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December 9, 2016The Adobe Appys: How Did the Fillies Get Their Spots?
February 6, 2017
Wild Horses in the North Lander Complex Herds in Danger of Extinction
The Bureau of Land Management’s Lander, Wyoming Field Office has released a Scoping Document for the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. The most current population count has the numbers of the wild horses in the North Lander Complex to be 1026. They do not differentiate between foals and adult horses in their number, they say 1016 “individuals,” so it is misleading – the BLM is not supposed to count the current year’s foal crop because mortality is high for foals in their first year.
Here are the four Herd Management Areas in the 375,000 acre Complex:
Conant Creek, Dishpan Butte, Muskrat Basin, Rock Creek Mountain
They call it a “complex” because “there is no geographic separation of the HMAs and the gates between them are left open a significant part of the year.”
This is the excuse given for bringing the numbers in 3 of the 4 herds down way below the level needed for genetic viability. However, if there is no separation at all, why are there four different herd management areas?
Horses tend to stay in familiar areas, areas they know where the waterholes, shelter and grazing are located. I would seriously doubt that there is very much intermixing of herds – when visiting the Red Desert Complex, where there are adjacent areas, the horses tend to stay in their range, and there is very little intermixing.
The last roundup in the North Lander Complex was in November, 2012. They rounded up 754 wild horses, treated mares with PZP, returned 346 wild horses to the Complex, and 5 wild horses died.
They plan to bring the herds down to these numbers:
Conant Creek 60
Dishpan Butte 50
Muskrat Basin 160
Rock Creek Mountain 50
and end up with a total number of horses for the North Lander Complex of 310.
According to Gus Cothran, the leading geneticist for wild horses, a herd needs a population of at least 150 adults to maintain genetic viability. This plan of the BLM’s which not only brings all but one of the herds down to dangerously low levels also includes giving birth control to all the mares that are released. If the herds are at dangerously low levels it makes absolutely no sense at all to give them birth control. Herds below the minimum number of wild horses for genetic viability should NOT be given any type of birth control. That is dooming them to extinction.
The other issue is that fall is the exact wrong time of year to give PZP to the mares – it should be done in January – March to ensure that it works – they are planning the roundup for the fall of 2017.
They are planning to use helicopters to round up the horses – using helicopters to terrify wild horses so that they run into traps and injure themselves is cruel and inhumane. If they need to round the horses up they should use the far more humane and far less costly method of bait trapping. And they need to keep the families of horses together – this is much less stressful for the horses.
My recommendation is to not remove any of the wild horses from the North Lander Complex, keep the herds at genetically viable levels, and to use bait trapping to round them up and give birth control to the mares at the correct time of the year. If they are going to give them PZP they need to follow up in the next few years because otherwise they will not be able to maintain the numbers of the wild horses. Management of these wild horses should be done on the range. Wild Horses should not be removed from their families and their homes and warehoused at holding facilities with no shelter where they become a burden on the taxpayer and are likely to end up at slaughter. Yes, the Scoping Documents and Environmental Assessments should include what happens the the wild horses that the BLM proposes to remove after they are removed – this is extremely relevant to the action that they are proposing.
Please comment by January 31, 2017 by 4pm Mountain Time, and use your own words – the BLM counts the group emails that you sign your name to as one.
Here is the scoping document:
https://www.wildhoofbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/North_Lander_Scoping_2016.pdf
and here is where you can send your comments:
10 Comments
Sent my email to mr. Stott this afternoon. Here we go again!
As someone who is not familiar with these herds and the scoping process, land terrain etc., I would appreciate a better understanding of the way to respond because if my lack of viable firsthand information. Do I need to comment with some adequate knowledge of land terrain? If so, please describe this. Are these mustangs near or crossing highways? I do not understand any need for any roundup if not. I have handwritten letters in the past that got only a thank you email. Is there a fracking development or mining operation in the works for this public land?
Jesus. Protect the animal that built this nation.
