The proposed action will achieve a thriving ecological balance in the five HMAs targeted by the project.  The EA makes sure there will not be too much collateral damage when it is carried out.  A finding of no significant impact does not apply to wild horses!

What are the management priorities in those areas?  Data from Tables 1 and 8 in the EA tell the story.

Roughly 16,000 wild horses have been displaced from their home range by privately owned livestock, about one third of those in off-range holding.

How many have been forced out by drilling and mining?

The True AML is eight times higher than the current AML.  The average stocking rate across the five HMAs at the new AML is 5.3 wild horses per thousand acres, about half of that on the Virginia Range.

The current population of 5,105 is well within the new limit, so there is no need for a roundup or fertility control program.  There are no excess horses and the area is not overpopulated.

The problem is public-lands ranching.

Although the land was set aside for wild horses, roundups may occur as early as July because the HMAs are managed primarily for livestock.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Rock Springs Gather Plan.

BLM announced today the availability of a preliminary environmental assessment for resource enforcement actions in the Wyoming checkerboard.  The EA looks the effects of a proposed action and those of one or more alternatives.

The 30-day review period begins today.  Implementation of the selected alternative, which will affect five HMAs, could occur as soon as July 2021, according to Section 2.0.

The proposed action features roundups to the low end of AMLs and fertility control treatments.  Western Horse Watchers was unable to determine how many years the selected alternative would be valid.

Four of the five HMAs are involved in the Rock Springs RMP amendments.

The HMAs are subject to permitted livestock grazing, per Table 8 in the EA.  The table does not provide allotment sizes and grazing periods but those can be obtained from RAS, along with the allotment conditions.

Comments can be submitted online though April 30.

Maps and appendices have been posted with the project documents.

A story posted yesterday by The Virginian-Pilot says the filly wanted to nurse on a mare who was not producing milk.  She would not let the mom near the foal and became increasingly aggressive, according to the report.

Perhaps the mare was trying to steal the foal?

Is any of this related to the fertility control program?

At the December 2017 Nevada Board of Agriculture meeting, where a decision was made to transfer ownership of the Virginia Range horses to a private group, comments were made about the side-effects of PZP (beginning at 2:33:40 in this video).

• Barren mares stealing foals which die because they have no milk
• Abscesses at the injection area
• Pregnant mares aborting their foals after darting
• Fertility cycles changed

The speaker was shouted down by other individuals at the meeting.

The number of horses allowed by plan is 210.  These animals require 12 × 210 = 2,520 AUMs per year and about 10 × 210 × 365 = 766,500 gallons of water per year.

The guest column in The Salt Lake Tribune says the horses receive 17% of the authorized forage, with 83% assigned to livestock, neglecting wildlife.

The total authorized forage should be around 2,520 ÷ .17 = 14,824 AUMs per year.

The forage assigned to livestock should be about 14,824 × .83 = 12,304 AUMs per year.

The True AML would be = (2,520 + 12,304) ÷ 12 = 1,235.

The current population of around 500 wild horses is well within that range, so there is no need for a roundup or fertility control program.

Why is the HMA on the roundup list for this summer?  Because it’s managed primarily for livestock, not wild horses.

RELATED: Onaqui Livestock Receive Five Times More Forage Than Horses?

So says the writer of a guest column in today’s edition of The Salt Lake Tribune.

If that’s true, then why is she pushing contraceptives?

Take the forage assigned to livestock, add it to the forage assigned to horses and divide by the sum by twelve, yielding the True AML.

Is the current population larger than that amount?  If the answer is no, then there is no justification for a roundup or fertility control program.

Action may be needed if the herd exceeds 1 + 5 = 6X AML.  The current AML is 210.

Western Horse Watchers is pleased to see key management indicators such as forage allocations and stocking rates included in an article about wild horses.

Protesters gathered at BLM headquarters today, according to a report by KKCO News of Grand Junction, CO.

RELATED: Wild Horse Rally Next Week.

At Paynes Prairie State Park with Bring Me The Creatures.

The story has been picked up by AP News.  Hasn’t appeared on Drudge.

A keyword search of the document yielded these results:

• Horse – 661 occurrences
• Horses – 516
• Burro – 17
• Burros – 42
• Drill – 0
• Drilling – 0
• Mine – 0
• Mining – 3
• Oil – 0
• Gas – 0
• Mineral – 0
• Minerals – 0
• Livestock – 172
• Cattle – 46
• Sheep – 8
• Allotment – 53
• Grazing – 256
• Permit – 9
• Forage – 176
• Allocation – 1
• Resource – 75
• Resource management – 3
• Multiple use – 12
• Climate – 19
• Climate change – 11

The plan, if approved, will necessitate the removal of hundreds of wild horses from the area.  The proposed AML is 50 to 104.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Heber Management Plan.

The 30-day review period began on March 23.  The EA and supporting documents were posted to the project page on March 23.  Click on the Analysis tab to view them.

Refer also to this story, published today by The Arizona Republic.

RELATED: Heber EA in Progress.

UPDATE: Instructions for commenting are posted here.  Comments will be accepted until April 22.

