If the NDA allowed you back on the Virginia Range in 2019 and you pounded the mares with pesticide-laced darts through 2023, how long have you been poisoning the herd?

Elapsed time = Final year – Initial year + 1 = 2023 – 2019 + 1 = 5 years

How long does it take to sterilize a mare?

Five years.

Aren’t you concerned about the long-term viability of the herd?

We have a better way to get rid of wild horses.  There’s no need to spend tens of millions of dollars every year on roundups and off-range holding.  The bureaucrats and ranchers just need to be patient.

RELATED: CAAWH Now an Appendage of BLM, Wants Ranchers to Win.

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses said in a news flash last week that it is providing logistical, financial and darting support for the fertility control program in Nevada’s Pine Nut Mountains, “further proving the feasibility of this approach to keeping wild horses wild and in balance with their environment.”

In balance with their environment?

Sounds like they’re reading from the BLM playbook.

That means shrinking the herds so they fit into the tiny resource boxes the bureaucrats have given them, with most of their food and water going to the public-lands ranchers.

They’re still referring to PZP as a fertility control vaccine, not an ovary-killing pesticide.

As for the Land Conservancy Project, are they going to turn it into a pig farm with laboratory to produce more poison?  Maybe call it Billings Unit 2.

With 3,300 acres, there’s plenty of room for a PZP darting school complete with free-roaming horses for target practice.

Who would support these efforts, besides its uninformed and misinformed base?

• Hunters
• Ranchers
• Farm bureaus
• Public lands councils
• Stockgrowers associations
• Cattlemen’s groups
• Colleges and universities
• Societies for rangeland management
• Agribusiness

RELATED: CAAWH Continues Work of Wild Horse Annie?

The roundup is set to begin on December 28, which is Thursday.

No rain in the forecast with temperatures reaching the low 50s.

Rain is predicted on the other side of the Sierra but will not reach this area, apparently.

The Complex is south of Winnemucca and the off-range corrals are to the north.

The privately owned corrals can accommodate 4,000 horses on 100 acres, equivalent to 4,000 cow/calf pairs on 100 acres, proving there is no need for ranchers to be anywhere near public lands.

RELATED: East Pershing Roundup in the News.

Adjectives for equine pests.

RELATED: Battle of the Adjectives.

The incident will start on or about December 28 according to today’s news release.

The capture and removal goals are identical, 2,875 each.

No animals will be treated with fertility control and none will be released, at least not intentionally.

A helicopter will push the horses into the traps and operations will be open to public observation.

Horses not dispatched in the field will be taken to the privately owned corrals in Paradise Valley.

Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.

The National Data Viewer shows the six original HAs and three remaining HMAs.

The Complex is managed primarily for animal agriculture as discussed in this video.

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

RELATED: Introduction to the East Pershing Complex.

Zonastat-H may be applied only to female horses and burros capable of doing environmental damage, as specified on the label.

Application to control animals that interfere or could interfere with animal agriculture, or pose safety hazards to motorists, constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide and should be investigated by law enforcement.

Administering two doses of GonacCon Equine less than 90 days apart also constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide and should be investigated by law enforcement.

Application of these products without the proper PPE also constitutes unlawful use.

This applies to the bureaucrats, ranchers and advocates who authorize or carry out such uses on public or private lands.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Breaking the Monotony Edition.

The horses removed this summer have returned, at least some of them, but they are now in private care, according to a story dated December 21 by the Pahrump Valley Times.

The status of the burros was not given.

RELATED: Pahrump Residents Working to Reverse Johnnie Roundup.

The incident concluded on December 14 with 1,605 horses captured, 1,392 shipped, 190 released and 23 dead, yielding a net removal of 1,415.

The capture and removal goals were 1,594 and 1,381.

The daily reports indicate 1,394 horses shipped.  The discrepancy may be related to two domestic horses caught on November 23.

There were no unaccounted-for animals according to figures in the sidebar.

The capture total included 658 stallions, 737 mares and 210 foals.

Youngsters represented 13.1% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of seven to eight percent per year.

Of the adults, 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female, providing no evidence of an abnormal sex ratio.

