Refer to this press release dated July 14 by Citizens Against Government Waste.

Their report on FY 2020 pork-barrel spending included a $25.8 million earmark for wild horse and burro management on page 23.

An email message was sent to blm_press@blm.gov on July 18 asking for an explanation of that item but to date no answer has been received.

Family fun with the Wandering Wassoms.  Might be the Onaqui Mountain horses.

It may cost less to bring the animals to the feed than the feed to the animals, but that’s not always the case for water.  Sometimes public lands have enough forage to support livestock but not enough water, according to a report posted today by AgAlert, a trade publication based in Sacramento, CA.

One of the ranchers interviewed for the story noted that grazing by the AUM makes more sense than grazing by the acre [especially when the fee is five percent, give or take, of the going rate on private lands].  Pay only for what you use.

As for the horses, they’re going after the same water, so in some cases the ranchers have to haul it in for their animals.

RELATED: Montana Grazing Fees.

BLM announced today that approximately 360 wild horses will be removed from the Triple B and Maverick-Medicine HMAs starting July 24, due to lack of water.

The HMAs belong to the Triple B Complex, which was gathered about a year ago.

The operation will be carried out with bait traps, according to the news release, and will not be open to public observation.

Triple B covers 1,232,494 acres in eastern Nevada.  Maverick-Medicine, to the north, contains 323,562 acres.  The AML at Triple B is 518, for a target stocking rate of 0.4 wild horses per thousand acres.  At Maverick-Medicine, the AML is 276, for a target stocking rate of 0.9 wild horses per thousand acres.

Recall from the discussion in April that fractional stocking rates may indicate large amounts of forage diverted to privately owned livestock.

The estimated population at Triple B is 1,618 wild horses, with an estimated 1,944 wild horses at Maverick-Medicine.

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley, about 20 miles north of Reno.

Gather stats and daily reports will appear on this page.

RELATED: Triple B Horses Get Short End of Stick.

Five wild burros were killed earlier today when struck by vehicles on northbound I-215 northeast of Riverside, CA.  A report by FOX 11 News of Los Angeles said the animals are known to inhabit the Reche Canyon area between Colton and Moreno Valley.

They would have had to migrate several miles to the west to reach the freeway.

RELATED: Reche Canyon Burro Rescued from Sinkhole.

BLM said today that all wild horses on the Saylor Creek HMA will be gathered, with 50 to be returned, beginning later this month.  Mares selected for return will be treated with contraceptives.

The operation will be carried out with bait traps, according to the news release, and will not be open to public observation.

The HMA covers approximately 101,900 acres in southern Idaho.  The AML is 50, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 0.5 wild horses per thousand acres.  The current population is 131, including 81 ‘excess’ animals.

The HMA intersects eight grazing allotments.  There are no naturally occurring water sources in the area and the horses survive on water provided by ranchers.

The management plan for the HMA assigns 18 times more forage to livestock than the horses.  That resource would support an additional 932 wild horses, over ten times the number of animals claimed to be ‘excess.’

Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Boise.  Gather stats and daily reports will be posted at this page.

RELATED: Saylor Creek Horses Get Short End of Stick.

Victim of darting program?

RELATED: Another Virginia Range Casualty.

The daily reports show 506 wild horses captured through July 20, with none returned to their home range.  The contractor has been removing an average of 84 horses per day.

Most body condition scores over the last two days ranged from three to five, although a few of the horses were rated two.

Foals accounted for 14% of the animals gathered since July 15.

RELATED: Swasey Progress Report Day 4.

Trailcam photos from the Virginia Range.  They probably look for shady spots on hot summer days, among the pinyon pines and juniper trees.

The title of this post comes from an old James Gang tune, Funk #49.

Horses have the day off.  At Custer State Park with Gary Brandt.

The daily reports show 398 wild horses captured through July 18, with none returned to their home range.  One death occurred today, a five year old mare died after hitting a panel.  Body condition scores since the last update were 3s and 4s, with a few 2s.

