Population Densities on Western Rangelands

One of the speakers at the WHB Advisory Board meeting last month presented these statistics on wild horses and burros in 2018:

  • 82,000 animals at beginning of the year with over 11,000 removed
  • 27 million acres set aside for grazing

Also presented at the meeting were some stats on livestock in 2017.  The BLM livestock page provides the available land.

  • 8.8 million AUMs consumed
  • 155 million acres available for grazing

The WHB data yield a stocking rate of 2.6 animals per thousand acres (71,000 divided by 27,000,000 times 1000).

The aimed-at stocking rate for WHB is one animal per thousand acres (27,000 divided by 27,000,000 times 1000).  This will be an indicator of a successful program, in the eyes of the public-lands ranchers and their allies at the BLM, along with many of the wild horse advocates.

Fertility_Control_Puzzle_Solved-1

The livestock data yield 1.5 million cow/calf pairs on western rangelands (per previous post), for a stocking rate of 19.4 animals per thousand acres (3,000,000 divided by 155,000,000 times 1000).

The livestock population target is 2 million cow/calf pairs (per previous post), which yields an aimed-at stocking rate of 25.8 animals per thousand acres (4,000,000 divided by 155,000,000 times 1000).  This is another indicator of a ‘successful’ program.

So, if you’re talking about wild horses, public lands can only support one of them per thousand acres.  If you’re talking about domestic cattle, the range can support 26 of them per thousand acres.  In some cases it’s the same land!

This casts a long shadow over the concept of Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs), which supposedly represent the carrying capacity of the land.  In view of these results, they only denote forage consumption the ranchers are willing to tolerate.  They should be renamed Acceptable Forage Losses (AFLs)—the number of horses for a given area that won’t rob too much of the ranchers’ birthright.

Also keep in mind that many wild horse advocacy groups, large and small, agree with the overpopulation narrative, and that is the basis of their fertility control efforts.

They’re not friends of the horses.

RELATED: They’re All Starving, Public-Lands Ranching: How Bad Is It?

Sterilization Delay in the News

Unlike the Spruce-Pequop Incident, a judge’s decision to halt the sterilization of mares at the BLM wild horse corrals in Hines, OR has been picked up by national news outlets.

Wild horse enthusiasts may be pleased with the ruling, but it’s still a win for the public-lands ranchers, who have access to most of the Warm Springs HMA, and it’s now devoid of horses (grazing allotments denoted by green in the following map from 2014, HMA boundary highlighted in yellow).

Warm_Springs_HMA_Grazing_Allotments-1

If the project is stopped for a few years, will the HMA be restored to pre-gather conditions?  If not, will the 200 horses that were to be returned after sterilization be allowed to go back?

The HMA contains 475,460 acres and has an AML of 202, for an aimed-at population density of 0.42 animals per thousand acres, the lowest of all HMAs in Oregon.

RELATED: Federal Judge Says No to BLM Sterilization Experiments.

Little Bookcliffs Horses Adopted

All of the 27 former wild horses, removed from the Little Bookcliffs Wild Horse Range last month, were adopted yesterday according to a story posted yesterday by KJCT8, the ABC affiliate in Grand Junction, CO.  It was not a cash-and-carry event, which bypasses customary rules for wild horse ownership.

The WHR contains just 36,000 acres and is one of only three areas in the western U.S. managed ‘principally but not exclusively’ for wild horses.  The AML is barely large enough for genetic viability of the herd.  Would be nice if the so-called advocates pushed for more territory, at least 150,000 acres, instead of helping the BLM set the traps.

Congress intended that all lands where wild horses and burros were found, when the WHB Act became law, be managed principally but not exclusively for those animals (in keeping with the concept of multiple use).

Today, 40% of that land, perhaps a bit more, is no longer managed for wild horses and burros, and livestock vastly outnumber them on western rangelands, marking a return to the ‘fast disappearing’ days of the Act.

RELATED: Little Bookcliffs Adoption This Weekend.

Public-Lands Ranching: How Bad Is It?

At the Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting last month, one of the speakers provided these statistics for livestock grazing in 2017:

  • 17,886 permits
  • 12.3 million AUMs active
  • 8.8 million AUMs billed
  • 3.5 million AUMs non-use
  • 2 million AUMs suspended

As noted in this post, there were approximately 82,000 wild horses and burros on western rangelands earlier this year, compared to 1.5 million cow/calf pairs or cow/calf equivalents (e.g., if they were all sheep there would be 7.5 million of them because one cow/calf pair = one horse = five sheep).

Wild horses and burros accounted for 1 million AUMs compared to 8.8 million AUMs for livestock.  Are the livestock confined to HMAs and HAs?  No.  Do wild horses and burros stay inside the HMAs and HAs?  No.  But they all graze on western rangelands.

If livestock AUMs were sold out, there would be over 2 million cow/calf pairs on western rangelands (12.3 million divided by 6).

How much worse could it get?

The BLM and USFS, along with the public-lands ranchers, want WHB populations reduced to AML, which is 27,000.  They are pursuing that goal aggressively, with over 10,000 WHB removed from western rangelands this year.  If they hit both targets, WHB would account for 0.3 million AUMs annually (27,000 times 12), while livestock consume 12.3 million AUMs.

Two million cow/calf pairs (four million head), privately owned, on public lands, compared to 27,000 horses and burros.

If they had their way, there’d be few if any horses and burros on public lands, taking the scheme to the limit.  Keep in mind the ranchers pay $1.41 to graze a cow/calf pair for one month.  You couldn’t feed a parakeet for that!

Make Western Rangelands Great Again

The greatest threat to wild horses and burros is public-lands ranching, which has the appearance of rugged individualism but is actually a form of government dependency.

