
The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on an for a plan that would see the agency capture and remove the remaining 714 wild horses from the Moriah Herd Area in White Pine County, Nevada.
The 55,300-acre Moriah Herd Management Area was demoted to Herd Area status in 2007 because BLM deemed it deficient for one of five essential components: forage, water, cover, space and reproductive viability and set the Appropriate Management Level at 0 horses.
Of the estimated 714 wild horses that still live on the range there, about half regularly leave the Herd Area in search of forage and water, according to the agency.
Under its plan, BLM would set out to capture as many of the horses as possible through a helicopter roundup and return periodically over the next decade to zero out the Herd Area. Captured wild horses would be offered for adoption or sale.
BLM’s assessment rejects raising
Reversion of HMAs to HAs with objectives to zero-out wild horses from these areas while providing no alternative lands for those horses results in a net loss of resources for wild horses overall and a disproportionate gain for other uses.
RTF recommends a slower and multi-faceted approach including the implementation of well-executed fertility control program that would include some on-range fertility control (via remote darting) and some gather-administer-release fertility control. This is more effective at creating and maintaining sustainable wild horse management with less dependence on transportation and short-term holding, where a majority of the program budget is spent.
The BLM did not analyze a reduction of privately-owned cattle or sheep on the Herd Area. The agency has allocated 17,346 Animal Unit Months (one AUM equals enough forage for one cow-calf pair, one horse
To submit a comment before the 4:30 p.m. (PST) deadline on July 24, write