Eighty-one mares were returned to the HMA after receiving two doses of GonaCon Equine just 30 days apart, constituting unlawful use of the pesticide.

They were accompanied by 109 stallions.

To date, an announcement marking the end of the roundup has not appeared at the BLM news site.

The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.

RELATED: Clan Alpine Roundup Announced.

The capture and removal goals are 1,000 and 960 according to the latest schedule.

A helicopter will push the burros into the traps and operations will be open to limited public observation.

The news release did not include a link to the gather stats and daily reports.

Animals identified for removal will be taken to the off-range corrals in Florence.

Jennies involved in the Platero Project will receive another dose of PZP and be returned to the area near the capture site.

The HMA contains the old mining town of Oatman, known for its furry panhandlers, and is subject to permitted grazing.

Application of PZP to control animals that interfere with animal agriculture, or pose safety hazards to motorists, constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.

The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and grazing allotments.  Click on image to open in new tab.

The 2022 roundup took nearly 1,100 animals off the range.

The incident supports three tenets of rangeland management.

If your savings account earns 6% per year, how long before your money doubles?

According to the Rule, 72 ÷ 6 = 12 years.

If you want your money to double in eight years, what interest rate is needed?

Same calculation, 72 ÷ 8 = 9% per year.

If a wild horse herd is growing at a rate of 12% per year, how long before it doubles?

Six years.

If it doubles every eight years, what is the growth rate?

Nine percent per year.

The formula doesn’t care if you’re counting horses or dollars.

The growth rate for horses is not the same as the birth rate.

The birth rate will be five to six percentage points higher to account for deaths.

For a herd to grow at a rate of 12% per year, a birth rate of seventeen to eighteen percent per year will be needed.

What happens when the birth rate is zero or nearly so, because the advocates poisoned the mares with pesticide-laced darts?

The herd shrinks, as is the case at the Salt River and Virginia Range.

In the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area with Sheri Lind.

She no longer appears in the list of staff.

That would explain the recent solicitation for Communications Director.

Did she finally come to her senses or join another ranching advocacy group?

Despite the loss, the list is large and growing, which explains why they need more of your financial support.

RELATED: After Raking in $147K, CAAWH Wants More.

Six incidents have occurred in the past month according to a report by KTVN News.

How many did the advocates get rid of during the same period?

Their only rival is the federal government.  Not shooters, not motorists, not hunters, ranchers, drillers or miners.

RELATED: Reno to Install New Barrier for Virginia Range Mustangs.

Imagine the tedium day after day assuring your supporters that you care about wild horses while you’re telling the bureaucrats you’re getting rid of them.

The dissonance would overwhelm a normal person but we’re not talking about normal persons, we’re talking about the advocates.

If you keep referring to ovary-killing pesticides as humane fertility control, your donors might get wise.

If you keep referring to animals you’re trying to eradicate as “cherished” your followers might catch on.

Western Horse Watchers has the answer: A randomly generated term from an Excel spreadsheet to put in your reports, guest columns, news flashes and action alerts.

Cherished today, treasured tomorrow, majestic the next day.  There’s no pattern, no predictability.

Keep in mind that random means some terms may repeat while others go through dry spells.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Surveying the Adjectives Edition.

The incident concluded today, with 309 horses captured, 137 shipped, 165 released and seven dead.

There were no unaccounted-for animals.

The capture and removal goals were 350 and 138, respectively.

The death rate was 2.3%.

The capture total included 92 stallions, 187 mares and 30 foals.

Youngsters represented 9.7% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of five percent per year.

Of the adults, 33% were males and 67% were females, not what you’d expect from a herd that’s 50% males / 50% females.

All but three of the mares returned to the WHR were treated with Gonacon Equine, but apparently just one dose.

The event was billed as catch-treat-release and was not open to public observation.

The news release does not discuss death rates, birth rates or abnormal sex ratios.

RELATED: Nevada WHR Roundup Starts This Week.

The herd on the Maryland side of the island consisted of 15 bands and 81 horses according to the December 6 inventory, no change from October.

