Pryor Wild

Well, time has sure gone fast since I last posted. Things have been busy here at the Center and on the horse range as well. Since I last wrote, some of the horses have sadly been lost; but there are also many new foals out there. I will work on getting these updates created; but in the mean time there is something else well worth looking at.

The Bureau of Land Management’s Billings Field Office has released a draft of the proposed Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP).

A full PDF version of this document can be accessed by clicking on the link entitled “Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Draft Herd Management Area Plan and Preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA)” on this web page or by clicking on the following image:

Note: I have found that it is best to right click the link and do a “Save link as” to download this 6.8 mb document to your own computer.

The Dear Reader supplement letter can be found by clicking this sentence.

The Reader’s Guide can be found by clicking on this sentence.

The Q & A’s can be found by clicking on this sentence.

Note: All of these documents are in PDF format. If you do not have a PDF reader, you can download it for free by clicking this sentence.

I will readdress some things from the supplementary documents here:

Herd Management Area Plans are documents that do things like define the wild horse appropriate management level (AML), manage the wild horse herd structure, enhance range habitat, and the like. HMAPs help define things that are done on a more short term basis, and so this type of plan is called an “Activity Plan.”

Herd Management Area Plans do not do much in the way of changing things like wild horse range boundaries, manage travel and recreation, and the like. These are the kinds of things defined in the Land Use Plans and travel management plans. These types of planning processes will be carried out for area in the near future.

Currently, the Herd Management Area Plan used for the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is this document:

Notice the date - June 1984. There were some revisions in 1992; but, for the most part, a 24 year old document is what governs many actions on the wild horse range. You will see in the draft HMAP that it is proposed to change the new HMAP in 5 to 10 years, which is apparently the typical lifespan for these documents.

This document is in the draft phase. As you can read in the supplementary materials, this is the time to carefully read the document and provide the Billings Field Office with comments and solutions that will make help make the HMAP as great as possible.

Meaningful comments and solutions are encouraged and appreciated. Directions on submitting comments, which can be done in about every possible way, can be found on the Dear Reader Letter. It’s best to get going on this sooner than later. This is because there is a 30 day comment period, which I think started this week.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the Billings Field Office! Public lands aren’t just for the public to visit, we do get chances to give our suggestions on actions applied to them. This is one of those chances right now.

I have lately been getting a number of phone calls and e-mails with questions about the future of the management of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses. As a result, I have put together this little question and answer writeup that addresses some common questions. Special thanks goes to the Billings Field Office for helping in answering these questions as best they can be answered at this time. With that said, here are the questions and answers:

How many horses could be removed from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in 2008?

There are currently no plans for a 2008 roundup yet. If plans are made, they will likely start being made in the next month or so. There would likely be around 30 horses removed.

How would the horses be rounded up?

Some sort of trapping method would be used. It would not be identical to the trapping method used in the 2006 roundup but would likely be similar in principle.

What horses will be rounded up?

Roundup efforts will likely focus on addressing the high number of upcoming yearlings (2007 foals) along with perhaps some upcoming two year olds (2006 foals). As far as the current population goes, these are likely the areas of biggest concern, especially the upcoming yearlings. Removal decisions will take into consideration the genetic representation and phenotype of the horse, which has been how many past removal decisions have been made. Genetic representation refers to how many relatives a horse has on the range. Care must be taken to not promote or demote family lines due to the small population of the range, and so those horses that will be aide in maintaining this balance will be prioritized to stay. Phenotype refers to the physical characteristics of the horse; horses that best reflect the desired phenotype will be prioritized to stay.

How many horses are on the range?

By my best calculation, I believe there to be approximately 144 adult wild horses (age 1 and up) and 34 foals (born in 2007). I say approximately because it is hard doing accurate counts in the winter due to accessibility and weather. I have suspicion that the number of adult wild horses is slightly lower, perhaps by 2 to 3 animals; but I have not verified this. I have also not been able to verify that every foal is alive still. Under my most recent documentation, I account for 17 foals in the Dryhead, Sykes Ridge, and Burnt Timber populations. Despite this, I still maintain the aforementioned population numbers.

How many horses should be on the range?

It is difficult to answer this question as there is more than one way to answer it. Basically, it comes down to the appropriate management level (AML) and the idea of a genetically viable population. These numbers are not the same. The BLM does not have the legal authority to base one on the other. This does not mean the BLM does not care about genetically viable populations; they just have to do their best to reconcile the two desired populations. AML is based on rangeland carrying capacity while genetic viability describes the desired horse population that would allow the herd to continue on successfully without being destroyed by the effects of having too small a population, such as harmful inbreeding.

