Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
No immediate danger to the horses, according to a report published this evening by Western Slope Now. InciWeb says the fire, thought to be started by lightning, has consumed about 12,600 acres and is only 5% contained.
The WHR covers about 36,000 acres north of Grand Junction, CO.
The daily reports indicate 459 wild horses gathered since August 3. No wild burros have been captured and seven deaths have occurred (1.5%). No animals have been returned.
The goal is remove 1,600 horses and 200 burros from the HMA.
A revised management plan for Spring Creek Basin HMA has been approved, according to a report published yesterday by The Journal of Cortez, CO. Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement at the BLM news site.
The Decision Record, which authorized Alternative A in the EA (the Proposed Action), has no signatures and no dates. The 30-day appeal period began July 20.
The new plan includes:
Although livestock grazing does not occur in the HMA, it was not designated a WHR.
The HMA covers approximately 22,000 acres in western Colorado.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Spring Creek EA.
Triple B / Maverick-Medicine HMAs
RELATED: Emergency Roundup Scorecard, August 4.
Consider two HMAs, each starting off at low end of AML.
HMA1
HMA2
Both HMAs will need to be gathered in five years. Fifty wild horses will need to be removed from HMA1 and 500 from HMA2.
Which operation will cost less? Which one will require more off-range holding?
If the goal is to save money, zero out all the HMAs and end the WHB program.
RELATED: Best Way to End Roundups?
BLM announced today that a Decision Record had been signed, allowing the wild burro management process to move ahead. Alternative A, the proposed action, was approved.
A roundup will occur next month, but a start date was not given. The news release did not indicate how the operation will be carried out, if will be open to public observation, and where the captured burros would be taken.
Those details should be provided before anything happens in the field. The decision is subject to appeal over the next 30 days. The Final EA is posted here.
The current population is thought to exceed 2,200 animals, whose forage demand likely exceeds the total AUMs authorized on the HMA (burros + livestock). This does not mean the burros can access all of them.
The old mining town of Oatman, noted for its friendly burros, is in the HMA.
RELATED: Comments Invited on EA for Black Mountain Gather Plan.
Refer to this 13-minute interview posted today by Nevada Public Radio. The segment about wild horses ends at 8:35.
The amendment is turning out to be a cousin of the glorious ‘Path Forward,’ another opportunity for ‘advocacy’ groups to throw in with the public-lands ranchers.
How exactly does the legislation fix the resource management plans that divert most of the forage on public lands to privately owned livestock?
RELATED: If the PZP Amendment Carries, How Will the Money Be Used?
Forward speed has picked up and the system is now moving off rapidly to the northeast.
Northern end of OBX still under tropical storm warning but that will probably be lifted later today. Assateague ponies affected similarly. Volunteers and other personnel will be checking the horses over the next few days.
RELATED: Isaias Approaching OBX.
Triple B / Maverick-Medicine HMAs
Non-Emergency / Planned
The Shawave Mountains roundup started yesterday with 181 horses captured and one death. A colt was put down due to a broken shoulder, kicked by another horse in a temporary holding pen. No data for Saylor Creek.
RELATED: Emergency Roundup Scorecard, August 2.
A story posted this evening by WFMY News of Greensboro, NC notes that the horses have ridden out nor’easters and hurricanes for 500 years and know where to go to stay high and dry. Survival is in their blood.
RELATED: Isaias Approaching OBX.
An online meeting regarding the use of motorized vehicles in roundup set to begin next month will occur August 20, according to a story posted today by the Herald and News of Klamath Falls, OR.
An announcement for the event could not be found on the USFS new site or the news page for the Modoc National Forest.
The Devil’s Garden WHT was gathered about a year ago with 500 wild horses removed.
RELATED: Devil’s Garden Horses Get Short End of Stick.
UPDATE: USFS announcement of roundup and online meeting posted here.
What caused these guys to bolt? Trailcam photos from the Virginia Range.
System predicted to regain hurricane strength before making landfall. Tropical storm warning posted for OBX (indicated by blue in map).
Banker horses will likely see heavy rain and flooding due to storm surge on Tuesday.
RELATED: Isaias Update, ‘Too Many Vowels’ Edition.
Horses have the day off. At Custer State Park with Chuck Allen.
Triple B / Maverick-Medicine HMAs
The Shawave Mountains roundup starts tomorrow but will be carried out on a planned basis. Same for Saylor Creek, which has not yet started.
NOTE: Some vowels have been removed from this report to achieve a thriving alphabetical balance. This does not mean—and you should not construe—that this blog is managed primarily for consonants, even if they outnumber vowels 37 to 1.
The systm has been downgraded to a tropicl strm. Although the trck has shifted farther to the west, OBX is now undr a tropical storm watch (indicatd by yellow n the map).
The strm will likely brng heavy rain and floding to the Assateague pones as well.
RELATED: Isaias Still Heading to OBX.
Not bad for an event that was cancelled, although the auction happened online.
Bidders paid a total of $380,000 this year, according to a report by Delmarva Now.
The ponies usually swim across the bay from Assateague Island (Virginia side) to Chincoteague but they may have been hauled by trailer this year.
The following video by Alyssa Equestrian shows them at the Chintoteague Volunteer Fire Company Carnival Grounds, where the auction usually occurs.
RELATED: No Pony Penning This Year.
The track has shifted slightly to the west, taking the center of the storm inland of OBX Tuesday morning. The Banker Horses will be in its northeast quadrant.
Last year, 28 Cedar Island horses were swept out to sea by Hurricane Dorian.
RELATED: Isaias to Drench Banker Horses?
Hand truck placed near hay several hours earlier but by late afternoon the elves still hadn’t unloaded it. They never showed up to clean the corrals either.
The mid-air collision occurred yesterday, according to a BLM news release.
The map at InciWeb puts the blaze in the Delamar Mountains HA, a few miles northwest of Elgin, NV near the Utah border.
