‘Homes on the range’: Summit focuses on interactions between wild horses, other wildlife

/ Staff Blog

Summit participants visited both protected and unprotected springheads near Elko, NV.

Who are the players with thoughtful concerns or perspectives when it comes to conservation and wildlife issues?

Wild horse advocates, the livestock industry, and public lands managers have been at the forefront of the wild horse issue, usually arguing their points, but sometimes cooperating on distinct projects (think volunteer-led fertility control darting programs or restoration and protection of springheads using volunteer labor).

Other interest groups have their thoughts, too, but they’ve largely remained quiet, fearful of entering the fray: if they speak for or against wild horses, will their supporters become confused?

The Free-Roaming Equids and Ecosystem Sustainability (FREES) Network, administered by the Utah State University Extension Office, seeks to provide a thoughtful space for participating organizations to discuss their perspectives and develop wild horse and burro program-supporting projects alongside agencies.

The process is slow, of course, as growing trust between groups who may not see eye to eye takes time.

RTF’s biologist sits on the FREES steering committee, and is proud of how the group listens attentively to other perspectives, and respects the fact that there are differences of opinion.

This year’s summit, held April 15-18 in Elko, NV, focused on the interactions of wild horses and burros with other wildlife. Highlights from the summit include:

  • Wildlife organizations felt seen and heard at the summit. They also support the idea that fertility control is an important part of management.
  • Research to dig in to how wildlife, wild horses and burros, and livestock utilize limited resources (water and forage) differently, whether overlapping forage and water use is competition that negatively affects populations or not, and how and if that matters, is ongoing.
  • A fertility control darting demonstration (try your hand at using a dart projector) and Forest Service pack horses out front of the conference center during a “Dart Demo Mixer” were very popular!
  • The field trip focused on riparian habitats, and we visited a protected spring (springhead fenced off) and an unprotected spring (much loss of topsoil, degradation and habitat loss of wet meadow, hummock formation in the channel).
  • The biggest “win”: the result of this summit was breakout groups that discussed actual, boots-on-the-ground projects that participants could become involved in: instead of trying to move agency needles, what can happen alongside their programs, and who can do or bring what? (Funding partners, labor, organization, project management.) The breakout groups were: research, riparian habitats, off-range holding, fertility control, and adoption.

The tone of the summits has changed over time, as we get our feet under us and incorporate the suggestions and concerns of the participants. It is becoming a place to grapple with challenges together, in a non-threatening, open, respectful manner, and to find the places where we can learn from one another and quite literally work side by side.