Refer to the following data from a 2018 EA for resource enforcement actions at the Warm Springs HMA in Oregon.  The HMA covers 475,574 acres.

1. How many horses are allowed by plan?

 2,424 ÷ 12 = 202, this is the AML

2. Livestock receive ____ times more forage than the horses.

 19,392 ÷ 2,424 = 8 times more

3. The horses receive ____ percent of the total authorized forage.

 2,424 ÷ (2,424 + 19,392 + 204) = .11 = 11%

4. How many horses have been displaced from the HMA by livestock?

 19,392 ÷ 12 = 1,616 horses displaced

5. What is the True AML?

 202 + 1,616 = 1,818

6. If the current population is 468, the HMA contains ____ excess horses.

 Zero, 468 < 1,818

7. The stocking rate allowed by plan is ____ horses per thousand acres.

 202 ÷ 475,574 × 1,000 = 0.4, the average across all HMAs is 1

8. If the grazing season is five months, how many cow/calf pairs are allowed by plan?

 19,392 ÷ 5 = 3,878 cow/calf pairs

9. The stocking rate allowed by plan is ____ cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.

 3,878 ÷ 475,574 × 1,000 = 8.2, considerably higher than the rate for horses

10. The HMA was set aside for ________ but is managed primarily for ________.

 Wild horses, livestock

BONUS QUESTION: The best way to get rid of excess horses is _______________.

 Irrelevant, there are no excess horses

Conclusion: The management priorities in the HMA are backwards.

RELATED: Resource Allocation Quiz.

A band of six left the 4WD area north of town to visit the local grocery, only to be escorted back to their habitat, according to a story by OBX Today.

The fence that keeps the horses away from the populated area was damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

The herd manager for the local advocacy group said you should never chase the horses or try to move them yourself.  Let the advocates do that or they may be killed.

Western Horse Watchers estimates that the group got rid of ten to fifteen wild horses this year with their fertility control program.

Who’s the greater threat to these animals?  You or the advocates?

RELATED: Two More Foals Spotted on Currituck Outer Banks.

Approximately 300 burros will be gathered from the Centennial HA beginning May 28.

The operation will be carried out with helicopters, according to the news release, and will be open to public observation.

The area is not managed for burros.  It can be found on page 10 of the California WHB maps.  The Centennial HMA, on page 11, is managed for wild horses.

The destination of captured animals was not provided in the announcement.

The location of the gather stats and daily reports is not known.

RELATED: Decision Reached in SoCal Burro Removal Plan.

Refer to the following data from a 2018 EA for resource enforcement actions at the Warm Springs HMA in Oregon.  The HMA covers 475,574 acres.

1. How many horses are allowed by plan?

2. Livestock receive ____ times more forage than the horses.

3. The horses receive ____ percent of the total authorized forage.

4. How many horses have been displaced from the HMA by livestock?

5. What is the True AML?

6. If the current population is 468, the HMA contains ____ excess horses.

7. The stocking rate allowed by plan is ____ horses per thousand acres.

8. If the grazing season is five months, how many cow/calf pairs are allowed by plan?

9. The stocking rate allowed by plan is ____ cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.

10. The HMA was set aside for ________ but is managed primarily for ________.

BONUS QUESTION: The best way to get rid of excess horses is _______________.

You get one lifeline.  Feel free to reach out to your local advocacy group.

The schedule was updated May 7 for the remainder of FY 2021.  Most of the activity will occur in Utah, Oregon and Nevada.

Emergency roundups are also possible.

The chart shows 35 wild horses removed from private lands at the Chloride Canyon HMA in April, but Western Horse Watchers was unable to find any announcements at the BLM news site or Utah gather page.

The latest discovery brings the total to seven, according to a report by KRQE News of Albuquerque, NM.  Authorities believe they were shot to death.

The story did not indicate if they were free-roaming horses, which are known to inhabit the area.

By comparison, the advocates got rid of an estimated 600 wild horses on the Virginia Range in 2021 and about 100 more at the Salt River.

Who’s the greater threat to America’s wild horses?

RELATED: Horses Found Dead in Southern New Mexico.

A district court’s ruling in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, according to an opinion filed May 17.

The district court was ordered to enter judgment in favor of Friends of Animals in an action challenging a FWS rule, 50 C.F.R. § 424.14(b), that requires affected states to receive a 30-day notice of intent to file a petition to list an endangered species.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement explaining the ruling at the FOA home page.

The 38,000 acre Pryor Mountain WHR, an area managed principally for wild horses, is on the Wyoming-Montana border.

RELATED: Attempt to List Pryor Mustangs as Endangered Not Over Yet.

UPDATE: Statement added to FOA’s web site.

On Cumberland Island with Let’s Be Us.

The area was set aside for wild horses.  Yet, every Wednesday, according to a story by KSL-TV of Salt Lake City, the advocates show up with their darting rifles to make sure most of the resources go to privately owned livestock.

