Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
This 46-minute radio segment by KNPR of Las Vegas features J.J. Goicochea, Nevada state veterinarian and public-lands rancher, Greg Hendricks, director of field operations for American Wild Horse Campaign, and Celeste Carlisle, WHBAB member and science advisor for Return to Freedom. Listener comments included.
How can the ranchers fatten their cattle on lands where horses are starving?
RELATED: The ‘Path Forward’ is Wrong, Livestock Grazing in Nevada.
The population density on the Virginia Range is about ten wild horses per thousand acres, compared to an average of two or three wild horses per thousand acres on lands managed by the BLM. The aimed-at population density on those lands is one wild horse per thousand acres (to be achieved by the glorious ‘Path Forward’).
Why not ten on BLM lands? Because most of the forage has been assigned to privately owned livestock. That’s what drives the roundups and warehousing of wild horses.
The shooting occurred in the Lincoln National Forest so the case was turned over to the Forest Service, according to a report posted today by Ruidoso News.
The wild horses of Alto, NM were returned to their home range a year ago after a judge ruled that the state livestock board had taken them into custody illegally.
The incident follows the Clark Mountain wild burro shootings in California and Heber wild horse shootings in Arizona. No arrests have been made in those cases.
NPS said there were 22 males (29.3%) and 53 females (70.7%) on the Maryland side of the island in November, according to a story posted today by WMDT News of Salisbury.
The observed sex ratio of a wild horse herd will rarely be 50/50, but how far must it deviate from that value to indicate problems?
The answer must be found by calculation, using basic statistical formulas, where p-bar = .5 and n = 75. The range of variation between males and females attributable to natural causes is therefore .327 (32.7%) to .673 (67.3%).
The observed proportions fall outside those limits, so an explanation should be sought.
If the observed proportions fell inside the limits, there would be no clear indication of trouble and an investigation would be a waste of time. The herd would be treated as if its sex ratio was 50/50, even though the observed value was, say, 38/62.
A teenager from Lexington Park has sponsored every one of the wild horses on the Maryland side of the island. Refer to this story, published today by Southern Living.
Now, can she find out why the sex ratio of the herd is skewed in favor of females?
At the end of the public comments in last week’s meeting of the WHBAB, the Chair admonished the Board about discussing the ill-conceived management plan for wild horses and burros:
“I want to make this perfectly clear that the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is not part of, has not and do not plan to discuss the Path Forward plan that had been mentioned so many times here. It was not presented to the board. It was not presented to BLM. It was presented to Congress. And it’s up to Congress to act on it, not this board. And we will not talk about it.”
Yet the Board’s recommendations to the BLM are nearly identical to those in the plan, according to a story by United Press International. The number of wild horses and burros on western rangelands must be drastically reduced, with more roundups, more adoptions and something new: Sterilization.
The population target stated in the report—26,715—does not represent the number of wild horses and burros the land can support—it’s not even close—but rather the forage loss the government and its ranching cronies are willing to tolerate.
Whenever you see references in an article to ‘humane management,’ ‘healthy horses’ and ‘healthy rangelands,’ you know you’re being lied to.
Refer to this story by the Daily Miner of Kingman, AZ. If that means they’ll stop having conversations about wild horses and burros without having conversations about public-lands ranching, then it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
The newly appointed member, who serves in the area of humane advocacy, said there are 50,000 wild horses in federal care and another 88,000 on ranches, according to the report.
Don’t quit your day job, dear.
RELATED: WHBAB Open Positions Filled.
BLM said today that wild horses in and around the Seaman Range and White River Herd Areas—lands no longer designated for them—will be removed, starting next week.
The gathers will be carried out with helicopters and will be open to public observation, according to the news release.
The two former HMAs contain about 475,100 acres in eastern Nevada, south of Ely.
The Golden Gate and Seaman Range HAs were combined in the 1980s and are referred to as the Seaman Range HA in the Final Environmental Assessment for the roundups.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Ridgecrest, CA.
The two HAs have no AMLs and are not managed for wild horses, supposedly because they don’t have sufficient resources. But the horses are there.
So are thousands of privately owned cattle and sheep. Refer to Tables 2 and 3 in the EA.
The 31,000 AUMs per year offered to the public-lands ranchers would support 2,583 wild horses, but they are to be swept aside in favor of the crony capitalists.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
Mini-documentary by Delaney Tibbetts…as roundup season grinds across western rangelands and the ‘Path Forward‘ pushes through Congress.
On the Onaqui Mountain HMA (pre-gather) with Karen King.
Trailcam photos of the water tanks on the Virginia Range. The one on the left had a thin layer of ice in it yesterday. Elevation 6,200 feet.
You can’t look at the numbers and then agree with the premise of this story, namely, that WHB populations are outpacing what the range can support—not when there are many more cow/calf pairs on the same land.
The Antelope Complex and Silver King HMA are just two examples (listed in the sidebar on the right under Short End of Stick).
What about policies and programs derived from a faulty premise?
Garbage in, garbage out.
Same band as in this post, different camera.
Refer to this opinion piece in The Hill by a representative of the ASPCA, one of the signatories to the ill-conceived management plan for wild horses.
Forcing wild horses off their home range will ensure they’re not killed and sold for their meat—allowing ranchers to replace them with other animals that will be killed and sold for their meat. Brilliant.
RELATED: The ‘Path Forward’ is Wrong.
BLM announced today that a Decision Record and Finding of No Significant Impact have been issued for the Twin Peaks HMA on the CA/NV border near Susanville.
The move clears the way for a wild horse roundup, but a date for that has not been set, according to the news release.
As of today, the gather does not appear on the preliminary schedule for FY 2020.
A report by Northern Wyoming News says the mares returned to the Fifteenmile HMA after the roundup were not treated with contraceptives. The sex ratio of the herd was altered, however, by selective return of captured horses.
How many cow/calf pairs are needed to graze off 3,226 AUMs in 4.5 months? Easy, just divide the available forage (AUMs) by the grazing season (months):
Cow/calf pairs = AUMs ÷ Grazing season
If you don’t know the grazing season, assume it’s six months.
To compute the annual forage requirement for a given number of cow/calf pairs, just reverse the math:
AUMs = Cow/calf pairs × Grazing season
Although wild horses and cow/calf pairs are said to be equivalent in terms of their forage consumption, their AUM budgets differ because of their grazing seasons.
Listen to this 44 second radio segment by KOH News of Reno. The woman interviewed for the story is with Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates.
Section 4.2.2 in the environmental assessment for the roundup states that 15,794 AUMs per year have been allocated to thirteen livestock operators on seven allotments within the HMA. The EA also states in section 1.1 that the AML is 185 – 253 wild horses.
The roundup, which starts next week, will bring the HMA to the low end of the AML, meaning that:
There’s not enough forage to sustain the pre-gather population of 429 wild horses (5,148 AUMs per year), but there’s three times that amount for domestic livestock.
RELATED: Challis Herd to Be Thinned Next Month.