Two horses were in a bachelor band and one was alone.

Only seven foals were born this year, seven years after the darting program was shut off.

The pesticide of choice was Zonastat-H, a favorite of the advocates.

Not included in the report:

• Ratio of females to males
• Size of breeding population
• Number of sterilized mares

The BLM WHB Handbook indicates the breeding population should exceed 50 animals to maintain an acceptable level of genetic diversity.

The herd likely has an abnormal sex ratio, which the advocates describe as mares living longer, and this may explain why there are so few unattached stallions.

The Assateague Island Alliance updates the lists.

RELATED: Assateague Pony Census, October 2023.

The schedule dated October 16 called for 8,826 animals to be captured and 8,214 to be removed but the schedule dated December 8 calls for 20,942 animals to be captured and 19,870 to be removed.

That’s a 137% increase in gathers and 142% increase in removals.

The North Lander Complex has been added, rivaling the East Pershing Complex in size.

Kiger and Riddle will see action, first time since 2015.

Marietta will lose horses and burros, along with Twin Peaks and Blue Wing.

Triple B and Maverick-Medicine have also been added.

Four gathers will occur during foaling season.

The first section in the schedule covers nonmotorized removals, the domain of the wild horse advocates.

These incidents support the three tenets of rangeland management.

“Resource not present” according to Table 3-1 in the Final EIS.

What about livestock grazing?

Figure 1-1 in the SER for grazing management shows the location of the mine relative to the towns of Battle Mountain and Carlin, NV (page 12 in the pdf).

Figure 2-1 shows the affected allotments (page 21).

Table 2-1 indicates the four allotments offer 70,430 active AUMs on 1,193,627 public acres, or 59.0 AUMs per thousand public acres, equivalent to 4.9 wild horses per thousand public acres.

This brings more embarrassment to the bureaucrats, ranchers and advocates who claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

The mine is hard to find in the National Data Viewer if you’re looking at the wild horse areas but if you turn on the grazing allotments it’s a piece of cake.

Wild horses don’t pay much attention to HMA boundaries unless they’re marked with fences, so the conclusion of no impact could be open for dispute.

The EIS and related documents have been copied to the project folder in ePlanning.

A December 12 news release indicates the BLM has given it the green light.

The incident began on December 8.  Results through December 12:

• Scope: Nevada WHR
• Purpose: Pest control, resource enforcement, rancher protection
• Target: Horses
• Type: Planned
• Method: Helicopter
• Category: Cruel and costly*
• Better way: Beat their numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides*
• Captured: 298, up from 123 on Day 3
• Average daily take: 59.6
• Capture goal: 350
• Removal goal: 138
• Returned: 1, no change from Day 3
• Deaths: 2, no change from Day 3
• Shipped: 97, up from 58 on Day 3

The death rate is 0.7%.

The capture total includes 88 stallions, 180 mares and 30 foals.

Youngsters represented 10.1% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of 5% per year.

Of the adults, 32.8% were male and 67.2% were female.  These figures don’t look like they came from a simple random process centered at 50% males / 50% females.

Body condition scores were not given.

The WHR is not subject to permitted grazing but surrounding lands are.

*According to advocates.

Day 5 ended with 198 unaccounted-for animals.

Up to 106 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine, a fertility control pesticide, before being returned the range with up to 106 stallions.

Operations will likely conclude this week.

Other statistics:

• Forage liberated to date: 3,564 AUMs per year
• Water liberated to date: 2,970 gallons per day
• Horses allowed by plan: 500
• Pre-gather population: 438
• Forage assigned to horses: 6,000 AUMs per year
• Forage assigned to livestock: None
• Horses displaced from HMA by permitted grazing: None
• True AML: 500
• Stocking rate at new AML: 0.4 wild horses per thousand acres
• Horses displaced by drilling and mining: Ask the advocates

RELATED: Nevada WHR Roundup, Day 3.

Meeting materials have been posted to the WHBAB home page.

Day 1 is a field trip to Lake Pleasant HMA.  No livestream.

Refer to the agenda for details.

RELATED: Next WHBAB Meeting Set for December 14.