Buffalo Hills Wild Horses Better Off Than Permittees

The HMA, a subset of the allotment, offers 314 × 12 = 3,768 AUMs per year on 125,207 public acres, or 30.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The allotment offers 4,114 AUMs per year on 440,982 public acres, or 9.3 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

If wild horses had principal use of the HMA, a feature of the original statute but opposed today by most advocates, the AML would increase by 9.3 × 125,207 ÷ 1,000 ÷ 12 = 97, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the allotment.

RELATED: Buffalo Hills DNA Out for Public Review?

Buffalo Hills HMA with Allotments 10-02-24

Buffalo Hills DNA Out for Public Review?

The project status says public scoping but the plan has already been determined.

The Draft DNA asserts that a 2017 EA adequately covers the Proposed Action, discussed in Section A.

Up to 235 wild horses and 33 wild burros would be captured by helicopter.

Approximately 100 mares would be treated with GonaCon Equine and be returned to the HMA with 103 stallions.

The remaining horses and all burros would be removed.

The HMA is on the east side of Twin Peaks and inside the Buffalo Hills Allotment.

As of today, Western Horse Watchers has not seen a BLM news release marking the beginning of a comment period.

The DNA said the Stockade Canyon fire burned 14% of the HMA in July but did not indicate if livestock grazing had been curtailed due to the loss of forage.

A roundup appears on the FY25 schedule with a start date of November 15.

Buffalo Hills HMA with Allotments 10-02-24

Pesticide Pushers to Speak at TRI Wild Horse Conference

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal and staunch opponent of principal use, will explain what they are doing to ensure the safety of all employees and drivers at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, according to an announcement on Eventbrite.

The facility is the epicenter of their mass sterilization program.  More horses are darted in that area than anywhere else on the Virginia Range.

The event, set for October 30, is sponsored by the Nevada Wildlife Alliance.

Pesticide Pushers 07-17-23

Poisoning of Wild Horses No Longer Allowed?

You can’t poison their water holes per 18 USC 3 §47, a common practice before 1959.

Poisoning Wild Horses Outlawed 09-29-24

Today, the advocates poison the mares with Zonastat-H, a restricted-use pesticide that tricks their immune systems into attacking their ovaries.

Better Way 10-25-23

The ranchers are also involved, but they prefer GonaCon Equine.

Their methods may differ but their goal is the same: Ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses.

RELATED: If You Want to Help the Ranchers Give Money to the Advocates.

If Wild Horses Had Principal Use of East and West Y U Bench et al

The allotments overlap an area known as Y U Bench near Cody, WY, where livestock fencing was modified to facilitate pronghorn migration.

They offer 3,793 active AUMs on 35,181 public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report.

Y U Bench Allotment Calcs 09-29-24

The forage assigned to horses is zero.

How many wild horses could live there?

Using the principle of forage interchangeability, the True AML would be 317, the number of horses the land could support if it was managed principally for them as specified in the original statute.

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

Why is this important?

The bureaucrats and ranchers claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).

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

If the allotments were an HMA, the AML would be 35 and 282 horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.

BLM allotments in Wyoming carry 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, as American Prairie did for bison in Montana.

RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.

Y U Bench Allotments 09-28-24

Park Service to Remove Bison and Horses from TRNP?

The incident will begin on October 5, according to a report by KFYR News, with 400 bison captured and 200 removed.

On October 18, 200 wild horses will be captured and 15 removed.

A helicopter will push the animals into the traps and operations will not be open to public observation.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement at the TRNP news page.

A link to the NEPA analysis covering the action was not given.

The location of gather stats and daily reports is not known.

RELATED: Town of Medora to NPS: Keep TRNP Wild Horses.

Fences Not the Only Problem at Y U Bench?

Volunteers with the Absaroka Fence Initiative and nearby community modified over two miles of barbed wire fence on Y U Bench southeast of Cody, WY to facilitate the migration of the Carter Mountain pronghorn herd, according to a BLM news release.

The changes maintain functionality for livestock grazing.

The offending allotment was not identified.

The National Data Viewer shows numerous allotments in and around Y U Bench, all in the Cody Field Office.

Western Horse Watchers searched the Allotment Master Report for parcels containing “Bench” and selected five.

  • South YU Bench
  • Lower YU Bench
  • YU Bench East
  • YU Bench West
  • Bench

The report puts all of them in the Improve category, another indication that our stewards of the public lands are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

The event was covered by the Cody Enterprise in a September 12 article, but nobody explained why the permittees aren’t accountable for wildlife-friendly fences.

Pronghorn Caught in Fence 09-28-24

Perhaps the fences are just a symptom and the real problem is animal agriculture, along with its enablers, cheerleaders and collaborators.

Wild horses and burros might have a few things to say about that.

Y U Bench lies between the McCullough Peaks and Fifteenmile HMAs, not shown in the following map.  Click on image to open in new tab.

RELATED; Winners of 2024 Stewardship Awards Announced.

Y U Bench Allotments 09-28-24

FY25 Roundup Plan to Build on FY24 Successes?

It’s not about healthy horses on healthy rangelands as suggested in the September 26 blog post, it’s about ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses, sometimes referred to as achieving and maintaining AMLs.

The advocates stopped playing for the home team years ago.  Today, they support the effort through their darting programs (first part of schedule).

Ranchers perform the task in Oregon.

In herds where field-darting is not practical, the BLM will capture the animals, provide the treatment and return them to the range.  These incidents have been marked “CTR.”

The column did not indicate how much forage had been assigned to livestock in the areas targeted for removal, which would allow you to decide by calculation if they’re really overpopulated.

FY25 begins on October 1.

RELATED: FY25 Roundup Schedule Issued.

Working Together for a Horse-Free Future 12-21-22

Foal-Free Friday, Breaking the Addiction Edition

The advocates say that wild horse adopters should not receive cash incentives because they turn the process into a money-making venture, with some animals ending up in slaughter.

Similarly, the advocates should not be given financial support because it fuels their obsession with pesticides, primarily PZP.

Instead, they should be given vouchers for treatment at Betty Ford clinics or similar institutions, where they can be deprogrammed and educated in basic math, rational thought and intellectual integrity.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Gaslighting Your Supporters Edition.

Sand Wash Advocates 01-17-22