On the northern edge of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation near Lakeside, AZ with White Mountain Urban Farms and Cottages.

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The incident started today as scheduled with 161 horses captured, none shipped, none released and one dead.

RELATED: Antelope-Moriah Emergency Roundup Announced.

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The HMA overlaps the Carico Lake and Austin allotments, with 11% in Austin and 89% in Carico Lake according to Table 8 of the Final EA for the Callaghan Complex.

The 100 wild horses allowed by plan require 1,200 AUMs per year.

Carico Lake offers 24,954 active AUMs per year on 562,465 public acres, equivalent to 3.7 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Austin offers 14,478 active AUMs per year on 235,185 public acres, equivalent to 5.1 wild horses per thousand public acres.

If the resource is evenly distributed across the parcels, it’s present in the HMA but your faithful public servants gave it to the ranchers.

To estimate the carrying capacity, shift it back to the horses.  Forage assigned to wildlife stays with wildlife.

The HMA covers 132,401 public acres so the forage granted to the Carico Lake ranchers should support 132,401 × .89 × 3.7 ÷ 1,000 = 436 wild horses.

The forage granted to the Austin permittees inside the HMA should support 132,401 × .11 × 5.1 ÷ 1,000 = 74 wild horses.

The HMA should be able to sustain 100 + 436 + 74 = 610 wild horses (6X AML) if it was managed principally for them, as specified in the original statute.

The new stocking rate would be 610 ÷ 132,401 × 1,000 = 4.6 wild horses per thousand public acres, a bit more than the target stocking rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.

The allotment master report puts Austin and Carico Lake in the Improve category, which could be due to overgrazing or there may be some other environmental concern that needs monitoring.

The allotments would not make a good wild horse preserve because they overlap areas identified for wild horses and there is more than one authorization attached to each, so you’d have to acquire or control several base properties to access all of the AUMs.

RELATED: BLM Publishes Callaghan Final Planning Documents.

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The HMA is 100% inside the Carico Lake Allotment according to Table 4 of the Final EA for the Callaghan Complex.

The 215 wild horses allowed by plan require 2,580 AUMs per year.

The allotment offers 24,954 active AUMs per year on 562,465 public acres, equivalent to 3.7 wild horses per thousand public acres.

If the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel, it’s present in the HMA but was allocated to livestock.

To estimate the carrying capacity, shift it back to the horses.  Forage assigned to wildlife stays with wildlife.

The HMA covers 139,693 public acres so the forage assigned to livestock should support 139,693 × 3.7 ÷ 1,000 = 517 wild horses.

The HMA should be able to sustain 215 + 517 = 732 wild horses if it was managed principally for them, as specified in the original statute.

The advocates, eager to beat the horse populations down with PZP, oppose the concept.

The allotment master report puts Carico Lake in the Improve category, which could be due to overgrazing, but there are no AUMs in the suspended column.

The allotment would not make a good wild horse preserve because it overlaps areas already identified for wild horses and there is more than one authorization attached to it, so you’d have to acquire or control several base properties to access all of the AUMs.

RELATED: BLM Publishes Callaghan Final Planning Documents.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The incident will begin on or about February 22 according to the news release.

The driver is limited forage.

The capture and removal goals are 300 each. 

The target is wild horses outside the Antelope HMA and Moriah HA in eastern Nevada.

A map of the project area was not provided.

A helicopter will push the horses into the trap.

Operations will be open to public observation.

Animals identified for removal will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley.

There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The mass sterilization program will continue but the advocates will add motorized removal to their repertoire.

The current population is 274 according to a story by Phoenix New Times and the new target is 120.

To reach that number they will relocate 25 horses a year to sanctuaries.

The article said the group is actively seeking land or leases near the Salt River but did not indicate if they planned to attach them to vacant allotments in the forest—which would give their supporters more value for their investment.

As of today, AZDA has not announced the agreement at its news site.

RELATED: Salt River Management Contract Extended to March 31.

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The bill would not significantly affect the park’s operations and staffing according to a cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.

RELATED: S1377 Passes Out of Committee on Voice Vote.

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The Decision Record authorizes Alternative A, the Proposed Action, minus the IUDs and surgical sterilization.

The selected alternative, discussed in section 2.3 of the Final EA, also includes forcible removal to low AML, fertility control treatments and sex ratio skewing.

The new HMAP is presented in Appendix XIII.

All documents can be found in the project folder.

