Six weeks after the BLM started its brutal winter scavenger hunt for the wild mustangs that ran free in the breathtaking Calico Mountains of Nevada, the agency has suddenly announced that the gathering phase of the operation is now over. It's believed that about 600 horses managed to elude the helicopter stampedes into holding pens. They are the lucky ones, who can now roam the 550,000-acre range without fear.
The cost of this ill-conceived undertaking was great: at least 39 healthy horses have perished, and more than two dozen in-utero foals had their lives snuffed out before they took their first breath. Almost two thousand wild horses will never again taste their freedom. Their future is uncertain, as they wait, penned up and captive, for the BLM to make its next move. Of the 1900 or so wild horses currently being held at the Indian Lakes Road facility in Fallon, Nevada, many more will sicken and die from the stress of captivity and an unfamiliar grass hay diet. The carnage is not over, by any means.
Without a moratorium on future roundups, the BLM plans to conduct similar wild horse "gathers" throughout the year, until it has spent in excess of $32 million dollars and captured 12,000 horses. There is no legitimate reason for what they are doing. Wild horse-savvy observers of the Calico roundup, including as Elyse Gardner, Craig Downer, and Ginger Kathrens, have testified that the horses there were in good condition, and not in danger of starvation, as had been asserted by the BLM.
Wild horses currently occupy only 26.6 million acres of public land out of the more than 256 million acres under BLM management. Cattle are allowed to graze on 160 million acres, including land where the horses are foraging. To force these horses off their ranges under a misguided plan to repatriate them to other parts of the country represents a reckless squandering of precious American resources. We must do something to stop it.
Comments
What a one sided biased slice of journalism, and I use the term journalism very loosely. I live out here, and see first hand what you know nothing about. You should take a hike in the mountains and find a dried up spring and dead Mustangs around it. Most of the Mustangs I see in the mountains are malnourished and inbred. Don't get me wrong I love horses, they are elegant and majestic creatures. So tell us Maureen, what should we do with the over populated feral horses? Are you going to adopt one?
What the BLM needs to do is take a fraction of that $32,000,000 in roundup costs this year and put supplemental water sources in, as has been done in other horse ranges. A cheap replacement and the wild horses stay wild.
@nevadarama, I love the posts that say, don't get me wrong, I love horses...
You know they are going to be pro round up and stockpiling of horses.
As far as this being a biased slice, have you heard from the BLM or read any of Salazar;s op ed pieces? Talk about one sided! And I do believe her byline says Equine Advocate. What are you an advocate for? The BLM? The BLM does nothing to preserve the heritage, family bands or gene pools of these magnificent animals who are protected under Federal Law. They round up and stockpile and watch them languish. As far as adoption, you think 40,000 wild mustangs are going to be adopted. The answer isn't adoption. It is letting them remain free and wild as the Federal Law stipulates. Take your "love" of horses elsewhere. I ain't buying it.
Hey Save Wild Horses,
I don't care too much for the BLM. I think they are miss managing the horses and at an amazing monetary cost to all of us. I'm an advocate for the land and keeping it wild and natural. These so called "Wild Horses" are nothing more than "Feral Horses", they didn't evolve here and they don't belong here, they have been let loose or have escaped. You obviously have never been in the mountains of Nevada, I live out here and see these horses everyday. These horses are devastating the range land and the springs, their overpopulation is a great threat to the wildlife and the ecosystem. If we let them be "free and wild", we will end up with dead horses and a devastated landscape with little wildlife left. Gee, now doesn't that make sense! Your love of horses will let them die in anguish in the mountains you know nothing about.
Hey Nevadarama!
USGS & Western Watershed studies have shown - the range, even without wild equines and cattle - will probably never recover, EVER. So if you're looking for a pre-homestead range recovery, circa 100 years ago, AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.
And everyone who's pro-roundup seems to think that beautiful green riparian biome is a desert-wide occurence. We're talking about Wild Horse Management Areas, not wildlife refuges, where the pickin's are slim and Wild Equines are one of the few actually equipped to live there. I will grant you - Wild Equines do cause damage in refuges. But they gravitate there because they're fenced off & chased off the Management Areas they're supposed to be living on, which are shrinking at a remarkable rate (20 Million Acres the BLM can't account for)
So if you have issue with Wild Equines in refuges, take it to the Forest Service. But refuges have nothing to do with Herd Management Areas - vast, arid, non-riparian desert where they are harming NO ONE.
move the 7 million welfare cattle off public lands who graze there at taxpayer expense. 7 million cattle and 26,000 horses - do the math it's not the horses causing problems. To say these horse were dumped there is ludicrous. Educate yourself beyond your own propaganda. Facts are facts. These horses are a native species who are good for the environment- they help re seed the
range something cattle cannot due because of their digestive systems. This is a case of good ole boys taking care of each other at taxpayer expense -horses stay cattle go.
Cattle owners pay BLM to use the rangeland to raise the cattle YOU eat, that money is put towards environmental concerns i.e. wild horses. They are horribly overpopulated and need dispersion more than anything; they are destroying rangelands that are home to several species not just the horses. The sage-grouse is possibly going on the Endangered Species Act this year due to inadequate nesting grounds...Anyone have a guess why there are now inadequate nesting grounds: wild horses destroying them. Most wild game will stay on one trail while horses go where ever they please ruining more than just a line through the range. Everyone thinks nothing grows here in Nevada but there are several grass species that have adapted to the harsh environment and that is what ALL the wild life survives on. The number of horses in an area should be expected to change every year, as nowhere has the same amount of rainfall each year so there will never be a set amount of grasses coming up each year.
Also the cattle are moved on and off the ranges as determined by range conservationists.... And Chris eat a horse and tell me how it tastes and go ahead and educate yourself on wild/feral horses. There was a population explosion when automobiles and tractors were invented because those horses were no longer needed they were turned out. The latest population explosion is still happening with the economy in the tank many people can't afford to care for their horses anymore and a simply turning them out increasing the stress on the land. Who is to determine if its a wild horse or feral horse? No one... they are all branded as "wild"...
How can you people be on exactly opposite sides of a provable theory - that the horses are destructive? It should be easy to identify if this is true or false. Why don't people agree about whether it is or not? Very strange.
Also, how can anyone deem the horses destructive to nature when they stop and consider what WE do to nature? There is zero chance in my opinion that men/women know what they are doing when they attempt to "manage" range.
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