Nevada's Wild Horses Spur Roundup Petition

Adoptable wild horses at the Palomino Valley Adoption Center north Sparks, Nevada.
Photo © Stan White

As surely as sagebrush grows in the desert, controversy over management of wild horses continues to spring forth from Nevada's vast public lands. The latest dustup involves two Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups of mustangs in the eastern part of the state. Out by Ely, the BLM is currently engaged in removing 350 horses from the range and has plans to capture another 270 near Caliente in October. The plan for these gathers (the BLM term for removing wild horses from the range) is available on the BLM Ely District Office website - Golden Gate, Seaman Range, and White River Herd Area Wild Horse Gather Final EA.

BLM's reasoning is that there just isn't enough forage and water to sustain the horses in a healthy condition while protecting fragile resources at the same time. Considering we are in a continuing period of severe drought, I don't find this argument farfetched. Others, however, see the BLM as shirking its duty to provide for the animals under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Wild horse advocate Christine Jubic has filed a petition with the Interior Board of Land Appeals asking that the gather under way now be stopped until a ruling is made on her request to halt both roundups entirely. The Board has 45 days to render a decision. Others propose that the BLM is siding with ranchers because wild horses compete with cattle for limited range resources. Meanwhile, over 1,000 wild horses in other areas of the Ely district will continue to be managed in the wild.

However this shakes out, it doesn't change the fact that there are already over 31,000 horses in long-term holding facilities around the West, which is about as many as are still running wild. Something is going to have to give - reaching consensus among involved government agencies and a variety of wild horse advocacy groups isn't going to be easy.

Learn more about this issue by reading my Nevada's Wild Horses article and viewing my wild horses pictures. How this is resolved is important for Nevada, where about 67% of the land is under BLM management.

Have something to say on this subject? Go to the Reno / Tahoe Forum to enter your comments and vote in the wild horse poll.

Sources: Nevada BLM, Reno Gazette-Journal.

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