A Nov. 16 letter by the Coalition for Healthy Nevada Lands to the Bureau of Land Management’s national director misrepresents the status of Nevada’s wild horse and burro herds, claiming these have reached crisis overpopulation and urging more large-scale roundups in 2024. This rather hysterical letter was also sent to the Nevada Sagebrush Ecosystem Council for its endorsement. Basically, it defies the true intent of the unanimously passed Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFHBA) by ignoring its (and related laws’) central tenets.
The act requires the “protection, management and control” of America’s wild horses and burros on public lands, where they were found unbranded and unclaimed in 1971. These legal, year-round habitats are to be “devoted principally to their welfare” not that of cattle or sheep ranchers, mining, energy, big game, OHVers, land developers, etc. Yet all the opposite is happening. On their legal public lands, these equids should be treated as “an integral part of the natural system” and “protected from capture, branding, harassment or death” with criminal penalties, since 1971, of up to $2,000 and/or a year in jail; and, since 1984 with the Sentencing Reform Act, up to $100,000 and/or 10 years in prison. WFHBA’s uncompleted Section 10 authorizes the declaration of study herds to learn how these equids naturally behave and integrate with other species and the land.
The BLM and the US Forest Service should manage the wild equids “to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance” and “at the minimum feasible level.” Also, the seldom used Code of Federal Regulations 4710.5-.6 specifically provides for reducing or canceling livestock privileges on the wild equids’ legal public lands to ensure thriving, healthy herds. Many other exacting provisions of the WFHBA and other laws favor these wild equids and should be used to counter the undermining of their rights, which they actually possess in superior degree to those of ranchers who use public lands.
As a wildlife ecologist, I have monitored Nevada’s and America’s wild horses and burros and the WFHBA program since 1971. I have sought to achieve government honesty and integrity in upholding the true spirit of this progressive act. But I cannot stand by while people heavily involved in public lands exploitation issue biased information and hyperbole about the wild horses and burros to cripple or eliminate their populations and monopolize their legal habitats.
Public lands exploiters are ruining so many of the natural ecosystems, including by overgrazing and by pumping down major aquifers, thus causing the aridification of much of Nevada and the West, including the drying of springs, streams, lakes and ponds that are the “lifeblood” of the desert. I am particularly concerned about uncontrolled cattle and sheep, including increasing trespassing by out-of-season animals, and their devastating effects.
The coalition’s statement is not an objective take on public land health. It overlooks the major causes of ecosystem degradation or blames the wild equids for this, ignoring that they are very minor presences relative to the major natural resource exploiters. They engage in deceptive “squeeze plays,” often in cahoots with government officials who should be controlling this situation in an enlightened and fair way.
The relatively minor wild equid herds must not be blamed for what is happening in Nevada and the West. These are natural gardeners who restore the living Earth. Casting aspersions at them ignores so many of the positive contributions of a native species that should be valued as an integral component and enhancer of the public lands ecosystem.
Nevada—and America—must stop scapegoating these marvelous animals. We must use a “reserve design” approach, which would restore all of the herds to genetically viable levels and allow them to naturally adapt and harmonize within each of their unique and legally protected habitats.
But it’s up to each one of us to make this happen. Please support my reserve design plan (see my Go Fund Me, “Reserve Design for Wild Horses”) and urge BLM and USFS officials and your elected representatives to adopt H.R. 6314, the Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act bill, which could resolve many serious conflicts with ranchers on the legal wild horse and burro habitats and permit genetically viable herds in viable habitats where a proper reserve design could be implemented.
Craig C Downer is a wildlife ecologist and a fourth-generation Nevadan who has observed and defended wild horses and burros since his youth. He has done studies, written two books and many articles, and given input on the subject to government agencies, courts and Congress.
Does US Fish and Wildlife have the final word and fiduciary duty in the habitat designation for wild equids. Are the agencies circumventing conservation laws while Ignoring evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g_oFJc7lq4. Fast forward to 18:43. Extreme prejudice against native horses is expressed by Kim Thorburn, Commissioner Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife declares that’ Those gorgeous herds of wild horses are non-native and destroying the West”. A petition filed on June 10, 2104 was rejected on the basis of the feral allegation. (see http://www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20140611.pdf) Barry Jones ( the principal biologist for the Ramona Grasslands Conservation bank) was asked to list a heritage herd on the inventory list of cultural and natural resources he replied “This is something I am not passionate about and am too busy even if I were to be of any assistance. Plus I have never heard of the USFWS listing an introduced species like the horse.
