In meetings last week with county officials and local ranchers, Bureau of Land Management officials promised a partial removal of the hundreds of wild horses wandering on public and private land near Oreana. The animals are competing with livestock and wildlife for food and water on a local cattleman's grazing allotment, an area out of bounds for mustangs according to the federal agency.
For over 18 years, rancher Dan Duncan has requested round-ups to eliminate the ever-expanding herds of feral horses. His grazing allotments are actually "checkerboards" of public land and leased private land with water rights intended for livestock and wildlife and not for "trespassers" such as feral horses.
As requested by the BLM, Duncan said he's reduced his livestock, and thus his income, due to the ongoing drought in Pershing County. He says that any further livestock reductions or the loss of his eastern grazing allotment due to competition with wild horses would jeopardize his livelihood.
After meeting with Nevada BLM Director Amy Lueders and Winnemucca BLM District Manager Gene Seidlitz, Duncan said the agency is planning to address the problem and officials promised to remove at least 100 feral horses from his allotment. He estimated there are more than 350 mustangs in the Limerick Canyon area and called the federal agency's proposed horse round-up a good beginning.
"They are doing what they can and we were pleased with the meeting," Duncan said last week. "It's a start and we are in support of the BLM."
On Wednesday, Seidlitz confirmed that a water trap gather of approximately 100 mustangs is planned for sometime in June on Duncan's grazing allotment and/or on private land. Captured horses will go to the agency's horse and burro holding facility in Palomino Valley to be made available for adoption. Seidlitz said the goal is to eventually gather all horses in the Humboldt Herd Area as resources are available.
Under the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act passed in 1971, mustangs are protected from public interference. According to ranchers and local officials, however, the BLM must by law remove wild horses that stray onto private land and criticize the agency's noncompliance with its own regulations.
"As soon as wild horses are on private land, they lose their legal status as free roaming wild horses," said Pershing County rancher Mike Stremler. "When horses break into our pastures, we'll rope them and the BLM has to come and pick them up."
BLM officials say they have no space left for the animals but excess feral horses could be disposed of legally by the agency at public livestock auctions, according to Stremler.
"Send them to a public sale, let all the horse advocates know and they can bid against the guys who send horses to Mexico (for slaughter)," he said. "The BLM is spending $25 million on this wild horse and burro program, breeding more horses out on the public range and creating their own budget crisis."
Stremler speculated that captive wild horses cost the BLM about $15,000 per head to maintain in storage corrals.
Pershing County Commission Chairman Darin Bloyed has a new acronym for the federal bureaucracy.
"It should be called the BLMM- the Bureau of Land Mismanagement," he said. Bloyed said he's ready for the county to take legal action to force the removal of excess feral horses by the BLM. In the past, a local stock yard was contracted by the BLM to warehouse wild horses removed from the range, he said.
CITY WATER UNDER THREAT
As well as curtailing livelihoods and wildlife habitat, feral horses could potentially disrupt city water supplies. Lovelock Meadows Water District foreman Chad Christiansen recently found damage to a fence surrounding one of three groundwater wells on the district's private land near Oreana. Apparently attracted by water periodically discharged from well #8, mustangs are blamed for the damage reported to the county sheriff and district attorney. There are numerous feral horses but, so far, the animals have not managed to enter the facility where they could damage a generator or other electrical equipment.
"The most I counted was the other morning was 270 head of horses," Christiansen said. "It's breeding season out there - the mares are all hot, the studs are fighting like crazy and they were tearing down the fence around our well. All I can do is try to run them off but I can't sit out there 24/7."
If the animals break in and damage well equipment, water reserves could decline during the upcoming summer months and the period of peak water demand, according to LMWD Manager Rory Munns.
"If they get inside that fence, the horses could pose a real problem for us," he said. "They would cause us a headache if they were to take out power while we were running that well. I enjoy the wild horses but I can't have them busting the fence down and getting into the facilities so they need to be removed."
COUNTY TO ENACT WILD HORSE ORDINANCE
At last week's county commission meeting, Pershing County District Attorney Jim Shirley presented his first draft of a county ordinance regarding the capture of feral horses on private land considered a nuisance or a threat to public health and safety. The draft will be amended with a final version to be presented for a second reading at the next county commission meeting on June 4, he said.
The ordinance will regulate the trapping of wild horses that stray from public land onto private property that the BLM fails to remove as required by the federal Wild Horse and Burro Act. The ordinance would also govern required notifications to the state department of agriculture and the BLM.
The draft ordinance states food bait or other artificial means cannot be used to lure the animals but corral enclosures erected around existing water sources may be permitted, Shirley said.
"This is just a really rough draft and I've got a lot more research to do," Shirley said. "If naturally-occurring source of water already exists and they put up corrals around it, they are not enticing the animals. But, there's a whole set of procedures they'd have to follow before they could do that."
The county ordinance may be essential for saving the livelihoods of ranchers if the BLM does not follow through with a promised gather of wild horses in the Humboldt Herd Area north of Lovelock.
If it happens next month, the round-up would be only a first step in the right direction for Shirley.
"The Duncans are the first priority because the wild horses are going to put them out of business, but there are other ranchers out there where the BLM is in total non-compliance with the law," he said. "I think it's pretty frustrating for a rancher who trying to comply with all their laws while the agency that's regulating their conduct can violate the law with impunity."
In an earlier interview, Shirley said if the BLM does not take action, he will consider filing litigation.
"The environmental assessment is completed so there's no reason why they shouldn't move forward.
I think we could find some place (for captive wild horses) if the BLM is willing to pay for it."
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