The news release did not indicate if the plan was subject to a 30-day appeal period but the DR suggests it is.

RELATED: Callaghan EA Out for Review.

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Route 66 turns 100 this year.

Sixty to seventy percent of travelers interviewed by the author of a new book point to Oatman as one of their favorite stops according to a story by KPNX News.

The report did not indicate if any visitors had been kicked by the burros.

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The stallion died of natural causes.  He was not one of the top producers in 2025.

The mare slipped on ice and broke her neck.

The report by WBOC News did not indicate if any foals had been born in 2026.

Known for its abnormal sex ratio and unprecedented birth rate, the saltwater cowboys have engineered the herd for maximum revenue at the annual pony swim and auction.

RELATED: Chincoteague Mare Found Dead.

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He’s not supposed to be there.

He made the population larger, the opposite of what the advocates are trying to achieve with their mass sterilization program.

How much longer before they put his mom on GonaCon?

Hitting the population target and proving their pesticide prowess is job #1 at the Salt River.

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The herd is so small that it’s in danger of becoming extinct according to an article by the New Times of San Luis Obispo.

A retired ranger from the Los Padres National Forest, home of the WHT, said she’s recommending and hoping that the Forest Service lets it die out.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a map of the territory but believes it’s located at the northern end of the Santa Lucia Ranger District based on remarks about a radar dome on page 45 (55 in the pdf) of the land management plan for the forest.

The WHT is not subject to permitted grazing.

The Forest Service does not post AOIs for neighboring allotments so it’s not possible to determine if the target stocking rate (20 horses on 13,3215 public acres) is reasonable.

Objective LG 3 in the management plan says the WHT remains suitable and sustainable over the long term but that was from 2005.

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Despite cancellation of the AIP, 8,080 animals were placed into private care last year, up 20% from FY24, according to a BLM blog post.

The report did not indicate how many animals were removed from public lands during the same period and if the off-range inventory was rising or falling.

RELATED: Court Halts AIP.

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The allotment information report at RAS yielded 275 allotments covering 1,964,564 public acres.

The system put 24% of the allotments in the Improve category along with 40% of the public acres.

Nearly 39% of the allotments and 54% of the public acres were in the Maintain category.

Approximately 36% of the active AUMs fell into Improve, with 58% in Maintain.

Results have been summarized in this table:

Category	Allotments	Public Acres	Active AUMs	AUMs / 1000 Ac	Equiv Horses	Horses / 1000 Ac
Custodial	103	128,587	24,360	189.4	2,030	15.8
Improve	66	778,386	135,887	174.6	11,324	14.5
Maintain	106	1,057,591	222,252	210.1	18,521	17.5
Tot / Avg	275	1,964,564	382,499	194.7	31,875	16.2

The results suggest that forage production and carrying capacity are greatest where standards for rangeland health have been achieved.

The original dataset and pivot tables can be found in this spreadsheet.

RELATED: Abundant Forage in Carlsbad Field Office.

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The story takes place in the Calico Basin of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, west of Las Vegas.

Climate change, groundwater pumping and heavy visitor traffic aggravate the situation according to the news release.

A petition calls for protection of the flower as a threatened or endangered species.

The Red Rock HMA borders the project area, which includes deeded acreage, on the west side.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The termination order went into effect on January 28.

The notice was posted by AZDA not USFS.

RELATED: Virus Detected in Salt River Herd.

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The BLM and Forest Service seek nominations for six positions on the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, three currently vacant and three to become vacant in September, according to today’s news release.

The agencies will host a webinar on March 11 to explain the process.

Board members serve three-year terms and meet one to four times per year.

The last meeting was in January 2025.

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Horses have the day off.  At or near the Lake Pleasant HMA with Get Out And Go.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The new fee, effective March 1, is $1.69 per AUM, up from $1.35 in 2025.

The BLM news release said changes to the fee cannot exceed 25% of the previous year’s price, which is the case this year.

For comparison, the price of alfalfa-grass hay this week was $27 per bale, 20 bales minimum, putting the cost of feed at $135 per AUM (five bales per horse per month).

RELATED: CRS Publishes FAQ for Livestock Grazing on Public Lands.

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An environmental assessment for grazing permit renewals says in section 1.1 that the field office authorizes 380,544 active AUMs on 1,947,890 federal acres, equivalent to 16.3 wild horses per thousand federal acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres.

The EA did not indicate how many of the acres were in the Improve category.

Comments on the project will be accepted through February 14.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.