In Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and six other states the Bureau of Land Management adopts out, seeks private pastures for, and feeds feral and wild horses at an annual cost to taxpayers of at least $49 million.
But, cattle grazing 155 million acres leased on some 21,000 allotments of the 245 million acres managed by the BLM in thirteen western states now outnumber horses thirty to one. Over 54 million of those acres have failed the BLM's Land Health Assessment according to data released through the Freedom of Information Act to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. As of October, 2022 the BLM has removed over 19,000 horses and burros from public land and holds over 64,000 in confinement although the data clearly show livestock are far more destructive.
Greater sage grouse habitat is disappearing at a rate of some 1.3 million acres per year much of it in Wyoming but the BLM doesn't record results of the degradation on private land although it's known to be extensive. Due to the decimation of its habitat the US Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the lesser prairie-chicken, also a species of grouse, as endangered.
Review the PEER findings linked here.
After howls from Earth hating Republican welfare ranchers the BLM is reviewing the purchase of the Marton Ranch in Wyoming.
2 comments:
I hope the ponies work it for your camera like leggy super models.
I have been very tempted to show up at certain Republican welfare rancher’s homes and set up a daycare operation in their kitchen. Bunch of kids. See how they like me doing business and making a living off them. I bet they wouldn’t mind. I would make long distance calls too.
New Mexico is an open range state so the horses can be a nuisance when they eat the fruit trees but we like having them around our property to keep cured fuels at bay.
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