Colorado Grazing Project Reveals Abundant Forage

Little Snake Land & Livestock Company was selected in 2018 for an outcome-based demonstration project.

The operator information report at RAS associated the ranch with two authorizations, 0500302 and 0504960.

The allotment information report tied the authorizations to four allotments, all in the Little Snake Field Office:

0500302 – HORSE DRAW
0504960 – RICEGRASS, PISKWIK, SEVEN MILE

The news release said the project involved an authorization with three allotments, so it’s probably 0504960.

Horse Draw is northeast of the Sand Wash Basin HMA and other three are east of Horse Draw.

The allotment master report provides management status, acreage and active AUMs.

The allotments support livestock equivalent to 177 wild horses on 16,984 public acres, or 10.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

Suggestions for ‘Call of the Wild’

Go off script. Ask for something that helps wild horses stay on public lands.

Raise the federal grazing fee to at least $30 per AUM
Restore the WHB Act to its original form
Put labels on range-fed beef

Advocates, Not Congress, Greater Threat to Wild Horses

Yes, they have a pesticide caucus but they get their information from the advocates, who have sensationalized language in current legislation regarding slaughter—referring to it as a bullet to the head of wild horses—and the sale of public lands, without providing screen images or links to the offending material.

Meanwhile, they spend their days on the range, shooting the mares with pesticide-laced darts.

The advocates, not your elected representatives, are a clear and present danger to America’s wild horses.

Muddy Creek Emergency Roundup Complete

A BLM public affairs specialist told Western Horse Watchers yesterday that the contractor captured 40 horses on June 26.

As of today, no reports have been posted to the Utah gather page.

‘Call of the Wild’ Set for July 1

Handout provided as a public service.

Western Horse Watchers believes no action is necessary.

Those who organize these appeals are often among the most gullible and least informed about wild horses and burros.

Removal of Mount Charleston Wild Horses Imminent?

Story by FOX5 News in Las Vegas.

Foal-Free Friday, Ratifying the RMPs Edition

If you’re thinking about HMAPs, you’re right, but there are other ways the advocates tell you they want the ranchers to win.

Forage allocations for wild horses and livestock are specified in resource management plans, sometimes referred to as land-use plans.

The plans are usually enforced by motorized removal.

If horses are consuming 40% of the authorized forage when the plan gives them 20%, a roundup is ordered to protect the ranchers.

The advocates don’t like roundups but concur with the idea of resource enforcement.

Fertility control is a better way of ensuring the ranchers receive 80% of the authorized forage in the lawful homes of wild horses, as specified in the RMPs.

There are no low-flying helicopters and no roping of fatigued animals.

In its extreme form there are no horses—exactly what the ranchers want.

Black Rock Desert Closing for Burning Man

The order affects public lands northeast of Gerlach, NV from July 24 to October 5.

A map was included with the news release.

Black Rock City runs from August 24 to September 1 this year.

More Three Rivers Confusion

Results for Days 9 to 15 were not posted until yesterday.

Results for Days 4, 5 and 8 were edited.

The report for Day 14 says 43 animals captured, but the breakdown says 10 jacks, 8 jennies and 2 foals.

The gather page says 350 animals captured but the daily reports yield 327.

The discrepancy is probably in the Day 14 results.

Only adults have been shipped.

The designated pesticide is GonaCon Equine according to the June 3 schedule but the contractor treated 20 jennies with PZP on Day 13 and 20 more on Day 15.

No animals have been released, suggesting that booster doses are pending.

A burro was dispatched on Day 14 for a pre-existing condition but no details were given.

The location of the trap site was not disclosed.

Three HMAs are affected.

RELATED: Three Rivers Confusion.

Wyoming Cheatgrass Mitigation Project Leaves Readers Hanging

As usual, the news release does not include a map of the project area or link to the NEPA analysis.

Permit holders, among others, were urged to be aware of treatment operations.

Ironically, the agency that routinely ignored the 2017 labeling amendment for GonaCon Equine, which extended the interval between primer and booster from 30 days to 90 days, said in the announcement that “Strict adherence to the pesticide label restrictions and instructions is followed as required by law.”

Permitted Grazing: Government Benefits with No Means Testing

Imagine having a net worth of several million dollars and being eligible for food stamps.

That’s permitted grazing.

The ranchers pay almost nothing for the forage they consume and the services rendered on their behalf by the government.

And it’s a lifestyle, not temporary public assistance.

AZDA Complicit in Salt River Sterilization Program?

What did they know and when did they know it?

