On the range
They found some snow-covered grass on College Parkway, according to a story posted yesterday by Carson Now. Includes photos.
A commenter said it was “Part of the heritage and charm of living in Northern Nevada.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Sometimes the horses can be found by taking Goni Road north, into the hills.
They also graze in and around Centennial Park, east of the airport.
BLM announced on Thursday the opening of a 30-day comment period on a preliminary Environmental Assessment for gathering and removing excess horses on the Reveille HMA in central Nevada.
The HMA covers 105,494 acres and has an AML of 138, for an aimed-at population density of 1.3 wild horses per thousand acres. The target density across all HMAs is one animal per thousand acres.
The Reveille HA, marked red in the map above, contains the HMA. Horses were found there in 1971 but the land is no longer managed for them.
The HA and HMA lie within the 650,520 acre Reveille Allotment. See Map 2 in the EA.
One permittee, who grazes the entire allotment, receives 25,730 AUMs per year from the BLM, per Section 3.2.4 in the EA.
The HMA intersects roughly 16% of the allotment (105,494 ÷ 650,520), suggesting that an additional 4,173 AUMs per year are available in that area, but have been assigned to livestock, with a twelve month grazing season. See Table 1 in Appendix F of the EA.
The management plan allocates 1,656 AUMs per year to horses in the HMA, according to Section 1.5 (138 × 12).
The livestock AUMs convert to 348 cow/calf pairs, with a population density of 3.3 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.
These figures are presented in the following charts.
Appendix F states that 2,210 AUMs were allocated to livestock in the HMA, about half of the amount estimated above.
The BLM has limited flexibility in managing wild horses in the HMA, due to a court order that requires roundups whenever the herd size exceeds AML. Refer to Section 1.3 of the EA and Section 1.4 in the Supplemental Information Report. The case was brought by the PLR mentioned above.
Comments on the gather plan can be submitted at this page.
Field work is complete, according to a report posted yesterday by the Maryland Coast Dispatch, with findings expected later this month.
Last month, a member of the WHBAB pointed to the herd, on the Maryland side of the island, as the gold standard for wild horse management, even though its size declined from 78 in November 2018 to 75 in November 2019 and its sex ratio is far from normal.
You decide.
Fifty wild horses are allowed by law to inhabit the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southern Missouri, so every year, some of them are gathered and offered for adoption.
“Shawnee, Wild and Tame” chronicles the first year of a filly born in January, 2018.
Although the foal is the central character, the author thought the book would be a good way to tell the story of all the wild horses living near the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, according to a report posted today by The Salem News of Salem, MO.
Here’s your chance to become an ambassador for the Banker Horses. You must be at least 18 years old and able to walk the beach for a four hour shift, once a week.
Openings exist at Shackleford Banks and Rachel Carson Reserve.
Refer to this story by WTVD News of Raleigh-Durham, NC for more information.
UPDATE: See also this news release from NPS. Includes link to online application.
On Onaqui Mountain HMA (pre-gather) with Karen King.