Karen.Miner@wildlife.ca.gov stated “ When and if available scientific information convinces the experts that determine the checklist of native species to North America that Equus caballus should be considered as an indigenous species, they will make the change in the next revision to the list, and then we would take that fact into consideration for inclusion on our state animal lists. “I have conferred with our Lead Scientist in our California Natural Diversity Database Program regarding how the Department determines if a species is considered native to California, and specifically regarding wild horses. The population of horses to which you refer is Equus caballus. I have conferred with our Lead Scientist in our California Natural Diversity Database Program regarding how the Department determines if a species is considered native to California, and specifically regarding wild horses.
This species is considered to be non-native to North America on the Checklist of North American Mammals. Therefore inclusion of this feral population of a non-native species on the CNDDB Special Animals List would not be appropriate. Only native species are eligible to be considered for inclusion as a California Mammal Species of Special Concern, or to receive protection under the California Endangered Species Act. The State’s Wildlife Action Plan defines Species of Greatest Conservation Need as native species meeting certain criteria, and wild horses, therefore, would not meet the definition for inclusion in that plan either.” All gov agencies are subject to the Endangered Species Act yet they fail to protect the American Public by the extraction of non excess wild horses and burros from ranges diminished by politically motivated and technically fatally flawed Resource Management Plans that are subject to amendments.
The US federal government owned (in trust) 640 million acres of land and about 28% of the nation’s total surface, 2.27 billion acres is subject to the ESA and species habitat. As the court found in Mountain States v. Hodel “ In structure and purpose, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act is nothing more than a land-use regulation enacted by Congress to ensure the survival of a particular species of wildlife noting that wild horses and burros are no less “wild” animals than are the grizzly bears that roam our national parks and forests.”
Craig,
I have never heard them called equids ????
SMH
Thank you for all that you are doing for the wild horses !!!!
Thanks for your supportive comments that reveal the extreme prejudice and obstinate close-mindedness of too many in America today! All this can and must change! So let’s look with bright faith in the Greater Truth and Justice prevailing in the New Year 2024 and beyond for the deeply rooted North American naturally living horses and burros too and their rightful habitats on the public lands and wherever else they belong and do so much restorative good! Those of you wishing to go into greater depth on this issue and seeing the proofs should read my professional article at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274006946_The_Horse_and_Burro_as_Positively_Contributing_Returned_Natives_in_North_America
The present day wild/feral horse evolved with the manipulation by humans into the large, noble beast we have today, and was introduced to our continent. This new horse came from many centuries of domestication and selective breeding by humans. So big and strong we measure energy in “horse power”. The horse you talk about being native to our continent went extinct during the Ice Age along with the predators that hunted it. The modern day, wild/feral horse is wrecking much of the fragile Nevada landscape, and displacing true native species. You just choose not to acknowledge scientific facts due to your emotional attachment to horses. They might be better managed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife like other Nevada animals are because the feds are not keeping up with the problem. Sure glad Nevada legislators saw the truth and did not make the wild/feral horse a state animal.
https://youtu.be/q6h242vy_q8?si=8G31M6-MGbUxm6Z8
Anybody take a cruise up to Mt. Charleston Las Vegas, Nevada lately. Kudos to you if a donkey ass doesn’t flippin’ run into your vehicle, lay dead or not in the middle of the black as night road & you plow over it before you know what hit you. It’s a goshdam Russian Roulette! Oh, don’t report it like a “good citizen” would because you’ll be fined $5000, YES, $5000 for harming the jackass’s!!!
In answer to Jonnie’s denigration of the wild horses place in America and the West including our state of Nevada: your take on these returned natives is very narrow minded and prejudiced, based on lopsided filtering of facts an unfair distorted views. You ignore the intrinsic adaptivity of the horse in refilling it ecological niche and the significant restoration of balance and resilience the horse represents. Such inquisition-type judgments and so uncharitable! You should read my indepth article at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274006946_The_Horse_and_Burro_as_Positively_Contributing_Returned_Natives_in_North_America
Concerning Anonymous input mocking the wild burros as mere nuisances, what I have to say is this: How utterly uncharitable and narcissistic this person’s views and what a petty minded view of what is important and of value in our world. So to this person any accommodation would seem out of the question to allow both burros and humans to live in harmony together and with mutual respect! Is life on Earth just about unending human monopolization of the Earth and all its species, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous?!