Please Don't Let the BLM Use Drought as a Blanket Excuse to Remove Wild Horses from the Range in Nevada


Comments must be received by May 16, 2012.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain District Office is known as "the heart of wild horse country," managing more Herd Management Areas (HMAs) -- 28 -- than any other BLM district. Wild horse and burro habitat under Battle Mountain's jurisdiction spans more than 3 million acres.

Last month, the Battle Mountain District issued a "Drought Management Environmental Assessment" (EA) that outlines every possible scenario for managing livestock and wild horses and burros in a potential drought emergency. But the EA does not include the site-specific information necessary to determine whether, in fact, a drought emergency exists and if so, whether wild horses and burros do, indeed, need to be removed.

Please take a minute to object to this overly-broad EA that the agency may try to use as a blanket approval for the removal of wild horses and burros from these important herds. We must also remind the BLM of its mandate to protect wild horses and burros vs. its discretion to authorize livestock grazing. The agency must not conduct any drought removals of wild horses or burros unless and until livestock grazing in the HMAs is first eliminated.

Please take a moment to personalize the sample letter below, then press "submit" to send your comments to the BLM.

This action is no longer active. To view the current list of our active campaigns click here

If you prefer, you can also submit your comments by May 16, 2012 by regular mail or email:
BLM, Battle Mountain District Office
Attn: Douglas Furtada, District Manager
50 Bastian Road
Battle Mountain, NV 89820
Email: bmfoweb@blm.gov

For more information call or email Casey Johnson at 775-635-4059, cdjohnson@blm.gov or Tessa Teems at 775-635-4067, tteems@blm.gov.

Background/Additional Information

The Battle Mountain District (BMD) press release on the "Drought Management Environmental Assessment" is available here.

The Environmental Assessment (EA) is available here and highlights from the EA are below.

The BMD administers 28 Herd Management Areas (HMAs) encompassing over 3 million acres of public lands. HMAs within the BMD range in size from 11,500 acres to over 407,000 acres. The 2012 estimated population within the BMD is approximately 3800 wild horses and 360 wild burros.

There are currently 87 permittees and 8 lessees on the BMD, which are authorized to graze livestock across 10.5 million acres of public land. The BMD is divided into 94 grazing allotments. Livestock operators graze cattle, sheep and horses within these allotments. Annually, the BMD authorizes approximately 362,869 AUMs. [NOTE: This is the annual equivalent of 30,239 cows.)
.
Under the Grazing Closure Alternative [in the EA], all areas determined to be affected by drought (refer to Attachment 1) would be closed to livestock grazing for the duration of the drought and one additional growing season following the cessation of the drought. Grazing closures would remove livestock grazing from the public lands to eliminate the impacts of grazing during drought and provide one growing season of rest for plant recovery following the cessation of the drought.
.
In extreme situations, the complete lack of forage and/or water in certain locations could warrant the removal of all locatable wild horses and burros to prevent their death. This situation would only apply as a last resort, and could involve holding wild horses or burros in contract facilities with release back to the range when adequate resources exist. If complete removal and subsequent release is chosen, population control methods could be implemented prior to wild horses being released back to the HMA. Population controls would not be implemented in burro populations.

Population controls applied to wild horses released back to the range would be used to slow population growth rates, lengthen the time before another gather is necessary and enhance post drought resource recovery. Population controls include the application of fertility control vaccine to mares, and sex ratio modification to favor studs. Fertility control vaccines would be applied to all mares released to the range. Sex ratio adjustments could be applied alone or in combination with fertility control. Sex ratio adjustments would involve the release of studs and mares in a 60:40 ratio (favoring studs). In extreme cases, where it is determined that fewer mares should be released to provide for animal welfare and the health of mares, fewer mares could be released resulting in sex ratios of 70:30. This would occur when large numbers of animals need to be removed from the range due to resource conditions and releasing additional studs would result in fewer horses needing to be removed from the range.