, horses lost to contaminated water, collisions with vehicles, damaged fences, or otherwise removed from the area, are a good thing, they take some pressure off the darting budget.

Fourth Foal of Year Appears on Currituck Outer Banks

The advocates named him Cyclone, according to a story by 13 News Now, in honor of the fence that killed his dad?

They are so clever!

Birth rates and breeding patterns are controlled by the advocates, not the horses.

RELATED: Currituck Herd Grows by One.

Move Over Cattoor, Advocates Want Larger Share of Market

The wild horse removal business is getting crowded.

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses is hiring, more volunteers are making the pilgrimage to Billings and every mare has a target on her.

Wild Horses Through the Eyes of the Advocates 01-19-22

The new pest control program for the Three Fingers and Jackies Butte HMAs, with its mandate for intensive fertility control, will be cheered by the advocates, who will not only embrace it but offer to apply it, assuring that most of the resources in the area go to the public-lands ranchers.

Bold Prediction for Motorized Equipment Hearing

The advocates will argue that helicopters are cruel and inhumane and that the herds should be managed with PZP.

The cattlemen will claim that the HMAs are overpopulated and that the government should get rid of them with helicopters.

Protect Wild Horses from Advocates 08-29-21

There will be no voices for the horses and nothing good will come out of it because it’s focused on the wrong things.

The meeting, set for April 26, will be livestreamed.

Difference Between Helicopter Roundups and Darting Programs

In a helicopter roundup, you come back after four weeks and half of the horses are gone.

In a darting program, you come back after ten years and half of the horses are gone.

Darting programs are helicopter roundups in slow motion.

Additional Comments Sought for Pryor Management Plan Update

Comments submitted during the scoping period in 2020 need not be resubmitted, according to today’s news release, but an additional document regarding genetic diversity has been posted to the project folder for public review.

The goal is to improve herd genetics, but not at the expense of ecosystem sustainability and the available resources.

The Western Watersheds map shows the WHR is surrounded on three sides by grazing allotments, both Forest Service and BLM. Grazing does not occur inside the WHR.

The map does not show the portion of the WHR managed by the Forest Service.

Bringing in horses from other areas dilutes herd identity.

It’s a management trick that boosts genetic diversity while keeping herd sizes small, a nod to the public-lands ranchers.

In the future, you won’t be able to adopt a Pryor Mountains horse, only a horse captured in the Pryor Mountains WHR.

Rising Price of Hay Explained

The following video, produced for the Nevada Rangeland Resources Commission, offers two possibilities (4:42 to 6:39).

There are too many horses on the range – Ranchers are removing livestock from their allotments and feeding them on their own property, increasing demand
There are too many horses off the range – The government is removing them from the same allotments and feeding them in holding facilities, driving up demand

Can both be true?

The sad part is that the ranchers must operate their businesses on their own land and pay the going rate to feed their animals. Nobody in this country is expected to do that.

The price of hay in this area is now around $125 per AUM. This comes as a shock to the ranchers, who have been insulated from the realities of a free market, at least on the cost side, for decades.

World events and the ill-advised policies of the current administration have no effect.

Although probably not intended by its producers, the film shows how to fix the Wild Horse and Burro Program: Confine the ranchers to their base properties and let them pay market rates to feed their animals. No more gravy train, no more sucking on the government teat.

UPDATE: Video replaced by newer version.

Motorized Equipment Hearing in the News

This story by KLAS News of Las Vegas notes that the online meeting will consider the use of helicopters in the management of wild horses and burros, which Dina Titus and her supporters want to ban.

Roundups will still occur and resource allocations that strongly favor the public-lands ranchers will not be changed.

It’s a stupid idea which explains why the advocates like it.

H.R. 6635, the ‘Save a Horse, Hire a Cowboy’ Act, was introduced in Congress on February 7 and referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.

How to Estimate the Carrying Capacity of HMAs

The method has been demonstrated numerous times on these pages:

Identify the allotments that intersect the HMA
Determine the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA
Convert that amount to wild horses
Add the result to the current AML

The third step yields the number of animals displaced from the HMA by permitted grazing—adopted, sold or shipped to long-term holding.

The final value is the True AML, the number of animals the area could support if it was managed principally for wild horses, as specified in the original statute.

Today’s news release by the BLM regarding the FY 2023 budget suggested that AMLs represent carrying capacities, which they do not, except for four HMAs where permitted grazing does not occur.

The advocates don’t want you looking at the numbers because the rationale for their darting programs would fall to the ground.

You don’t ask a poor man how to get rich and you don’t ask the advocates how to save wild horses.

Land Can Only Support 04-21-21

White House Seeks $153 Million for WHB Program in FY 2023

The expenditure would be part of a $1.6 billion budget for the BLM according to today’s news release.