Which political party wants more and more people dependent on an all-powerful centralized government?

Which party believes in contraception, sterilization and euthanasia?

Which party hates private property, free markets and self-reliance?

If the mainstream media want a story on collusion, let them investigate the ties between the BLM, USFS and ranching industry.  Classic ‘swamp.’

Liberalism, which is devoid of truth and The One Who Is Truth, can never be an answer to our problems.

It’s time to do something for our horses not to our horses.

Vote.

BLM Ovary Cutters Sharpening Their Knives?

Sterilization of Warm Springs mares could begin as early as 11/05/18, according to a report published today by The Argus Observer of Ontario, OR.  Requests to stop the ‘research’ are being reviewed by the Interior Board of Land Appeals.  If a stay is not granted, the Mengeles at Hines will have a green light to carry out their work.

RELATED: Consortium Files Lawsuit to Stop BLM Spay Research.

They’re All Starving

Anti-horse propaganda by Golden Productions, posted 10/31/18.

The footage may be dated.  There is no Smith Creek HMA in Nevada (there is a Smith Creek HA but it has no AML).  Horses don’t run on allotments, cattle do.

According to the interviewees, the horses are overpopulated, have no natural predators and are not important (refer to the wild horse narrative).

“We don’t have the resources to keep these animals healthy.”

BLM said earlier this year that 82,000 wild horses and burros were present on western rangelands.  They graze 24/7, consuming roughly one million AUMs per year (82,000 times 12).

At the WHB Advisory Board meeting last month, one of the presenters indicated that 8.8 million AUMs were consumed by livestock in 2017.  They graze six months per year or less, which means there were at least 1.5 million cow/calf pairs on the range (8.8 million divided by 6).

Three million head, privately owned, compared to 82,000 wild horses and burros.

Wild Horses of Oregon

Came across this video in a FB post dated 10/22/18 by Mustang Meg.  You can watch it below or go to Vimeo.  I agree that the filmmakers did a great job of documenting the issues on western rangelands.

Regarding the caption at 00:45, are 17 HMAs controlled by the BLM in Oregon, plus two WHTs, one of which is jointly managed by the BLM and USFS.

The film presents a range of characters, from Andi Harmon, who reprises the role of Slaughterhouse Sue beginning at 1:05, to Gayle Hunt, a former USFS employee and founder of the Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition, first appearing at 04:22.

Harmon’s remark at 03:36, ‘Our [not My] biggest issue is not being able to manage them right,’ suggests an allegiance to the livestock industry.

Hunt is a wild horse advocate, for the most part, although it was not apparent to this reviewer until the end of the film.

Keep in mind that all horse behaviors in the video are normal/natural, even when idiots are involved.

The segment at 6:03 shows the essence of their legacy, which must be protected from the PZP zealots, who not only accept the anti-horse agenda but are happy to participate in it.  How many of them aborting/contracepting/sterilizing in their own lives?

Remarks by BLM manager Rob Sharp are predictable.

The trailer at 20:42 probably belongs to the Cattoor Livestock Roundup Company, a favored contractor of the BLM.  Public-lands ranchers are not the only beneficiaries of declining wild horse populations.

Speaking of livestock, you have to wait until 21:27 to learn about the greatest threat to wild horses and burros on western rangelands.  The concept of ‘multiple use’ mentioned by Harmon at 21:45 was not formally sanctioned until 1976, when FLPMA was signed into law.  It is one of several amendments to the WHB Act that need to be walked back.

WHB_Act_The_Ranchers_Strike_Back-1

Grazing permit buyouts, mentioned by Hunt at 23:00, deserve further attention.

Next up, starting at 34:26, is the innovative Beaty Butte Wild Horse Training Facility near Adel, OR, founded by the BLM and local ranchers.

It is hard to watch.  Horses locked in stalls, separated from others, running continually in the round pen with no release of pressure.  Eventually they settle down, not because of trainer skill but because they give up (his words, 37:46).

No patience, no understanding, no relationship.  The goal is to cashier as many of them through the program as possible, so more horses can be driven from their homelands, to be replaced with cattle and sheep.  Look at them.  Bits shoved in their mouths, paraded around like spoils of war, while livestock graze peacefully on land that belongs to them.

The following segment features more horses locked in stalls, standing in their own poop, tripping over lead ropes that should not be there (ditto for the halters).

The film concludes with a piece on the Trainer Incentive Program then transitions back to the forest with a question about wild horse preservation.

How much are we going to regret their loss when it’s too late?

RELATED: BLM Plans Another 100% Gather at Beatys Butte HMA.

UPDATE: Video owner no longer allows embedding.  Watch at Vimeo.

BLM Removes Wild Horses, Aids Ranchers Affected by Martin Fire

In what can only be described as a shocking development, BLM has moved against the horses in favor of public-lands ranchers, offering assistance to permit holders impacted by the largest wildfire of 2018 in Nevada.  Many of the horses that roamed the area were not available for comment.

“BLM is addressing fencing status and needs, helping coordinate Farm Services Administration funding sources, and holding individual meetings with permittees about future grazing needs and feasibility within the fire perimeter.”

The fire affected seven grazing allotments and eight permittees n the Winnemucca District.  The number of affected grazing allotments and permittees in the Elko District was not provided.

The fire started near Paradise Valley, NV in early July and spread eastward across the Little Owyhee and Owyhee HMAs.  An emergency gather was ordered for September.

If you were thinking that maybe the BLM might be biased a little in favor of the livestock industry, this announcement should remove all doubt.  Their priorities should now be obvious to even the casual observer.