Status of FY 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act

The bill was presented to the President yesterday according to the Actions Overview for H.R. 2471 at Congress.gov.

Provisions for the Wild Horse and Burro Program, as of last week, include:

The continuing resolution that funded the federal government expires today.

The task force will have monthly meetings to review performance metrics, monitor outcomes, and address any delays or setbacks to the implementation of the May 2020 Report to Congress.

A keyword search of the report yielded these results:

Livestock – 0 occurrences
Allotment – 0
Grazing – 0
Forage – 1
Permit – 0
Cattle – 0
Sheep – 0
Habitat – 1
Fencing – 0
Allocation – 0
Fragmentation – 0
Mismanagement – 0

The long-term goal is to achieve and maintain AMLs, which are small relative to the available resources.

The aim of the wild horse and burro program is to minimize its impact on the grazing program.

Livestock Responsible for Poor Condition of Rangelands?

High Country News looks at a new report by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in an article posted this morning.

The story precedes a news release just issued by PEER.

Mustang Monday

In Shannon County, MO with Tim Layton.

Big Summit Roundup Delayed Until Fall

The horses will be drawn into the traps with bait, but the chute ordered by the Forest Service to process them was the wrong size, according to a story posted today by the Bend Bulletin of Bend, OR.

RELARED: Big Summit Roundup Attracts Legal Action.

Can WHB Budget Hit FY 2022 Resource Enforcement Targets?

The BLM plans to remove 50% more wild horses from their home range this year than last year, while its budget increased just 18% over the same period according to figures on page 203 of the Division G Explanatory Statement for the FY 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Worse, the cost of fuel for motorized equipment has skyrocketed, along with the price of feed, so how exactly will the agency achieve those goals?

Removal of excess animals, sometimes referred to as achieving and maintaining AMLs, means shifting the resources back to the public-lands ranchers in areas set aside for wild horses.

Helicopters do the achieving while the advocates do the maintaining.

Advocates are the Predators 11-30-21

No Western States Horse Expo This Year

The event has been moved to June of next year.

Attendance was light last year.

Protect the Harvest and the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, cheerleaders for the public-lands ranchers, didn’t show up.

What’s in Omnibus Spending Bill for Public-Lands Ranchers?

On page 11 of the Division G Explanatory Statement for the FY 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress directs the BLM to:

Offer vacant allotments to permittees affected by drought or wildfire
Improve the management of active allotments
Reduce the backlog of permits
Assess the risk of disease transmission from domestic to wild sheep

A similar order for the Forest Service appears on page 68.

The bill includes the customary $10 million payment for range improvements, derived from grazing fees paid by the ranchers. Page 12.

Fifty percent of grazing receipts or $10 million, whichever is greater, is returned to the program every year, as authorized by §1751 of FLPMA.

Congress Orders New Wild Horse and Burro Task Force?

Described as a national crisis on page 3 of the Division G Explanatory Statement for the 2022 omnibus spending bill, the BLM should not have to shoulder the problem of rising horse populations, degraded range, climate change and invasive species alone.

The Secretary of the Interior shall establish a task force with representation from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and any other Bureau the Secretary deems appropriate.

Task force membership will be expanded in the future to include representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies with essential skills and expertise.

The Secretary will report to Congress within 90 days of enactment of the bill on the establishment of the task force and a proposed meeting schedule.

The relationship between the task force and the public lands foundation announced in January was not explained in the statement.

BLM to Receive $137.1 Million in FY 2022 for WHB Program

Go to page 300, Division G, Title I, of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, which has been approved by Congress but not yet signed into law.

The bill includes a provision for long-term care and maintenance of excess animals by nonprofit organizations and other appropriate entities. Section 108, page 327.

Details of the spending plan may be spelled out in a separate report.

A government shutdown was avoided by another continuing resolution that expires on March 15.

Foal-Free Friday, Documenting the Hypocrisy of the Advocates

On the Salt River with Mark Storto, an area subject to the Montana Solution.

The advocates claim to protect the horses but they’re actually getting rid of them.

RELATED: Barren.

Currituck Foal Treated for Pneumonia, Mom Missing

He was taken to a rescue and probably won’t be returned to the wild, according to a column by the herd manager in OBX Today.

Western Horse Watchers has not seen any reports on herd size, demographics or trends therein, and accountability to the public is questionable.

RELATED: Currituck Stallion Euthanized.

Currituck Horses to See Fewer Vehicles on Beach?

County leaders will vote next week on a plan that would limit the number of parking permits sold each week for the four-wheel drive beaches of the northern Outer Banks, according to a story posted today by The Virginian-Pilot.

Wild Horse Annie Remembered on International Women’s Day

Sadly, her signature legislation has been altered at the behest of ranching interests and no longer affords the protections of the original.

Worse, the wild horse protection community is almost nonexistent, despite the remarks in this news release.

Groups that claim to protect the horses are actually trying to get rid of them, giving aid and comfort to the ranchers.

For those of you in Rio Linda, “the hills of the Comstock Lode” in the book excerpt is a reference to the Virginia Range.

KY3 TV Tells Story of Shannon County Horses

Refer to this report, posted today. The remark about the Park Service is probably refers to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Mustang Monday

Horses have the day off. At an undisclosed location with Mary Hone.

Deciphering the Hieroglyphic Mountains of Central Arizona

They’re in the Lake Pleasant HMA, an area designated for burros northwest of Phoenix.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing, according to the Western Watersheds map.

Any Wild Horses on Wild Horse Island?

It’s the largest island in Flathead Lake, according to the description by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, covering 2,160 acres. Access is by boat.

The “handful of wild horses” that inhabit the area turns out to be five.

The stocking rate is 2.3 wild horses per thousand acres, compared to a target rate in areas managed by the BLM of one wild horse per thousand acres.

The horses require 60 AUMs per year.

The forage assigned to bighorns is probably higher.

The description did not indicate if mares and stallions are present, if the studs have been cut, or the mares have been treated with the Montana Solution, but the following video shows no youngsters.

Barren

Not the landscape, the mares, thanks to the advocates.

Filmed at or near the Pine Nut HA.

Mountain Lions Dispatched from Wild Horse Island

State and tribal wildlife officials euthanized two males and one female on the island this winter, because they had become habituated to people and were preying on an isolated population of bighorn sheep, according to a story posted this morning by the Flathead Beacon of Kalispell, MT.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a statement by The Wildlife Society condemning the action.

Wildlife officials have been using sheep from the island (native species) to reboot herds in other areas that have been diminished by several factors, including diseases from domestic sheep (non-native species).

How do wild sheep come in contact with domestic sheep? Take a guess.

A search of TWS yielded several articles about the problem, including this one, but now that they’ve come out as shills for the public-lands ranchers, you probably won’t hear about it anymore.