Annual/Termination Reports:

[09/15/2021]

Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

<p>The Fertility control working group completed two iUPOD breeding trials under the direction of Dr. Gradil and in collaboration with Utah State University faculty. The goals was to assess the iUPOD retention in mares in a pasture (MA) or paddock (UT) setting. 100% retention and 100% contraceptive efficacy was observed in these studies suggesting that these iUPOD&rsquo;s were effective in preventing contraception in wild-hors populations under these conditions. Another study with copper containing iUPODS was tested in Utah to see whether it could decrease infections. The mares in this study had increased inflammation and so it was decided that copper would not be desirable in future studies</p><br /> <p>The body condition working group continued its work on health evaluations of rangeland and wild horse populations by reviewing photos of these populations and then making a health evaluation of the horses based upon various criteria previously described. Over the past year, they have collected over 2 million photographs for analyses. Nevada group applied machine learning tools to identify pictures with animals in them and subsequent counted the number of animals in each photograph. 56,330 photographs were found to contain animals. Utah group has trained Vets to assign body condition scores (BCS) to these animals. Horses from 4652 photos have been scored. Graphs showing BCS over time and vegetation conditions are being developed by the Utah and Wyoming groups. The data is shown in the table below. The group will continue their assessment of photos and vegetative conditions over the next year.</p><br /> <p><strong>Indicator Name&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Count</strong></p><br /> <p>Total no. states with sites&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4<br />Number of unique sites counted/classified&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 35<br />Photos with animals counted/classified&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2,014,772<br />Photos remaining to be classified in CA&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 10,400<br />Total number of BCS done to date&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;38,338<br />Total temporal sequences of animals with BCS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;1,652<br />Total Photos with BCS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 4,625<br />Total sites with BCS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;19<br />Total states with BCS&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;2<br />&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>The National Survey working group, using funds secured from the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station and Utah State University Extension to match funds from the Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station Public Lands Initiative, created and conducted a limited National online survey of wild-horse knowledge and opinions. The survey acquired a total of 400 responses from each of 5 national regions. Both Nevada and Utah were surveyed more extensively as these are the two states with the biggest wild-horse populations. 1000 persons were surveyed in each of these states in a separate study. Dr. Frey (Utah) created a website to present basic findings of the survey, as they are examined and prepared for manuscripts. The website is designed to be informative, but very approachable to people new to the topic of free-roaming horses and burros. &nbsp;&nbsp;https://www.usuhumanwildlifeinteractions.com/freeroamhorsesurvey.html.</p><br /> <p>Several manuscripts under being prepared by the Utah and Nevada groups for publication. Future work will focus on the following:</p><br /> <p>a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A similarly designed study as this initial study that focuses on wild burros</p><br /> <p>b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Working with native peoples to survey tribal management and opinions of free-ranging horses and burros.</p><br /> <p>c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A reflective survey that asks more in-depth questions about management actions, to gauge aspects such as &lsquo;willingness to pay&rsquo;, and situational acceptance of management actions.</p><br /> <p>The Youth /community engagement committee is worked on determining &ldquo;what youth outreach is occurring&rdquo; and &ldquo;how to increase youth and community engagement&rdquo; in wild-horse and burro projects. This year they focused on the first question. The first question was addressed by investigating what existing programs are currently available that involve mustangs and then looking at opportunities for additional programming. What we discovered is that our programs are inward facing and do not do a great job of educating the public. We also discovered that the programs are shrinking or disappearing. The cause of this is partly due to a saturated market (new audience needs to be targeted) and partly to increased pressure from advocate groups. In an effort to grow the program, in 2019 Utah State University Extension and Youth Programs held their annual Youth Mustang Challenge and increased their scope by creating a Military Mustang Challenge. These were very well received and we look forward to making this event even larger in the future.</p><br /> <p>The groups goal moving forward is to continue with our existing programming and share these with surrounding states. Our hope is that other organizations will look to doing similar programs and agree to collaborate with us on additional projects. To combat the inward facing nature of our existing programs, we have come up with some other ideas. Mustang Camp, a collaborative event between the Mustang Heritage Foundation, BLM, and USU Extension, will target youth in suburban communities and focus on education. The pilot camp is scheduled for July 2021, and two additional Mustang Camps are planned for 2022. Collateral benefits of these camps is the creation and utilization of research based curricula and other educational materials.</p>

Publications

Impact Statements

1. Wild horse and burro management on the rangeland is a very difficult and contentious issue. State and Federal agencies are struggling to develop effective management strategies due to existing State and Federal regulations, wild horse and burro advocates and an exponentially growing population of animals that often exceeds rangeland sustainability. The long-term impacts of this project is to better understand the existing and future conditions of the rangelands and their impact on maintenance of these herds. We also seek to also better understand the public’s perceptions of the conditions and management issues on the rangelands with these animals so that we can better educate them. The goal is to develop tools for State and Federal agencies to assess rangeland and animal conditions and to make decisions as to the best management practices for these animals and the rangeland as a whole. Funding has been obtained from the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Thacker and Hoopes) and matched by funding through the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station (Stringham) and Utah Extension (Thacker, Hoopes) to support studies of the body and rangelands conditions group. Funding was also provided to Stoner (Wyoming) from the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station to support his efforts on this project. Funding from the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah Extension and the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station supported the initial national online survey project of the National Survey working group. These results are important as we assess the general public’s understanding of the issues on the rangelands and their opinions on how to deal with the issues. The WDC_507 group is making significant progress in its quest to better understand vegetation and animal conditions on the rangelands and how best to address these issues in light of significant differences of opinions by the general public.

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