Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
The Board of County Commissioners decided yesterday not to render a decision on the reduction of setbacks from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations requested by Equine Elite, according to a report posted this morning by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Commissioners will consider the proposal in more detail at their March 3 meeting.
RELATED: Laramie County BOC Meeting Agenda Posted.
UPDATE: Public hearing begins at 4:12 in this video.
The public hearing set for today regarding changes to setbacks around Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations is item 17 on the Board of County Commissioner’s agenda.
RELATED: Laramie County BOC to Consider Rule Change This Week.
The $100,000 reward has produced no actionable information. Report posted yesterday by KTNV News of Las Vegas.
RELATED: BLM Acknowledges New Clark Mountain Reward.
BLM announced today a request for proposals to warehouse excess horses in Oklahoma, Kansas or Nebraska. Facilities must accommodate 1,000 to 10,000 head, with four-year and nine-year renewal options.
Bids will be accepted through March 2.
A story posted this morning by The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC shows a photo of a marsh area and asks how many horses are hiding there. They are hard to spot but there are six, according to the report.
The story goes on to say that the greatest threat to the horses nowadays is—wait for it—climate change.
Yeah, right.
The greatest danger to these animals is the local ‘advocacy’ group, whose members refer to them as ‘highly threatened,’ yet they’re darting them with contraceptives.
On the Onaqui Mountain HMA with Willie and Candee Proctor.
The draft RMP Amendment and EIS for the four HMAs affected by the Rock Springs Consent Decree did not provide parcel sizes and grazing seasons for the 28 allotments involved, so the question will have to be answered by bootstrap.
Data for livestock on public lands in Wyoming yield 18.6 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres, assuming a six month grazing season.
Section 3.10 in the draft EIS indicates an average grazing season of about four months, so the estimated stocking rate would be 27.9 cow/calf pairs per thousand acres.
One square mile contains 640 acres, so the estimated number of cow/calf pairs that could be placed on a private checkerboard parcel is 27.9 ÷ 1,000 × 640 = 17.9.
Each parcel would require 4 × 5,280 = 21,120 linear feet of fencing plus a water source, a sizeable expenditure for just 18 ‘free ranging’ cow/calf pairs.
Of course, the rancher could import feed to allow the number of animals to increase into a profitable range, as it should be: Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are for domestic livestock, not wild horses.
RELATED: Is Wyoming a Fence-Out State?
We don’t know. That’s the problem.
The four HMAs affected by the Rock Springs RMP amendment contain ‘checkerboard’ lands, areas where every other square mile alternates between public land and private or state lands.
The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) owns many of the private parcels inside the HMAs. Historically, RSGA had agreed to a limited number of wild horses on private land within the checkerboard areas.
However, in 2010 RSGA revoked their consent and requested that all wild horses be removed from private lands. The loss of this consent has complicated the management of wild horses on checkerboard lands, prompting the RMP amendment and actions resulting therefrom. Refer to Section 3.1 in the draft EIS.
The problem could be resolved at the state level: Require property owners to install legal fences if they don’t want horses on their land. Let the ranchers bear the cost of keeping their property private, not the taxpayers. A longer-term objective, not related to the amendment, would be to deny them access to public lands, so the fencing would serve two purposes.
If you wanted to submit a substantive comment on the draft EIS, that would be one.
RELATED: Rock Springs EIS Posted.
The Planning Commission and residents near Burns, WY have given the wrong answer, so now the pressure shifts to the Board of Commissioners, who will consider the rule change on February 4.
Facilities of the type proposed by Equine Elite must get approval from residents within three miles but an amendment requested by the company would reduce the distance to one mile, cutting many of the stakeholders out of the decision-making process.
The facility would hold up to 5,000 wild horses captured by the BLM and the BLM would pay Equine Elite an amount per horse for each day they are held. The horses would receive vaccinations and be transitioned to domestic life, according to a report posted this morning by the Cheyanne-based Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
With the funding of the ‘Path Forward’ in December and now with the loss of four HMAs in Wyoming, more corrals are needed to accommodate wild horses displaced from their home range—so their food can be sold to public-lands ranchers.
RELATED: Laramie County Planning Board Rejects Proposed Amendment.