If the ranchers understood this, they’d shut up, be patient, and let these idiots have their way.

RELATED: Running the Onaqui Numbers, Double Standard Illustrated.

The Allotment Master report from RAS puts two of them in the Maintain category and three in the Improve category.  Approximately 68% of the grazing area does not meet standards for rangeland health.

The active AUMs increased on three of the allotments since the 2016 Decision Record was signed, with the largest gain in an allotment with substandard conditions.

The total allotment acreage exceeds the HMA acreage by a factor of 2.7, yet the cattle receive 35.5 times as much forage as the burros.

RELATED: Sinbad Burros Getting Short End of Stick?, Allotment Categories Explained.

Use of air rifles is prohibited in the following areas effective May 14, according to a BLM news release issued today.

Does that mean the Salt River darting program is suspended until further notice?

She was born yesterday, according to a report by WRAL News of Raleigh, NC.

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

RELATED: Two More Foals Spotted on Currituck Outer Banks.

What would happen if you moved wild horses from an area where each one needs 100 acres or more to find enough food to an area where they can do the same on five acres, as proposed in a report dated April 30 by the Ag Information Network of the West?

Would they adjust to their new habitat without any problems?

The idea is to get them out of areas where they’re not wanted (by ranchers) and into areas not particularly suited to livestock grazing.

You could argue that it’s already happening, in effect, as horses are forced off their home range in the Great Basin and moved to grasslands in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Do they live to a ripe old age in those pastures?

The target stocking rate across all wild horse areas is currently one animal per thousand acres, compared to 200 animals per thousand acres under the proposal.

The Virginia Range was carrying about ten wild horses per thousand acres before the advocates started their herd reduction program.

RELATED: Amend WHB Act So Wild Horses Can Be Relocated?

The Draft EA does not provide enough information to assess the management priorities in the Complex.

Concerns about resource allocations, probably valid, should not be submitted as they are outside the scope of the project.

The Proposed Action cannot fix the ranching problem, it can only prolong it.

The last paragraph on page 23 of the EA (page 26 in the pdf) indicates an ever-widening gap between current attitudes and beliefs and the intent of the original statute.

RELATED: Comments Invited on Draft EA for Calico Gather Plan.

On an oil field with water supplied by an oil company near Pinedale WY, courtesy of Mountain Living Homestead.

The idea of diversionary watering is not new but the purchase of one square mile to drill the well is rather novel.

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses wants to buy a 640 acre parcel it currently leases from the Bently Family Ranch to obtain water for seasonal ponds, according to a story posted today by The Record-Courier of Gardnerville, NV.

Presumably, the land is part of the base property that secures grazing preference to the Buckeye Allotment.

The article notes that a 2018 roundup was called off after national outcry, even though the local advocacy group is getting rid of the horses with contraceptives.

RELATED: BLM Dictates Terms of Surrender to Fish Springs Advocates.

The announcement last month regarding the withdrawal of public lands near the Pancake and Sand Springs West HMAs said the area would be used for satellite calibration activities but did not give any details.

If you thought it might involve spy cameras that can read freeze marks off wild horses you might be disappointed.

And, no, the apparatus with the curved beam it not intended for use at Burning Man.

A brief from 2018 says they were evaluating the bidirectional reflectance distribution function of Railroad Valley and assessing the radiometric uncertainties thereof.

The withdrawn lands are preferred because of

• High surface reflectance
• Spatial uniformity
• Spectrally flat
• High altitude
• Large size
• Favorable weather

A 2002 bulletin by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has images of irrigated fields in the valley from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer that can be used for monitoring crop health.

Hopefully that clears everything up.

RELATED: Satellite Calibration Activities Near Pancake HMA?

It’s not supposed to—it can only prolong it.  The plan enforces resource allocations, it does not allocate resources.

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

The PZP zealots focus on the horses.

Instead, look upstream in the management process, understand why they’re being forced off their home range and address those causes for a lasting solution.

RELATED: Big Summit Management Plan in the News.

The Decision Notice issued yesterday puts the plan into effect.  Here are some of the stories that have hit the wires in the past 24 hours:

• Oregon Public Broadcasting
• The Bend Bulletin
• Central Oregon Daily

The new AML of 57 means the horses receive an estimated 29% of the authorized forage, neglecting wildlife, with the balance assigned to livestock.

The Final EA was posted with other project documents in the Analysis section.

RELATED: Big Summit AML Announced.

An article posted today by Deseret News points to growing tensions between livestock operators and wild horse enthusiasts resulting from a letter sent last month to the Secretary of the Interior.

The story includes a photo of cattle on the Pearson Ranch (or public lands tied thereto) owned by Beaver County Commissioner and WHBAB member Tammy Pearson.

RELATED: Letter to Haaland Seeks Thriving Ecological Balance?