Delamar Roundup Day 11

The incident began on December 6.  Gather stats through December 16:

  • Horses captured: 405
  • Goal: 414
  • Returned: 0
  • Deaths: 21
  • Shipped: 263

Helicopters were grounded on Day 10 due to weather.

Two horses were put down on Day 9 and three on Day 10 due to pre-existing conditions, bringing the death rate to 5.2%.

Foals accounted for 15.3% of the horses gathered.  Roughly 50% of captured adults were males and 50% were females.

Body condition scores are not known.

The number of horses shipped is 287 according to the gather page.  No shipments were reported on Day 11.

The number of unaccounted-for animals is 121.  The operation will likely conclude in another day or two.

RELATED: Delamar Roundup Day 8.

Heber Wild Horses: Setting Them Up for Failure?

A bachelor stallion chases a mare and foal as they leave a water hole in the following video by Friends of the Heber Wild Horses.  The fence is for livestock.

A management plan, drafted earlier this year, shows the WHT boundary relative to those of the allotments, page 10 in the pdf.  The proposed AML is discussed on page 21.

The AML for areas outside the WHT is zero, meaning the horses could be captured and removed from the forest if someone complains or they create a hazard.

When grazing season begins, gates are closed, and the horses are cut off from some of their food and water, perhaps a sizeable amount.

If they can’t access critical resources inside their designated area, they’ll move beyond it in search of new ones.  Gotcha!

This approach to wild horse management is not unique to the WHT.  It’s standard practice for most of the wild horse areas on western rangelands.  The new Desatoya resource enforcement plan, currently out for review, is another example.

The environmental assessment for the Heber management plan should be available for public review in early 2021, according to the project status.

RELATED: Heber EA in Progress.

More On Growth Rates

Table 1 of the Draft EA for resource enforcement in the Pancake Complex shows current wild horse populations in the four areas that make up the Complex.

The paragraph immediately below says the upper end of the population range is based on a 2016 survey, plus four years of compounded 20% annual growth.

If you start off with 100 horses and the growth rate is 20% per year, how large will the herd be after four years?

At the end of the first year, you’ll have 100 × 1.2 = 120 wild horses.  At the end of the second year, you’ll have 120 × 1.2 = 144 wild horses.  At end of year three, you’ll have 144 × 1.2 = 173 horses.

That is the idea of compounding.

At the end of year four, you’ll have 100 × 1.2 × 1.2 × 1.2 × 1.2 = 207 horses.  Herd sizes double in four years at a 20% annual growth rate.

If the growth rate is 15% per year, a herd of 100 wild horses would become a herd of 100 × 1.15 × 1.15 × 1.15 × 1.15 × 1.15 = 201 wild horses in five years.

That’s why the BLM says herd sizes double every four to five years.

RELATED: Wild Horse Growth Rates.

BLM to Volunteers: No Water for Fish Springs Mustangs

A letter cited yesterday in a report by The Record-Courier of Gardnerville, NV implied that you don’t have a self-sustaining population if you provide water to wild horses.

Giving them water, other than in an emergency, doesn’t meet the definition of minimum feasible management, according to the letter, but at the Confusion HMA, cutting ovaries out of mares does.

The mustangs inhabit the southern portion of the Pine Nut Mountains HA, an area identified for wild horses in 1971 but no longer managed for them due to inadequate resources.

The area can support permitted livestock grazing, however.

Delamar Roundup Day 8

The incident began on December 6.  Gather stats through December 13:

  • Horses captured: 325
  • Goal: 414
  • Returned: 0
  • Deaths: 15
  • Shipped: 224

Helicopters were grounded on Day 7 due to weather.

One horse was put down on Day 6 and three on Day 8 due to pre-existing conditions, bringing the death rate to 4.6%.

Foals accounted for 15.1% of the horses gathered.  Roughly 51% of captured adults were males and 49% were females.

Body condition scores are not known.

The number of horses shipped is 248 according to the gather page.  No shipments were reported on Day 8.

The number of unaccounted-for animals is 325 – 0 – 15 – 224 = 86.

RELATED: Delamar Roundup Day 5.

Consumers Screaming for More Range-Fed Beef?

Wild horses should be relocated to remote wilderness areas, to satisfy growing demand for range-fed beef, according to a column published yesterday by the Mail Tribune of Medford, OR.  There, apex predators will keep their populations in check and cattle ranchers will be able to enjoy the full benefit of areas set aside for wild horses.

This is nuts.  If Equine Elite can buy an 80-acre parcel near Burns, WY to build a high-density animal feeding operation—for horses removed from public lands—why is it unreasonable to expect the ranchers to do that?  Many of them already have base properties of several thousand acres.

And why is it unreasonable to expect that lands identified for wild horses in 1971, about 50 million acres, should be managed principally for them, per the original statute?

Range Fed Beef

Delamar Roundup Day 5

The incident began on December 6.  Gather stats through December 10:

  • Horses captured: 265
  • Goal: 414
  • Returned: 0
  • Deaths: 11
  • Shipped: 137

Three horses were put down on Day 4 and one on Day 5 due to pre-existing conditions, bringing the death rate to 4.2%.

Foals accounted for 14.7% of the horses gathered.  Roughly 49% of captured adults were males and 51% were females.

Body condition scores are not known.

The number of horses shipped is 161 according to the gather page.  No shipments were reported on Day 4.

The number of unaccounted-for animals as of Day 5 is 117.

RELATED: Delamar Roundup Day 3.

Castration Better Than Spaying?

The writer of a letter to the Las Vegas Review-Journal says it’s the easiest and cheapest way to curtail herd growth.

Why would you want to curtail herd growth?

Look at the gather area for the new Desatoya resource enforcement plan, currently out for review.  The boundary, denoted in red, extends well beyond the HMA.

Desatoya Gather Plan Map

When you carve out over 80% of their food and sell it to public-lands ranchers, don’t you think the horses might outgrow the remaining resources fairly quickly and move off the reservation in search of new ones?

That puts them into areas managed exclusively for wildlife and the most noble and deserving inhabitants of America’s public lands: Privately owned livestock.

RTF Tries to Stop Sterilization of Confusion Wild Mares

Return to Freedom filed suit today in federal court to block the plan, according to a news release, arguing that contraceptives should be used to control herd sizes.

The resource allocations and management priorities that leave wild horses with crumbs on public lands in the western U.S., in favor of privately owned cattle and sheep, were not mentioned in the announcement.

The group is a signatory to the rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward,’ a plan to manage wild horse areas primarily for livestock.

RELATED: Why Should You Oppose Sterilization of Wild Mares?