Refer to this job posting. Proficiency with a darting rifle not required.
Category: Commentary
Opinion
Haaland a Communist?
Two More Foals Spotted on Currituck Outer Banks
A report by OBX Today says a colt and filly have been added to the herd, with breeding patterns controlled by the local ‘advocacy’ group.
Between four and six foals are born each year, according to the story, roughly equal to the expected number of deaths.
A herd of 100 would lose five horses every year, assuming a 5% death rate.
Left to themselves, a wild horse herd will usually grow.
RELATED: Another Currituck Foal, Wild Horse Growth Rates.
Double Standards in the Wild Horse World
If you shot these horses with darts, you’d probably be charged with animal cruelty.
Not so for the PZP zealots.
They’ve denied about 600 lives this year on the Virginia Range, by their own estimation, pushing the birth rate below the death rate, assuming a 5% loss per year and initial herd size of 3,000. It’s the downslope in this chart.
If the government took 600 wild horses off the range in a roundup, there’d be outrage.
Not so for the PZP zealots. Herd contraction is bad, unless it’s done by them.
These people are getting rid of more wild horses than predators, motorists, drillers, miners and shooters ever could, second only to the government.
Don’t give them a penny.
RELATED: Cutting the Virginia Range Herd Down to Size.
Colt Taken from Colorado Farm
He was reported missing yesterday, according to a story by the CBS affiliate in Denver.
Only four days old.
Rewards are being offered but no details were given.
‘Path Forward’ Turns Two Today
There’s nothing to cheer about in the proposal, unless you’re a public-lands rancher, but it did out some of the bogus advocacy groups.
The plan will enforce resource allocations already on the books by removing 70% of America’s wild horses and burros from their home range.
RELATED: Cheerleader Groups Endorse New WHB Management Plan.
FRANK Scaled Back
The site has reverted to mostly white space with a logo and video feed.
The link for creating new accounts is gone.
RELATED: Normal Ops at FRANK?
Beneficiaries of WHB Grants?
To receive funding, proposals solicited earlier this week for on-range projects must align with one or more the following requirements:
- Achieving and maintaining a thriving natural ecological balance
- Promoting multiple use
- Supporting authorized gathers
- Meeting goals of resource management plans
- Performing conservation actions related to climate change
Nobody in the wild horse world is going to participate in these efforts, except for a few of the ‘advocacy’ groups (see this example).
Proposals would likely come from farm bureaus, stock grower’s associations and public-lands ranchers, who would benefit from the program.
If the goal is to protect wild horses and burros, why not consider these themes?
- Confining ranchers to their own property
- Bringing the grazing fee in line with the cost of long-term holding
- Educating consumers about range-fed beef
- Disclosing the truth about AMLs
- Revealing the long-term effects of fertility control programs
The total program funding is $500,000, ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 per project.
RELATED: Funding Available for WHB Protection Projects.
BLM Drops Plan for Sterilization of Confusion Mares?
Two ‘advocacy’ groups have claimed responsibility.
Western Horse Watchers was unable to confirm the announcements at BLM’s news site.
RELATED: Confusion Lawsuits In the News.
Normal Ops at FRANK?
The screen with a video feed has been replaced with a full featured home page.
New accounts can be created here.
RELATED: FRANK Livestreaming.
Rally for Heber Wild Horses This Week
The event, hosted by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and the American Wild Horse Campaign, two unabashed proponents of PZP, will occur April 22, according to a story in today’s online edition of the White Mountain Independent.
RELATED: Heber Comment Period Ends This Week.
‘Ingenuity’ Shows Off Advanced Darting Technology
Although ‘Perseverance,’ the rover, has demonstrated the advantages of a mobile fertility control platform, the drone has taken the idea to a whole new level.
“This is exactly what we’ve been praying for,” said one of the ranchers who witnessed the flight from a closed-circuit monitor.
“Those horses have been robbing us of our birthright for fifty years,” quipped another, “and it’s time somebody did something about it.”
A spokeswoman for one of the leading advocacy groups, who wished to remain anonymous, described the technology as “a breakthrough.”
RELATED: The Multiple-Use Mission of ‘Perseverance.’
FRANK Livestreaming
A video feed is running but registrations have been halted due to attacks on the site.
RELATED: FRANK Launches Tomorrow.
Status of Calico Allotments
Table 4 in the Draft EA does not provide allotment sizes and grazing seasons, nor the percentage of each allotment falling inside the Complex, so key management indicators for the five HMAs involved, such as forage allocations and stocking rates, can’t be determined.
