Advocates Upset as BLM Traps More Pine Nut Horses

Thirteen more have been captured, according to a report by The Record-Courier of Minden, NV, bringing the total to 18.

All of the mares had been treated with the Montana Solution.

Although a nuisance gather appears at the bottom of the FY 2023 roundup schedule, with a removal goal of 22, there are no gather stats and daily reports at the Nevada roundup page.

The Pine Nut Mountains HMA, shown in orange on the following map, is roughly half the size of the HA, shown in black.

Operations may be on private lands west of the HA.

RELATED: Advocates Fuming After BLM Nabs Pine Nut Horses.

Resource Management in Pine Nut Mountains 01-24-23

Writer Doubts BLM’s Investment in Sand Wash Basin

Commenting on a February 6 story about the agency’s plan to install fixed trap stations and increase the use of fertility control, he stated in a February 15 letter that the purpose of roundups is to destroy wild horse herds at the behest of sheep and cattle ranchers.

Although he referred to them as cruel and unnecessary, he did not point to the Montana Solution as an alternative.

RELATED: Management Paradigm Shifting at Sand Wash Basin?

Fire Department Rescues Wild Horse from Cattle Guard

The incident occurred on February 9 at the entrance to the Ten-X Campground of the Kaibab National Forest, according to a report posted today by Williams News of Williams, AZ.

The facility is located two miles south of Tusayan, AZ on the east side of Highway 64.

The article did not indicate if the guard had been installed by our stewards of the public lands.

The Western Watersheds map indicates that the campground is surrounded by the Anita Allotment of the Tusayan Ranger District.

The mishap follows two other calls in the past year involving horses in cattle guards.

UPDATE: More information about the allotment can be found in the 2022 Annual Operating Instructions.

Ten-X Campground Map 02-14-23

AMLs and Carrying Capacities

The statement last week by the BLM that the AML for Sand Wash Basin represents the carrying capacity of the land was false.

If an HMA is subject to permitted grazing, the carrying capacity will be higher.

Same for WHTs.

Sand Wash Basin covers 156,502 total acres, according to the 2022 HA/HMA Report, including 151,435 public acres.

The AML is 362.

The 362 horses allowed by plan, the correct interpretation of the term, require 4,344 AUMs per year, or 28.7 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 362 ÷ 151,435 × 1,000 = 2.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

The National Data Viewer shows four allotments that overlap the HMA: Lang Spring, Nipple Rim, Sheepherder Spring and Sand Wash.

The allotment boundaries deviate slightly from the HMA boundary and roughly half of Nipple Rim extends beyond the HMA, but the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA—the reason why AMLs are not synonymous with carrying capacities—can be estimated on a per-acre basis.

Sand Wash Allotments 02-04-23

The Allotment Master Report provides acreage, management status and active AUMs.

Sand Wash Basin Allotment Calcs 02-12-23

Approximately 98% of the public acreage is in the Improve category.

The forage assigned to livestock would support 117.6 ÷ 12 = 9.8 horses per thousand public acres, on top of the 2.4 allowed by plan, despite claims by the BLM that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

There are three layers of forage demand across the HMA: Horses, livestock and wildlife.

Livestock receive 117.6 × 151,435 ÷ 1,000 = 17,809 AUMs per year per year inside the HMA, enough to support 17,809 ÷ 12 = 1,484 wild horses.

The horses receive 4,344 AUMs per year as noted above.

The forage assigned to wildlife is not known but is probably around 200 AUMs per year.

These figures are presented in the pie charts below.

The estimated carrying capacity is 362 + 1,484 = 1,846, the True AML, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a rear-round off season.

The Sand Wash Advocates beat the horse population down with their favorite pesticide so livestock can access most of their food.

The Wild Horse Fire Brigade would ship them to a remote wilderness area, never to be seen again, so livestock can access all of their food.

The 2021 roundup took over 600 horses off the range.  The pre-gather population was 896, well within the carrying capacity of the HMA.

RELATED: Management Paradigm Shifting at Sand Wash Basin?

Sand Wash Resource Management 02-14-23

Assateague Pony Census, February 2023

The Assateague Island Alliance counted 78 horses on the Maryland side of the island as of February 8, no change from January.

