Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
On Day 3 of the WHBAB meeting in Boise (07/11/19), Fred Woehl, Jr. (Chair) suggested that anyone interested in working with the wild horse program should be able to answer three questions. If they can, sign them up:
The following video by hea art will answer the first one. Filmed on the Virginia Range, a few miles south of Virginia City, NV.
The investigation continues, according to a story published this morning by the White Mountain Independent, but no new information has been released.
RELATED: Gossip About Motives in Heber Wild Horse Shootings?
Signs were erected July 1 near the McCullough Peaks HMA to designate the portion of U.S. Highway 14/16/20 from Cody to Emblem as the ‘Wild Horse Highway.’ See this report posted today by the Cody Enterprise.
What’s going on at the left hindquarters of this mare? Trailcam photo taken 06/11/19 on the Virginia Range. There were no youngsters in the band.
RELATED: PZP Zealots in Action on the Virginia Range.
The event kicks off at 8:00 AM MDT with a field trip to a nearby HMA (to see how wild horses are destroying their habitat and hurting the poor ranchers) then resumes with live-streamed proceedings from a conference room.
RELATED: WHBAB Meetings Set.
A story by the Los Angeles Times posted this morning says the facility, and the animals held there, are okay following major earthquakes on July 4 and 5.
The quake on July 5 knocked out power to the area, resulting in a loss of water, but trucks were located and it was hauled in, according to the report.
RELATED: Another Quake Hits Ridgecrest.
On the Virginia Range with Lauri Duke.
A report posted yesterday by The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC says a wild stallion who ran off after he was hit by a vehicle has been located and appears to be okay.
The incident occurred near Corolla, NC in an area frequented by bachelor bands.
Although he’s behaving normally, he will be monitored for internal injuries, according to the report.
Data from the news release announcing the roundup and final Gather Plan approved in December, 2017:
The aimed-at population density for wild horses in the Triple B Complex is 0.5 animals per thousand acres, compared to the target density of one animal per thousand acres for all HMAs (the land—27 million acres—can only support 27,000 wild horses and burros per current narrative).
The 889 horses allowed by plan would consume 10,668 AUMs annually, assuming they graze 12 months per year.
The horses found in the Complex today would consume 40,572 AUMs per year, with a population density of 2.1 animals per thousand acres.
Land in and around the Triple B Complex is also used for domestic livestock grazing, with 27 allotments involved. See Table 9 in the Gather Plan.
The forage allocated to livestock inside the Complex must be calculated because some of the allotments extend beyond its boundaries. For example, Gold Canyon contributes 1,068 × 0.59 = 630 AUMs, because 59% of its land is inside the Complex (assuming that forage is uniformly distributed across the parcel).
The 27 fractions, added together, yield 49,188 AUMs for livestock inside the Complex.
If livestock graze an average of six months per year, the AUM budget yields 8,198 cow-calf pairs inside the Complex, which are equivalent to wild horses in terms of their resource loading. The planned livestock density is 5.0 animals per thousand acres.
These results are summarized in the following charts.
Land that can only support 0.5 wild horses per thousand acres can support ten times as many cow-calf pairs. That’s what you’d expect if it was managed principally but not necessarily exclusively for livestock, contrary to the WHB Act.
The following options were considered in the plan but rejected:
Note that the map on page 9 of the Gather Plan shows both the Antelope and Triple B Complexes. Tables 1 and 8 could be used to generate the same charts and figures for Antelope. Any volunteers? The Antelope Complex contains the massive Spruce Allotment, site of the infamous Spruce-Pequop incident last August.
The gather that starts on Monday will shift 9,600 AUMs per year from the Horse column to the Cattle column, moving the plan one step closer to fruition.
RELATED: Triple B Gather Starts Next Week.
Gather stats indicate 128 jacks were removed from the HMA, along with 56 jennies, for a total of 184 wild burros. Four foals were also captured but their gender was not given.
Seventy percent were males, thirty percent were females.
Do those numbers look like they came from a herd where males and females are evenly distributed? The range of variation in these values attributable to natural causes can be found from some basic statistical formulas, where p = .50 and n = 184.
The following chart shows the range between jacks and jennies is larger than expected.
Why would there be an assignably high number of males in the traps (or assignably low number of females)?
Are males and females evenly distributed in the herd? If not, why?
Were there riders in the field steering the jacks toward the traps? Do jennies have an innate ability to see danger ahead and move away?
What else could skew the results?
If 60% of the captured animals were male and 40% were female, you’d be wasting your time trying to explain the difference, because those results fall within the limits.
RELATED: Seven Troughs Gather Complete.
BLM said today that bait trapping has concluded, with 188 wild burros removed from an area near Porter Springs and Empire, NV. One death was reported.
The roundup was justified in part by resource damage around the new Porter Springs Recreation Management Area, according to the news release.
BLM announced today that approximately 800 wild horses would be removed from the Triple B Complex in eastern Nevada starting on or about 07/08/19.
The roundup will prevent further degradation of public lands, according to the news release, by helping to balance herd size, suggesting there was something on the other side of the scales but did not say what.
The complex consists of the Triple B HMA, Maverick Medicine HMA, Antelope Valley HMA west of Highway 93 and the Cherry Springs WHT, denoted in red on this map.
The event will be open to public observation and captured animals will be taken to the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals, about 20 miles north of Sparks.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted here.
The Complex was the subject of a larger roundup in early 2018, with approximately 1,300 wild horses forced off their home range. The map at this page indicates that it is subject to permitted livestock grazing.
RELATED: Livestock Grazing in Nevada, Economics of Wild Horse Gathers.
East of Pahrump, NV near the Johnnie HMA, with Bearded Patriot.
At or near the Red Rock HMA with Terry Buys Stuff.
Two Virginia Range mustangs watch as another band passes by. There is a hierarchy within the herd and each band knows when it’s their turn to visit the water hole.
The population density in this area is roughly ten horses per thousand acres, maybe a bit more, and as you can see from the condition of these two guys, that’s way too many.
The BLM allows an average of one horse per thousand acres on lands they manage.
Why such a low number? Because it’s not about the horses, it’s about the livestock, privately owned, of course. Never mind that the land was set aside for the horses.
The depressions in the sand suggest that horses laid down for naps in these locations.
Photos taken 06/21/19 on the Virginia Range.
On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Karen King. Note the little medhat at 5:52.
Two Virginia Range mustangs dance while everyone else drinks.
A stallion was killed yesterday on New Mexico Highway 48, while attempting to cross it with some other horses. Refer to this report by Ruidoso News, posted today.
Wild horses in this area were the subject of a two year court battle that ended last year, when a judge ruled the New Mexico Livestock Board had no authority in the case.
RELATED: Alto Horses Settling In, Alto Horses Get Temporary Warning Signs.
A news release posted today by EIN Presswire praises language in a draft appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior about the ‘rewilding’ of horses and burros.
The concept, which appears on page 15 of the proposed legislation, refers to the transfer of captured horses from government corrals and contracted pastures to private facilities, not their home range, just as the ranchers wanted.
The draft also includes $6 million for the first phase of the wild horse eradication plan, also favored by the ranchers. See page 10.
RELATED: CANA Foundation: Don’t Give Them a Penny.
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