An online public meeting will be held March 30 to discuss the project, according to a report posted yesterday by Fox News of Yakima, WA.

The area of interest is east of the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington state.

A commentary by Forbes says the applicant is Scout Clean Energy of Boulder, CO.

Scout has gone straight to the state authorities, bypassing county government, because the locals do not want the project, according to the Forbes article.

What will be the effect on the horses?  None, they are gone.

Wiped out in the last Ice Age?  No, eradicated in the middle of the last century, mostly in favor of agricultural interests.

Some may have fled to Yakama territory but may also be gone, as the tribe has been sending their horses, including pregnant mares, to slaughter for years.

Foals born in the feedlots, while the horses await shipment, are often rescued by Chilly Pepper Miracle Mustang of Golconda, NV.

RELATED: The Hills Are Still There But the Horses Are Gone.

Allotment status by public acres for BLM grazing areas in ten western states.  Data from the Allotment Information report in RAS.

Almost 60% of the land does not meet standards for rangeland health.  Looks like our stewards of the public lands are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

Reports for individual states:

• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Montana
• New Mexico
• Nevada
• Oregon
• Utah
• Wyoming

The condition of allotments managed by the Forest Service is unknown.

RELATED: Allotment Categories Explained.

He was born about a week ago but not spotted until yesterday, according to a report posted today by the News-Times of Morehead City, NC.

A census earlier this year put the herd size at 117.

The animal was found near a strip mine by the Martin County sheriff, according to a story by the Louisville Record Courier.

A $2,000 reward has been offered for information in the case.  Other details were concealed by a stupid GoogleQuestion.

The incident follows a series of shootings in Floyd County in December 2019.

RELATED: Colt Born to Survivor of Floyd County Shooting.

The operation will target an unspecified number of youngsters, starting with ten this week, and will continue until NPS personnel believe the population is under control, according to a story posted yesterday by KX News of Bismarck, ND.

The last roundup occurred in 2019.

NPS uses tranquilizer darts to capture the animals.

The original wild horses of TRNP, thought to be descendants of Sitting Bull’s horses, were removed from the park over twenty years ago.  Some were rescued by Leo Kuntz and taken to his ranch near Linton.  He called them Nokotas.

RELATED: Another Roundup in the Works at TRNP?

The Allotment Information report in RAS for all districts and field offices in New Mexico yielded 1,703 unique rows after removing 167 duplicates.  The duplicates corresponded to allotments with more than one permit.

The breakdown by category shows about 43% with custodial status:

• Improve: 427
• Maintain: 534
• Custodial: 738
• Unclassified: 4

One fourth of the allotments fall into the Improve category.

Approximately 49% of the land does not meet standards for rangeland health, according to the breakdown by public acres:

• Improve: 4,294,513
• Maintain: 3,440,236
• Custodial: 1,006,452
• Unclassified: 8,367

Roughly 39% of the land falls into the Maintain category.

The condition of the Custodial allotments is not known.

Privately owned livestock can access almost nine million acres of BLM lands in the state, compared to 25,000 acres for wild horses.

The condition of allotments managed by the Forest Service is unknown.

RELATED: Allotment Status in Montana.

A mare from the Colville Indian Reservation, stranded on an embankment west of Spokane, WA, has been nursed back to health and recovered by tribal members, according to a report by iFiber One News of Ephrata, WA.

A roundup in the area two years ago was called off when the contractor could only find a tiny fraction of the animals specified in the agreement.

Refer to this report by The Sierra Nevada Ally.  Their response is so predictable: Get rid of the horses with contraceptives, not helicopters.  Whose side are they on?

RELATED: Origin of SJR3?

That’s the current status of the resolution, according to the overview at the Nevada Electronic Legislative Information System (NELIS).

Letters and testimony have been posted as exhibits.

RELATED: Nevada Legislature to Consider SJR3 This Week.

UPDATE: Video of hearing begins at timestamp 3:35:22.

A report by the Quay County Sun of Tucumcari, NM says the Forest Service has pledged $40,000 for a new program at Mesalands Community College aimed at adopting out excess horses from the Jicarilla WHT.

The program would start with four to five animals, set to arrive in August.

The WHT is subject to permitted livestock grazing and has an AML of 50 to 105.

Resource allocations are not known.

RELATED: Community College to Foster Jicarilla Wild Horses.

The Allotment Information report in RAS for all districts and field offices in Montana yielded 5,320 unique rows after removing 265 duplicates.  The duplicates corresponded to allotments with more than one permit.

The breakdown by category shows a majority with custodial status.

• Improve: 723
• Maintain: 1,775
• Custodial: 2,818
• Unclassified: 4

About 14% of the allotments are in the Improve category.

The breakdown by acreage shows over half of the land in the Maintain category:

• Improve: 2,792,183
• Maintain: 4,376,902
• Custodial: 1,026,768
• Unclassified: 28,487

Roughly 34% of the acreage does not meet standards for rangeland health.

The condition of the custodial allotments is not known.

Privately owned livestock can access over eight million acres of BLM lands in the state, compared to 27,000 acres for wild horses.

The status of allotments managed by the Forest Service is unknown.

RELATED: Status of Allotments in California.