Case Study #2
An AWHPC Investigation
Nevada, Summer 2004
Photos
courtesy of Return To Freedom
and Laura Moretti
In the summer of
2004, according to the BLM, the wild horse situation in the state of
Nevada reached a critical point: there was no water on the range; wild
horses could not survive the drought and had to be immediately removed
or face a certain death. So, with the help of another $7.6 million for
the year (on top of its allocated $29 million), the BLM came to the
"rescue" by rounding up the animals.
On the range, however, a team of wild horse experts found a somewhat different,
disturbing reality. Only the HMAs (Herd Management Areas) that did not
have cattle grazing on them were without water; those that had cattle
had plenty of water. On all the cattle-free HMAs visited, water tanks
and troughs were empty and had been for some time; pipes and pumps had
been disconnected. Presumably, when cattle are removed from the HMAs,
the water sources are disengaged and abandoned until the next
cattle-grazing season. It is on those fenced-off HMAs that horse
fatalities were found: seven animals were found dead within a couple of
hundred feet of each other; another was found on the Ravenwood HMA
trapped by a fence keeping him from a water source; the skeletons of six
more were found close together on the Pilot Mountains HMA near dried and
abandoned water troughs. Meanwhile, on the HMAs where cattle were left
to graze, water sources were readily available.
While wild horses were left to literally drop dead next to well-managed cows thriving on
the other side of public-land fencing, the BLM was busy removing from
desirable areas horses that even they admit were healthy, thriving and
sustainable. Their field managers then lamented the condition of horses
in drought-stricken areas and moved in to remove these horses as well,
on an emergency basis.
The fact is that it would be less costly to manage horses in the wild than to subject
them to traumatic round-ups — including in drought-stricken areas, where
water pumps could be left on when public land ranchers remove their
cattle to send them to market. After all, public land ranchers get some
of their grazing fees back to pay for range improvements such as water
wells. Wild horses could be granted access to such subsidized range
improvements and BLM could compensate ranchers for any increase in their
water bills. Furthermore, it is often times public land fencing that
prevents horses from accessing scarce natural water sources.
Wild horses have been relegated to some of the most inhospitable land. Still, they adapt and survive. The first photo in this row shows a typical HMA in western central Nevada. The second shows the desert floor littered with cow manure. In the third and fourth, you will see some of the few wild horses we found (note in the last photo just how vast an area very few horses live in).