The amount requested for the program next year exceeds the amount authorized this year by 11.7%.

The fiscal year begins on October 1.

The announcement said the current population of 86,000 animals is more than three times greater than the carrying capacity of BLM-managed lands, which is false.

The current population is three times more than allowed by plan.

Consider this metaphor: Wild horses can use one bedroom but they’re currently using three. It’s a six bedroom home but they didn’t tell you that part.

The other five bedrooms are reserved for privately owned livestock, the illegal aliens of America’s public lands.

Any Accountability to Public in ASNF Wild Horse Roundup?

A public affairs officer for the Forest Service described it as a law enforcement action, but will the agency release any information from the crime scene as the suspects are apprehended?

The capture and removal goals, for the initial phase of the project, are 20 and 20, and the pre-gather population is thought to be around 400.

Unknown at this time:

Number of animals captured
Breakdown by age and sex
Number of deaths
Number of animals shipped
Number of animals returned to forest
Forage assigned to livestock in the protected area

A closure notice still appears on the ASNF alerts page but Western Horse Watchers was unable to find any progress reports for the roundup.

Curiously, the Restricted Area (trap zone) does not appear on the ASNF closure map.

New Public Lands Foundation Actually ‘BLM Foundation’

The news release dated January 19 referred to the nonprofit as the Foundation for America’s Public Lands but the formal name is the Bureau of Land Management Foundation, according to §1748c of FLPMA.

Apparently, the idea did not win enough support in Congress to pass as a standalone bill, so it was attached to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, the same way the Wild Horse and Burro Task Force was established earlier this month.

Language in the 2017 spending bill was dropped into FLPMA as an amendment.

The Foundation was authorized to

Borrow money and issue bonds, debentures, or other debt instruments
Enter into contracts with public agencies, private organizations and persons
Carry out any activity necessary and proper to advance its purposes

As for conflicts of interest, members of the Board or officers or employees of the Foundation shall not participate in the consideration or determination of any question before the Foundation that affects the financial interests of the member, officer or employee, or the interests of any corporation, partnership, entity or organization in which the member, officer or employee is an officer, director or trustee, or has any direct or indirect financial interest.

Jumping Mouse Habitat Subsumed by Permitted Grazing

The animal was listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014, according to information provided by the Forest Service, due to habitat loss and fragmentation.

In 2016, the agency designated critical habitat, which includes streams and wetlands in parts of New Mexico, eastern Arizona and southern Colorado.

Approximately 7,713 acres of the Apache-Sitgreaves, Santa Fe and Lincoln National Forests are within the critical habitat, which is overlapped by 14 allotments.

Management actions are designed to ensure that public-lands ranching can continue in close proximity to the protected areas.

However, data for two of forests show that grazing occurs in the protected areas!

In Lincoln, three allotments covering 140,588 acres include 986 acres of critical habitat, but only 209 acres (21%) are off limits to livestock.

In Santa Fe, six allotments covering 180,212 acres contain 2,056 acres of critical habitat, with 615 acres (30%) inaccessible to livestock, at least in theory.

Figures for Apache-Sitgreaves were not provided.

The complaint brought by the Center for Biological Diversity may have been prompted in part by failures of livestock exclosures, barriers that keep large animals out.

If the fences were in good condition, horses would not be able to enter the protected areas either. But only a fraction of the protected areas are actually protected.

The fences can be repaired but the horses have to go, not to save an endangered species, but to protect big game and the most noble and deserving non-native species on America’s public lands, privately owned livestock.

And, as usual, the advocates, in offering to help the government get rid of the horses, come down on the wrong side of the issue.

Poster Suggestions for Wild Horse Rallies

Artwork supplied by participants.

1. Public-lands ranching

LIVESTOCK BELONG IN FEEDLOTS

NOT WILD HORSES

CONFINE THE RANCHERS

TO THEIR BASE PROPERTIES

2. Land-use plans

THE PROBLEM IS

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

NOT WILD HORSES

3. The Montana Solution

DARTING PROGRAMS ARE

HELICOPTER ROUNDUPS

IN SLOW MOTION

4. The advocates

NEXT TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

NOBODY’S GETTING RID OF MORE WILD HORSES

THAN THE ADVOCATES

5. News and information

BIG TECH AND MEDIA

DON’T BRING YOU THE TRUTH

ABOUT WILD HORSES

THEY BURY IT

Aim of Wild Horse Rallies?

Roundups are not the problem, they are a symptom of the problem.

If you want to help the horses, don’t focus on the horses.

The advocates focus on the horses.

Instead, look upstream in the management process: Land-use plans that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.

Roundups don’t allocate resources. They can’t change resource allocations. They enforce resource allocations already on the books.

Demand that the government manage their congressionally designated habitats principally for them, not privately owned livestock, as specified in the original statute.