You cannot use the Montana Solution to reduce a herd from 450 to 200 without sterilizing the mares.

You need a diploma from the Billings School of PZP Darting to apply it.

To claim ignorance implies gross negligence of the instructors.

Will the guilty parties please step forward?

Mustang Monday

On the Virginia Range, where wild horses are fast disappearing from the American scene, with Jeff Martinez.

SFGATE Misleads Readers About Proposed Public Lands Sale

Housing was not mentioned in the June 20 article.

A link to the offending material was not provided so you can’t be sure what they’re whining about.

But you get the impression that the federal government will be selling off vast amounts of public lands with few if any limitations if an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill drafted by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee becomes law.

The story may be related to a section in a bill titled “MANDATORY DISPOSAL OF BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT LAND AND NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LAND FOR HOUSING,” which starts on page 30.

It was linked to a news release dated June 11.

The measure calls for the disposal of not less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent of Bureau of Land Management land and not less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent of National Forest System land.

Said lands are to be suitable for residential housing, have access to existing infrastructure and are adjacent to developed areas.

Large parcels in remote areas, such as the Fifteenmile HA and overlapping allotments, would not be nominated for sale.

Small islands of public lands that can’t be accessed without crossing private property are likely candidates.

For example, APN 004-251-06, just inside the Storey County line and slightly north of the Jumbo Allotment, is in a developed area on the Virginia Range.

It’s designated as a single-family residence but owned by the BLM.

The 40-acre parcel has a seasonal pond, is mostly level, and power lines are about a half mile away.

Would probably fetch around $200,000.

Federally protected lands are not eligible for sale.

Unfortunately, the list of protected lands on page 31 does not include areas identified for wild horses and burros.

BLM Biologist Helping Advocates Ruin McCullough Peaks Mares?

He’s one of the greatest proponents of the herd according to a story posted yesterday by the Powell Tribune.

The 2025 population dataset put the size at 149 and he’s already darted 45, which may be close to 100% of the breeding-age mares. Any left for the advocates?

His efforts are not mentioned at their darting page.

The HMA is a curated horse exhibit. There’s nothing natural about it.

Sterilized mares
Tiny breeding population
Lack of genetic diversity
Abnormal sex ratio
Massive human involvement
Habitat fragmented by allotments
Selection for faulty immune systems

All of this to prop up a failed industry, referred to in the article as the folks with stock.

If Wild Horses Had Principal Use of New Burlington Group

The allotment lies mostly within the Fifteenmile HA but outside the HMA, as shown in the ArcGIS Viewer.

The Allotment Master Report puts it in the Improve category, another indication that your stewards of the public lands have not been taking their responsibilities seriously.

The permittees receive 6,207 active AUMs on 94,000 public acres.

If the area was designated for wild horses, how many could live there?

The forage assigned to livestock is equivalent to 517 wild horses, or 5.5 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The advocates, defeated a long time ago, reinforce the narrative with their darting programs.

If the allotment was an HMA, the AML would be 94 and 423 wild horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.

BLM allotments in Wyoming support livestock equivalent to 158,425 wild horses on 17,312,214 public acres, or 9.2 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses.

Foal-Free Friday, Passing the Torch Edition

An article by The Colorado Sun points to a long-term challenge in the management of the state’s wild horses: Many of the advocates are growing older and there is not much interest among young people in taking over.

Given that wild horse management generally equates to beating the numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides, that’s a good thing.

Don’t let the door smack you on the way out.

How Many Wild Horses Can the Fifteenmile HMA Support?

The Draft DNA asserts that a 2019 EA fully covers the removal of wild horses later this year and constitutes BLM’s compliance with the requirements of the NEPA.

The EA indicates on page 21 (page 24 in the pdf) that five allotments overlap the HMA.

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

The EA does not give the percentage of public lands inside the HMA but those numbers can be estimated from the ArcGIS Viewer.

The allotments offer a weighted average 109.7 AUMs per thousand public acres, equivalent to 9.1 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The HMA covers 68,607 public acres and has an AML of 230 according to the 2025 population dataset.

The HMA supports livestock equivalent to 347 wild horses, so the True AML would be 230 + 347 = 577.

The stocking rate would be 8.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Archer Hits Two Wild Burros, Location Not Disclosed

Refer to this news release by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.

AZDA Should Hold Pre-Bid Hearing for Salt River Contract

Simone Netherlands of the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group and Suzanne Roy of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses should be ordered to appear before the Board—if there is one—and put under oath to discuss the condition of the herd.