Lexicon

Acceptable Forage Loss (AFL) – The number of wild horses and burros on public lands the ranchers are willing to tolerate, usually one animal per thousand acres.

Animal Unit Month (AUM) – The forage consumed by one cow/calf pair, one horse, two burros, or five sheep in one month.

Appropriate Management Level (AML) – The number of wild horses and burros the land can support in conjunction with other mandated uses, usually one animal per thousand acres.

Birthright Ranching – A belief that you’re entitled to graze livestock on land you don’t own, especially when generations before you did the same thing.

Bureau of Livestock Multiplication (BLM) – Bureau of Land Management.

Carrying Capacity – The number of animals an area can support long term (getting rid of wild horses and burros means they can be replaced with more cattle and sheep).

Cheerleader Group – An organization that spreads the wild horse narrative and pushes the ranching agenda.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) – a high-density feedlot, with capacity exceeding a certain value, usually set by state or local governments.

Disputed Territory – Public lands set aside in 1971 for free-roaming horses and burros, most of which are subject to domestic livestock grazing.

Drama Club – Facebook.

Excess Horses and Burros – Animals that rob too much forage from public-lands ranchers (population exceeds AML/AFL).

Gather – The removal of excess horses and burros from lands set aside for horses and burros, so their food can be sold to public-lands ranchers (usually accomplished with helicopters or bait traps).

Government Serfs – Public-lands ranchers, symbols of victimhood and dependency, not ruggedness and self-reliance (wild horses exemplify those characteristics).

Grazing Fee – The price paid by ranchers for forage consumed on public lands by their livestock, $1.35 per AUM in 2019 (try feeding your horse for that, or your cat).

Growing List of Uses (of Public Lands) – Privately owned livestock.

Healthy Rangelands – Areas where wild horse and burro populations have been reduced to AML (so their food can be sold to public-lands ranchers).

Herd Area (HA) – Lands where wild horses were found when the WHB Act became law, to be managed principally but not exclusively for horses and burros, but no longer managed for horses due to inadequate resources or other reasons (can support privately owned livestock however).

Herd Management Area (HMA) – Lands where wild horses were found when the WHB Act became law, to be managed (by the BLM) principally but not exclusively for horses and burros, but now managed primarily for livestock (HMAs usually lie within HAs).

Humane Management Practices – The firing of contraceptive darts into mares, usually once a year, to slow population growth (a technique that reflects the moral depravity of its adherents, can lead to sterilization).

Invasive Species – Anything that robs forage from the public-lands ranchers or crowds it out, including wild horses and burros, wildlife, pinyon pines and juniper trees.

Multiple Use – The policy of managing public lands, especially those set aside for wild horses and burros, for multiple purposes, such as recreation, mining, oil and gas production, timber harvesting, and livestock grazing (hikers, campers, miners, drillers and loggers typically don’t care about forage and are not known for wiping out wild horse herds).

No Rancher Left Behind Act – FLPMA.

Occupiers – Wild horses and burros.

Other Mandated Uses (of Public Lands) – Privately owned livestock.

Other Rangeland Resources (on Public Lands) – Privately owned livestock.

Other Uses and Values (of Public Lands) – Privately owned livestock.

PZP Channel – A wild horse advocacy group that pushes fertility control on wild horses and burros (using jab sticks or dart guns).

PZP Zealot – An individual who accepts the overpopulation narrative or otherwise believes that wild horse numbers need to be reduced (may have a ranching background or ties to the ranching industry).

Rangeland Degradation – Damage attributed to wild horses and burros in the western U.S., even though they’re outnumbered at least ten to one by privately owned cattle and sheep (livestock are blameless, always).

The Great Destroyer – Public-lands ranching.

Thriving Ecological Balance – A condition on public lands in the western U.S. where privately owned livestock receive at least two thirds of the available forage, with the balance going to free-roaming horses and wildlife.

Two-State Solution – A belief that free-roaming horses and burros can exist in their natural state on lands subject to permitted livestock grazing.

Wild Horse Advocacy – Policies and practices arising from a belief that wild horses should be the beneficiaries of them, not the target of them (do things for the horses not to the horses).

Wild Horse and Burro (WHB) Act – Legislation that protected wild horses and burros where they were found when signed by President Nixon in 1971, never accepted by the public-lands ranchers and government bureaucrats charged with their care (the gravy train and good ‘ol boys network were well-established by then).

Wild Horse Management – Policies and practices arising from a belief that wild horses should be the target of them, not the beneficiaries of them (do things to the horses not for the horses).

Wild Horse Narrative – The bullshit storyline pushed by the pubic-lands ranchers and their cheerleaders to diminish the historical significance of wild horses and burros, namely, that most of them are escaped ranch stock, are overpopulated, serve no useful purpose, have no natural predators, destroy rangelands, rob forage from domestic livestock and bring in no economic return.

Wild Horse Population Crisis – A condition that occurs when there are more wild horses on western rangelands than the ranchers are willing to tolerate, requiring action from their allies in government (to bring wild horse numbers down to acceptable limits).

Wild Horse Problem – Skirmishes on the disputed territory between free-roaming horses and privately owned livestock, usually addressed by sanctioning the horses.

Wild Horse Territory – Lands where wild horses were found when the WHB Act became law, to be managed (by the USFS) principally but not exclusively for horses and burros, but now managed primarily for livestock.

Last updated 02-09-20