Government Helicopter Stampede to Remove 400 Wild Horses from Wassuk Herd Management Area in Nevada
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Please help us demand a more humane federal wild horse management policy by submitting comments on the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) plan to roundup nearly 500 wild horses living peacefully in the Wassuk Herd Management Area (HMA), located southeast of Carson City, Nevada. The action will terrorize and traumatize wild horses, shatter their close-knit families, and permanently remove 400 mustangs from their homes on the range.
The BLM has issued a Preliminary Environmental Assessment on the proposed roundup and is seeking public comments. The agency allocates two to three times more forage to privately-owned livestock than to federally-protected wild horses in this designated wild horse area. The BLM claims that three of the five grazing allotments in the HMA "have not received authorized grazing in the past 10 years due to the over population of the wild horses," yet the EA also states that the Wassuk wild horse population "did not increase appreciably until 2008.”
This isn’t a management program -- it's an elimination program. The federal government has chosen a violent method to "manage" wild horses because it wants to get rid of the mustangs forever. If preserving them was really the goal, the BLM would use safe and effective alternatives to keep them on the range, where they belong.
Please take a moment to submit your comments today!
Photo by Elyse Gardner
Wassuk HMALOCATION: Within the administrative jurisdiction of the BLM Carson City District (CCDO) within Lyon and Mineral Counties, Nevada (NV). The HMA is approximately 12 miles east-southeast of Yerington, NV and west of Walker Lake.
SIZE AND TERRAIN: HMA encompasses approximately 51,750 acres and consists of north-south trending mountain ranges surrounded by valley bottoms.
ALLOWABLE WILD HORSE MANAGEMENT LEVEL: 110 - 165
CURRENT ESTIMATED WILD HORSE POPULATION: 623
FORAGE ALLOCATED TO LIVESTOCK: 4,274 Animal Unit Months (AUMs)
FORAGE ALLOCATED TO WILD HORSES: 1,320 – 1,980 AUMs
POPULATION LEVELS: Remained within or below Allowable Management Level between 1991 and 2008 without any removals. BLM claims that reasons for population increase between 2008-2012 are "unknown."
LIVESTOCK GRAZING ALLOTMENTS IN HMA: Butler Mountain, Gray Hills and Black Mountain
BLM CONTRADICTS ITSELF TO PROMOTE ANTI WILD HORSE AGENDA:
On the issue of livestock grazing:
"The Gray Hills Allotment, Black Mountain Allotment and the Butler Mountain Allotment have not received authorized grazing in the past 10 years due to the over population of the wild horses." Wassuk Wild Horse Gather EA, p. 45. Emphasis added.
"This allotment hasn’t been grazed [by livestock] for about 10 years due to persistent drought." Black Mountain Grazing Allotment Final EA, p. 7. Emphasis added.
On the issue of mountain lion predation:
"For unknown reasons this wild horse population has fluctuated between 100 and 247 head from 1975 to 2008 with a low of 35 in 1973. Since 2008 the population has increased dramatically and it is unknown why the population did not increase appreciably until 2008. Mountain lion predation on foals could explain part or all of the suppression, though there is little evidence to support this and it is unknown why a “shift” in population controls may have occurred." Wassuk Wild Horse Gather EA, p. 4-5. Emphasis added.
"Mountain lions are apparently abundant and utilize wild horses as a major food source rather than mule deer, at least during cyclic deer population declines." Butler Mountain Grazing Allotment Final EA, p. 10. Emphasis added.