Cumulative totals through 01-31-20, per the BLM roundup page for the Eagle Complex:
The proportions of studs and mares are still outside of statistical limits corresponding to n = 945 and p-bar = .50. These results do not look like they came from a process that produces 50% males and 50% females. Why?
The thriving ecological balance is now only 651 wild horses away (1,700 horses to be gathered − 100 to be returned − 949).
RELATED: Eagle Roundup Day 13, Eagle Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.
The 24-mile gravel road, running along the southeastern border of the White Mountain HMA, provides wild horse viewing opportunities between the towns of Rock Springs and Green River in southwestern Wyoming.
The HMA is subject to permitted livestock grazing in the summer and winter.
Alternatives C and D in the draft RMP Amendment and EIS for wild horse management in that area will convert the HMA to an HA, no longer managed for horses.
Who wants to spend their summer vacation looking at cattle and sheep on land where horses once roamed?
RELATED: Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Tour.
The Western States Horse Expo runs from May 7 to May 10 this year, at the Murieta Equestrian Center, twenty miles east of Sacramento, CA.
Refer to the preliminary schedule to see what’s planned. Tickets are $75 online for all four days or $20 online for one day.
Commissioners voted 3 – 0 last week against a proposed rule change that would have decreased the setback distance around concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)from three miles to one mile. Refer to item 03 in the meeting minutes for details.
Residents near Burns, WY who opposed the large-scale holding facility still have a voice in the process.
The recommendation will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration. You can listen to the discussion starting at 36:30 in this recording.
The proposed CAFO would have a capacity of 5,000 wild horses—to be forced off their home range with thousands more if the disastrous ‘Path Forward‘ is put into practice.
RELATED: Laramie County Rule Change to Be Considered Tomorrow.
BLM said today the grazing fee for 2020 will be $1.35 per AUM, the same as in 2019.
The new season begins on March 1.
An AUM is the amount of forage consumed by one wild horse, two wild burros, one cow/calf pair or five sheep in one month.
The base value in 1966 was $1.23 per AUM, according to the news release.
RELATED: 2019 Grazing Fee Announced.
Refer to this document. The 90-day public comment period begins today.
Alternative D, preferred, involves the following changes:
Forage previously allocated to wild horses may be reassigned to wildlife, livestock or other ecosystem functions, following an in-depth review of intensive monitoring data, according to the Alternative D narrative.
A news release had not been issued by the BLM at the time this post went live.
RELATED: Rock Springs RMP Amendment to Target Wild Horses.
UPDATE: The Draft EIS and other documents have been moved to a new project folder.
The BLM has drafted a Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement for proposed changes to wild horse management by the Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices, according to an announcement published this morning in the Federal Register.
The draft RMP and EIS had not been included with other project documents at the time this post went live.
The driver of these changes is the infamous Rock Springs consent decree, a court order resulting from legal action by the Rock Springs Grazing Association.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Scope of Rock Springs Gather Plan.
BLM announced yesterday the opening of a comment period on proposed changes to the management plan for the Spring Creek Basin HMA in western Colorado.
The HMA covers 21,932 acres and has an AML of 65, for an aimed-at population density (stocking rate) of three wild horses per thousand acres.
Details were not provided in the letter to interested parties but the scope includes two new water catchment structures, presumably within the HMA.
Comments can be submitted at this page. The environmental assessment is pending.
The letter did not indicate if the horses must share the land with other mandated users.
Animal Wellness Action, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C., said today that the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee heard testimony on legislation that would stop the export of American horses for slaughter.
As for wild horses, they are also at risk of such action, thanks to the $1000 adoption incentive and ill-conceived ‘Path Forward.’
Sadly, the measure does nothing to stop the roundups, contraceptives and shrinking amount of territory available to the horses.
RELATED: SAFE Act Introduced in Senate.
Cumulative totals through 01-28-20, per the BLM roundup page for the Eagle Complex:
The proportions of studs and mares are still outside of statistical limits corresponding to 50% males / 50% females (n = 851, p-bar = .50). Is the contractor targeting family bands, whose mares are now heavily pregnant?
The thriving ecological balance is now only 745 wild horses away (1,700 horses to be gathered − 100 to be returned − 855).
RELATED: Eagle Roundup Day 10, Eagle Wild Horses Get Short End of Stick.
