Old Man, a medicine hat from the Pancake HMA.

The new BLM schedule that BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning announced yesterday is out. As promised to the livestock industry during the meeting last month on the Greater Sage Grouse planning review , the schedule will accelerate (the already accelerated) “2020 Plan.” (When you see GrSG in the column, BLM is claiming a removal is to save sage grouse habitat; habitat the grouse have primarily already left due to livestock and mining expansion.) FY2022 Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Gather and Fertility Control Schedule

On the schedule are a few of the last large herds we have left in the US not hit yet by the 2020 Plan: Twin Peaks, Calico and Pancake. These 3 herds all could sustain a larger than indicated population level and have no actual management plan. All of these herds are not only going to be decimated and extremely important genetic lines lost, “fertility control” includes sterilization, IUDs and multiple substances stacked on top of each other.

First up will be Pancake and Desatoya in Nevada; Little Colorado and White Mountain in Wyoming.

Todays update out of Wyoming (from BLM): Today (1/6/22) BLM gathered 119 horses (44 stallions, 50 mares, 25 foals). 4 horses had to be euthanized today: A 20-year old mare slipped coming into the trap and suffered a broken back. An 8-year old stallion was euthanized due to a club foot, a 3-year old mare was euthanized due to a pre-existing broken hind leg, and a 11-year old mare was euthanized with a pre-existing sway back.

In January alone, the agency will remove over 3,000 wild horses from public lands. 

ON FILE (and a very fast commentary):

Our teams have been very busy trying to track down BLM planning.

Several of the herds on the roundup schedule have active litigation, appeals and protests against them. The agency gave no notice prior to putting any of them on the schedule. This is all moving very fast. If you have litigation (or other action) you found out exactly the same way we did; by finding it yourself online.

Early this morning WHE (rapidly) filed documents asking for the court to halt the Pancake roundup so that underlying issues could be argued prior to any action being taken that causes irreparable harm to the herd and those that love the herd. (note: BLM sets AML at 361-638 for the 1.1 million acre complex and adjoined territories. There is no actual management plan for any HMA in the complex.)

Two hours after our filing, BLM sent out a press release announcing the roundup. BLM announced the roundup about 108 hours before the beginning of a massive removal to Pancake using a planning document that is actively disputed in the legal system. The agency plans to permanently remove 2,030 wild horses and send many of them to off-limits-to-public-view facilities.

We will update you as we continue to scramble to file documents as BLM continues to claim that decimating herds causes no harm to the stakeholders that love them and that denying us the right to participate in planning does no harm to the public interest.

More soon. We will update you as fast as we can in this rapid fire environment spurred by the “Path Forward” and the continued increases in funding provided by Congress for this plan.

People ask who they can contact. The public is accustomed to a petition or sign-on letter or similar action item.

We are not doing a petition or billboard (a billboard in those areas would not be seen by many travelers and probably be used for target practice). We are scrambling to file, and update filings, as the paperwork landscape changes as if it were hit by a tidal wave in the schedule just approved by Stone-Manning.

Pancake (Ely district) and Desatoya (Carson district) are in NV. You can find NV leadership here at the Nevada offices tab: https://www.blm.gov/nevada

The Little Colorado and White Mountain in Wyoming are managed by this office: https://www.blm.gov/office/high-desert-district-office

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