No births were indicated.

The number of males and females was not given.

The Park Service no longer provides census results.

The herd, barely able to keep up with deaths, shows little if any growth since the safe, proven and reversible darting program was shut off in 2016.

The sex ratio is likely skewed in favor of females, a side-effect of the Montana Solution.

RELATED: Assateague Census, January 2023.

FOAL Goes Public with McCullough Comments

There are no remarks about livestock, grazing, forage allocations and management priorities in their response to the scoping letter, appearing in today’s edition of the Powell Tribune.

The group provides darting services to the BLM, beating down the horse population while leaving most of their food for the public-lands ranchers.

Perhaps we should refer to them as Friends of Authorized Livestock.

Of interest is their take on sterility and sex ratio skewing.

GonaCon causes sterility, not in females but in males.  How did they come up with that?

Mares that respond to the Montana Solution live longer, according to their statement, meaning that females will outnumber males, if they don’t already, and the sex ratio will be skewed in favor of females.

The pattern has been evident at Assateague Island for many years, a documented side-effect of PZP that the advocates deny.

They don’t talk much about sterility either, referring to such mares as self-boosting.

RELATED: Hallelujah, McCullough Comment Period Ends Today!

HJR3 Clears Wyoming House

The resolution passed yesterday with nobody speaking against it, according to a report by Cowboy State Daily.

The vote count was not given.

Public-lands ranchers enjoy broad support in the state, not just from the legislature and CSD, but from the agency charged with protection of the horses.  For example, livestock in the Rock Springs HMAs, subject of the Rock Springs RMP Amendments, receive an estimated 88% of the authorized forage.

RELATED: Cowboy State Daily Lining Up Buyers for Wyoming Horsemeat?

Management Paradigm Shifting at Sand Wash Basin?

A BLM news release dated February 6 comes on the heels of a story last week by the Craig Press about Sand Wash Basin.

The agency will invest $625,000 to better manage the wild horse population through increased fertility control and small-scale gathers.

Fixed trap sites will become part of the landscape, a constant reminder that horses are not a priority in the HMA.

Contrary to the announcement, the AML of 363 represents the number of horses allowed by plan, not the carrying capacity of the land.

The carrying capacity is always higher, sometimes much higher, when resources assigned to privately owned livestock are shifted back to the horses.

RELATED: How to Decipher Articles about Wild Horses.

McCullough Comments Sail Past 3,500

Go to ePlanning for the latest results.  The numbers change minute by minute.

The SOWH call to action tells you to oppose GonaCon, which may act as a sterilant.

You should also oppose sex ratio skewing.

Both results can be achieved with the Montana Solution.

Mares darted with PZP become sterile in four to five years.  The advocates refer to them as self-boosting.

The pesticide skews sex ratios in favor of females, evident at Assateague Island.

These patterns likely exist in other areas but the advocates are tight-lipped.

Changes that would benefit the horses are outside the scope of the project.

RELATED: McCullough Comments Top 3,000.

McCullough Comments Top 3,000

The groundhog’s prediction was fulfilled in just two days.

“No to GonaCon.”

“No to IUDs.”

“No to bait traps.”

“No to managing the HMA principally for wild horses,” a result that cannot be achieved through a gather decision.

“Yes to PZP.”

The advocates have tricked their followers into protecting the public-lands ranchers, not wild horses.

RELATED: Groundhog Predicts Another 500 McCullough Comments.

McCullough Comments Top 3000 02-04-23

Salt River Advocates Bawling about Loss of Mirabelle?

She was killed by a mountain lion according to the video description.

Don’t be misled as they feign sorrow for the incident.  They are counting on predators to take out any foals that slip though the darting program!  The same thing is happening on the Virginia Range.

In Memory of Mirabelle 02-04-23

Like other advocates, they are ruthless in achieving their herd reduction goals, given to them by the bureaucrats.  They are hired guns.

The effort is part of a much larger plan, coordinated by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and carried out by its army of volunteers, to win the approval of the bureaucrats and ranchers and subdue the herds in favor of privately owned livestock.

Don’t give them a penny!

RELATED: Ringleader Admits Her Group Is Getting Rid of Salt River Horses!