The AML for the range is currently set at 85-105 horses. In the 2008 evaluation, the AML for the range is recommended at 92-117 horses that are age 1 and over. This recommended AML range is based on two calculations in the 2008 evaluation. The low end value is based on the average value of calculations using data from 1995 to 2006. This data includes horse population numbers and measured forage utilization values. The high end value is also based on similar average values from 1995 to 2006. However, the utilization values are adjusted with precipitation data. Descriptions and worksheets of these calculations can be found in the 2008 evaluation. The formulas used in these calculations are from BLM evaluation manuals.

The genetic viability population number that is often described involves 140 to 150 breeding age horses. This population has been proposed by Gus Cothran and Francis Singer and reflects a good understanding of both population genetics and the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse herd. Other population numbers have also been proposed; these range from lower than and higher than the aforementioned number.

Where does the recently released Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Evaluation fit in with all of this?

To understand the purpose of the evaluation, it is best to understand the history of Herd Management Area Plans (HMAPs) for the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. The original plan came out in 1984. Revisions were made in 1992. Thus, today’s BLM managers’ decision making process and possible actions are governed largely in part by the 1984 HMAP with the 1992 revisions. This means that a range of management guidelines, from AML to desired phenotype, come from these documents. Today, in 2008, there is obviously a lot more known about the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses and the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range than there was in 1984 or 1992. Despite this knowledge, however, it is the 1984 HMAP and the 1992 revisions that still are the governing documents. Thus enters the BLM’s serious attempts at creating a new HMAP for the range. The current HMAP and revisions detail how the revision process must occur, i.e. doing this evaluation. The evaluation is helping to pave the way for a “modernized” HMAP for the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range.

The final version of the BLM’s Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Evaluation was put out this week. You can read a PDF of the entire document by clicking here. Also, you can click here for the Dear Reader letter, here for the “Q and As”, and here for the press release.

You may have also read about this in a newspaper article published this week. To access the article in one newspaper, please click here.

This new BLM document really establishes the potential for some very serious events to occur in the Pryors. It’s worth being informed on it. I am also putting together a little writeup of my own about the document that I might put up here which mainly addresses the potentially biggest area of concern, which is the BLM’s desired herd size.

Due to weather, I haven’t been able to see the horses; but I am hoping the weather is nice enough this weekend to go spotting.

I think it is really interesting to see and learn about other wild horse herds. One I have learned a lot about recently is the Spring Creek Basin herd of Colorado. Every wild horse herd has its own unique stories to tell, and there is now a blog where you can go to read stories about this herd. I’d really recommend checking it out!

You can find it at http://springcreekwild.wordpress.com/.

The basin got some snow yesterday and early today. This afternoon the clouds covering the Pryors moved off providing a glimpse of the fresh snow on the mountains. Here is a panoramic photograph I put together of them this afternoon.

These past few weeks have been super busy for me, and so I just haven’t had much chance for using the computer and creating new posts.  However, I have been out on the range a few times since then and have some interesting photographs and stories to share. I’ll be working on getting these up tomorrow. In the mean time, I thought it would be interesting to show this photograph as it’s the kind of track most people never get to see in the wild.

That belongs to someone in Seattle’s family.

Just as a last minute reminder, there is still time to put in comments for the Custer National Forest Travel Management Plan. December 19th is the last day. For more information about commenting, you can find it at:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/custer/projects/planning/nepa/d2_travel_mgmt/index.shtml.

There are still many letters to the editor rolling in on this issue as well, to read what other people have to say, you may want to go to the Billings Gazette and just do a search for things containing the word “Pryor.”

Some parts of the proposed plans do concern East Pryor Mountain, where the wild horse range is, so it might be worth commenting while there is still time.

I’m still not in Wyoming, but I do know of some changes. Lakota’s black yearling filly is now with Jackson, and Lakota once again has Jackson’s yearling filly who had been with Santa Fe.

One thing to look at is the recently released Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Draft Evaluation. From what I understand, this document is an initial step in seeing how the range is being managed. I think this will culminate in the writing and/or revision of the Herd Management Area Plan for the range. If you can, I think that looking at this document and being informed of the BLM’s probable actions would be very valuable. It’s important that we get well informed on these issues from the beginning so that we can do everything we can to make sure the range is managed as best as it can be. This isn’t really a document that can be appealed against, but the BLM is welcoming any objective and technical information that should be better addressed or known. I haven’t had time to fully read the document yet, but I will try to summarize it here as I do read it.

In the mean time, the full PDF version of the document can be found by clicking on the appropriate link at the Billings Field Office’s wild horse page, which can be accessed by clicking here.