That would be a substantive comment on the EA.
What are the management priorities in these HMAs? Do privately owned livestock receive better treatment than wild horses and burros?
The Proposed Action reads like a pest control program: Roundups, fertility control vaccines, intra-uterine devices, non-reproducing animals (males and females) and sex ratio skewing.
As for the allotments, RAS provides some information. Four are managed by the Black Rock Field Office and one by the Humboldt River Field Office.
The Allotment Master report for Black Rock shows three in the Improve category and one in the Maintain category, while the report for Humboldt River shows one in the Improve category.
Alder Creek
- 123,363 public acres
- Improve category
- 5,913 active AUMs
Paiute Meadows
- 168,538 public acres
- Improve category
- 3,549 active AUMs
Buffalo Hills
- 440,982 public acres
- Improve category
- 4,114 active AUMs
Soldier Meadows
- 329,129 public acres
- Improve category
- 12,168 active AUMs
Leadville
- 54,013 public acres
- Maintain category
- 1,291 active AUMs
The total grazing area is 1,116,025 acres, with 1,062,012 acres in the Improve category.
That means 95% of the BLM grazing land associated with the Calico Complex does not meet standards for rangeland health.
As of today, there is no category for blaming substandard conditions on wild horses and burros.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Calico Gather Plan.
More Signs of Dry Conditions in Western U.S.
Communities served by the Colorado River and its artificial lakes may be facing a water shortage declaration, according to a report posted yesterday by AP News.
An observable effect of drought in the wild horse world might be a jump in emergency roundups, accompanied, perhaps, by AUM reductions in grazing allotments.
The author tries to link the situation to (man-made) climate change, a fake problem that started off as global cooling, which couldn’t be demonstrated, followed by a shift to global warming, also unproven, supplanted again by climate change so its adherents could play it both ways.
Frequently, the term appears with concerns of hotter temperatures, as in the story, suggesting that they still believe in the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Water vapor, belched into the atmosphere by industrial and commercial cooling towers, and also by evaporation from lakes, rivers and oceans, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but you never hear about it!
RELATED: Dry Conditions in California Signal Trouble in Great Basin?
FRANK Launches Tomorrow
Distinguishing Between Cause and Effect
This scene at the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals, photographed yesterday, is a consequence of the resource management process, not a cause of it.
If you want to help America’s wild horses, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being removed from public lands and address those causes for a lasting solution.
RELATED: Many Foals at Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals
Life as Nature Intended
The presence of youngsters in this video represents a turning over of the genetic soil in the herd, some of whom—if they survive and can stay on the range—will start their own bands, continuing the process.
This characteristic, essential to herd viability and ruggedness, is dismissed by some of the ‘advocacy’ groups, who proudly interfere with breeding patterns.
Don’t give them a penny.
RELATED: Wild Horse Mesa Confirmed, Trajectory of a Fertility Control Program.
Riders Promote Adoption
Perhaps they mean well. Maybe they’re shills for the public-lands ranchers.
Who knows.
What will be the condition of their horses when their journey is complete?
Do they understand that if livestock grazing was discontinued in a just a few dozen HMAs all wild horses could be removed from holding pens, not just 5,000?
If you want to help America’s wild horses, don’t focus on the horses.
Instead, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being removed from public lands and address those causes for a lasting solution.
NCBA Responds to Coalition’s Letter About Livestock Grazing
The Executive Director of Natural Resources and the Public Lands Council said in a report dated April 13 by FarmProgress, an online news service, that “The path toward healthy horses, healthy rangelands, and healthy wildlife is championed by those who have been stewards of the land for generations—ranchers.”
Unfortunately, data from RAS show otherwise: Approximately 60% of BLM grazing land does not meet standards for rangeland health.
The letter calls for an end to livestock grazing on all “horse-occupied” HMAs, as if it didn’t occur on lands set aside for wild burros and included no data to support the claim that forage allocations “are severely biased against horse populations.”
Western Horse Watchers does not dispute the claim but believes the letter would have been more effective if submitted with some examples, such as the Little Colorado and Sand Wash Basin HMAs.
The letter also calls for a revamp of RMPs affecting such areas, which is essential, but may go nowhere without a court order.
Yesterday’s news release did not indicate if a similar request was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture regarding WHTs.
RELATED: Letter to Haaland Seeks Thriving Ecological Balance?