Enough already. Nearly 50k wild horses and burros are being held in confinement and it is my tax dollar that is being used to care for them, which would not be a problem other than:
1. I do not give my consent to how it is being used.
2. It is not being used to better the lives of the captives.
3. It is being used in a cruel and inhumane way.
Enough is enough. It’s time to start doing what is right, STOP this nonsense and start putting my tax dollars to better use. Like improving what is left of my public land, not destroying it by taking away what God has given.
Thank you for your time.
PLEASE , I beg you not to do this , this is their land , do not they have the right to be protected & be free as so many men & women have died to keep freedom ?. They are the last to see running free , i long for the day to go there & just to watch them , they have the right to have babies , So many things to fix in this world , but not these wild horses , again i beg, from the depths of my soul , ”LET THEM LIVE , LET THEM STAY FREE ” PLEASE , STOP THIS WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME , PLEASE
I feel like the BLM is practically trying to ‘cheat’ us out of the mustangs in this area. If there were, for example, a larger number of elderly mustangs with a small number of foals and the ‘adult’ mustangs were around the same number as foals, and the BLM said “We’re going to take away (random #) of the mustangs off the range.”, they don’t specify how many of the foals, elderly mustangs, and adult mustangs there are on this certain range. They could easily take away almost all of the healthy, adult horses, that should be kept on the range for population reasons, and only a few of the elderly horses, and half the foals and say, “We took (# from before here) mustangs from this range.” But they don’t say “We took (random #) of elderly mustangs, (#)adult mustangs, and (#) foals.” Which they should have done. (This is just how I would explain it, it may not be right) The BLM needs to be more detailed in these reports, because there could be more elderly horses than adults and they could easily remove way too many horses from the range because they don’t give detailed reports. I’m hoping that soon, we won’t have to worry about the BLM and the mustangs. If the mustagns are such a problem to them, they should just hand over the “ownership” (best word I could think of) of the wild mustangs to an organization that will take better care of them and their numbers. And the PZP should be administered the way it is talked about here. They should have one timeframe to administer PZP, as humanely as possible, and only during that time. And bait trapping is way better than helicopter roundups, and safer. Lots of horses, very sadly, drop dead while being chased, from exhaustion or from the fear of the helicopter. I heard of a colt who was run so far, just a few days after birth, that his hooves had been worn down, so much that they had to end his misery. Had bait trapping been used, he would still be alive today. Thinking of what the BLM does to these majestic, wild mustangs makes me sick.
HORRIBLE TREATMEMT OF OUR HISTORIC WILD MUSTANGS!!!! NO EXCUSE FOR CRUELY ROUNDING UP THE HORSES TO APPEASE THE CATTLE INDUSTRY !!! THERE IS 1 WILD HORSE FOR EVERY 57 COWS—GUESS WHO IS CAUSING THE LAND DAMAGE AND OVER
GRAZING ????? MUST STOP THIS CARNAGE !!!!
Please leave our wild horses alone, they were before us and helped build this land. I understand there are shortages on the range . However if the coyotes and wildcats were not being put into extinction. The ecosystem takes care of its own.
I agree, they say there are too many horses on the range and some or most need to be removed, but they’re also removing the natural predators of the mustangs, which is why there are “too many” horses on public land.
I’m writing to entreat you not to conduct these roundups. I know you are loyal to welfare ranchers, however, you also represent me. And I want my wild horses on my public lands. repeat. I want my wild horses to remain on my public lands. You have already stockpiled as much as 50,000 wild horses. you’ve broken up their families. You’ve injured and killed other in the roundup. We you don’t care. BUT, we’re not giving up. It’s utter nonsense that there isn’t enough water for the wild horses and the rancher’s livestock. That’s just and excuse.
To me, you should smart enough and humane enough to figure out a humane to control herd numbers. Smart enough not to spend all the money and time on helicopters and fences. I’m just asking you to listen to the people who matter — ME — and to be kind to the horses and respect the law that protected them. Stop this roundup — we need viable numbers of horses to maintain genetic health of the herds. We have enough cows emitting harmful methane into the atmosphere. We have enough humans on the planet. Let’s carve out a safe space for the horses.