Nevada turns it's back on wild horse sanctuary

October 12, 1:34 PMLA Equine Policy ExaminerCarrol Abel

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  photo by carrol abel

Winecup-Gamble Ranch presented it's proposal for a one million acre wild horse sanctuary to Nevada's Elko County Commissioners on Friday. If the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) accepts their proposal, the ranch will transition from cattle to horses.  

By all appearances, the proposal follows guidelines in BLM's new management plan announced by Interior Secretary  Ken Salazar on October 7th.  The sanctuary would not only provide safe harbor for 8-10,000 wild horses harvested by BLM, but also include a training program to "halter break" some animals increasing their adoptability.  

Planned facilities include public viewing with a lodge to be used as a welcoming center and museum dedicated to the history of wild horses.  The ranch itself has an interesting history of previous owners such as Bing Croby and Jimmy Stewart.  The million acre ranch consists of 250,000 acres of deeded land and 750,000 acres of grazing rights managed by the BLM on public lands.

Elko county commissioners voted almost unanimously to send a letter of opposition to Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and the Interior Department.  Their opposition fears that if the ranch transitions from cattle to horses, it will no longer create a revenue for the county and will be supported at taxpayers expense.  It disagrees with with the need to provide public viewing because horses "...are visible from every highway in the state."

The Commission argues that before the sanctuary could take horses, the Wild Horse act of 1971 would have to be changed to allow horses  on land not occupied by horses at the time of passage.  They state " To open the Wild Horse act for this reason would set a bad precedence..."  

The Restore Our American Mustang Act, currently in Senate committee, has already opened the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act.  If approved by the Senate and signed by president Obama, the act will restore 19 million acres of land taken from wild horses since 1971.

Elko County encompasses the fourth largest land mass of any county in the nation.  BLM handles several Herd Management Areas (HMA's) in or near the county.  Many of those HMA's have been "zeroed out" by removing all wild horses from the range.