Foals accounted for thirteen percent of the total animals gathered.

RELATED: Swasey Progress Report Day 2.

Sand Springs is the third and final HMA in the Barren Valley Complex, an area subject to wild horse management actions per the Decision Record dated June 9.

The number of wild horses and privately owned livestock on the HMA vary with time and rangeland conditions but resource allocations don’t change that much.  What do they reveal about the attitudes and beliefs of those who wrote them?

The management plan allows 200 wild horses on 192,524 acres per Section 1.2 of the Final EA.  The current wild horse population is 422.

The forage requirement for horses is 200 × 12 = 2,400 AUMs per year.  The stocking rate allowed by plan is 200 ÷ 192,524 × 1,000 = 1.0 wild horses per thousand acres and the number of excess horses on the HMA is 422 – 200 = 222.

Like Sheepshead, Sand Springs does not have a fractional stocking rate, so the proportion of forage diverted to livestock may not be as large as Coyote Lake.

The HMA intersects one grazing allotment.  Table 6 in the EA provides the allotment size, permitted forage and grazing season.  Few calculations are required.  The forage budget was converted to cow/calf pairs, as their resource requirements are said to be equivalent to those of wild horses.

The HMA is not 100% subject to permitted grazing but close.  The forage available to livestock inside the HMA is 6,314 AUMs per year.

The Saddle Butte ranchers would have to place 1,263 cow/calf pairs inside the HMA to graze off 6,314 AUMs in five months (6,314 ÷ 5).  The stocking rate allowed by plan is 6.8 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres (1,263 ÷ 185,636 × 1,000).

These management indicators are compared in the following charts.

The management plan allocates 2.6 times as much forage to domestic livestock as it does for wild horses, on land set aside for the horses.  The plan allows over six times as many cow/calf pairs per thousand acres as it does for horses.

Wild horses were not a priority when the plan was written.  The “principally but not exclusively” clause of the WHB Act was ignored.

The forage assigned to livestock would support an additional 526 horses (6,314 ÷ 12), for a new AML of 726 (200 + 526).

There are no excess horses on the HMA (222 < 526).  Carrying capacity has not been exceeded.  So what is the rationale for roundups and contraceptives?

RELATED: Barren Valley Gather EA Comes and Goes, No News Release.

For your viewing enjoyment, a video report by Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee of ABC News, distributed this evening by Yahoo! News.

What’s next, an engineer getting involved in the wild horse debate?

UPDATE: YouTube video here.

BLM announced this morning that the roundup was complete, with 85 wild horses removed from their home range on an emergency basis.  No deaths were reported.

The operation began July 4.  The original plan was to remove 300 wild horses over a period of 45 to 60 days.

Captured animals were taken to the Indian Lakes off-range corrals in Fallon, NV.

RELATED: Studs Outnumber Mares 2:1 in Jackson Mountains Roundup.

The bay horse in the river beginning at 0:15 seems to be foraging for the roan, who won’t put his head in the water to pull out eelgrass.  Filmed July 13 by Mark Formo.

The bait has drawn 49 studs, 27 mares and 9 foals into the traps as of July 14, according to the daily reports.  Body condition scores were not given and no deaths have occurred.

RELATED: Jackson Mountains Roundup in Progress.

BLM announced this morning the beginning of Stage 1 fire restrictions in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, among others, which contain the Sand Wash Basin and Piceance-East Douglas HMAs, respectively.  The restrictions are explained in the news release.

The Wolf Fire, started yesterday by lightning, appears to be burning at or near the southern border of Piceance.

Kathryn in Christ spends the day with family in Oatman, AZ, an old mining town in the Black Mountain HMA frequented by wild burros.

RELATED: Oatman of the North.

There was frost on the ground a few hours earlier.  In June!

Trailcam photos from the Virginia Range.  Elevation 6,200 feet.