Controversy Surrounds Federal Plan to Gather Tribal Horses

Across a rugged swath of mountainous terrain just south of the Oregon border, government land managers and an Indian tribe are poised to round up to 2,000 horses, many of them roaming federal land illegally. A plan by the U.S. Forest Service and the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe to conduct a horse gather on federal and tribal land this summer is already drawing fire from wild horse advocates, with the issue likely to generate as much controversy as it did the last time horses were removed from the same area two years ago.

Forest Service and tribal officials, as well as local ranchers, insist the proposed gather is the best way to address a long-simmering problem posing an economic hardship to some and causing serious damage to a sensitive landscape, particularly during a time of drought. Horse advocates counter the planned helicopter roundup of tribal-owned horses is a crisis solution to long-standing mismanagement of federal land and that the tribe will profit at taxpayer expense. They say federally protected wild horses will inevitably get caught up in the operation and that many horses – wild or domestic – ultimately face a fate of slaughter.

The joint operation by the tribe and Forest Service seeks to remove scores of horses grazing on Forest Service and BLM land adjoining the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Reservation in the Santa Rosa Mountains, located about 75 miles north of Winnemucca near the Oregon line. Recent aerial surveys revealed about 1,200 horses federal officials say are owned by the tribe that are grazing on federal or tribal land, though experts guess the real number is closer to 2,000.

"We're going to shoot for the 2,000 – as many as we can," Joe Garrotto, chief ranger for the Forest Service's Santa Rosa District, said of the planned gather. Indian horses have illegally grazed the affected federal land for decades. Efforts to require their removal – including through warnings and citations – have failed and generated tension between the government and tribe, Garrotto said. He described the cooperative venture now being pursued as a way to finally achieve a long-pursued goal.

"These horses are on the federal land illegally, without a permit, and they are causing a lot of damage," Garrotto said. "We would like to start removing horses. We're working with the tribe in order to get this done."

Tribal Chairman Tildon Smart said that while support among tribal members for the gather isn't universal, most support it as a necessary step. In a situation worsened by drought, the horses are removing available forage, using up limited water supplies, and damaging natural springs across the landscape, Smart said. Smart is quick to distinguish the difference between the horses specifically targeted for this gather and the wild mustangs found elsewhere on the range.

"These are not wild horses," Smart said. "They are horses that are owned by tribal members that have just gotten out of control." Smart and Forest Service officials insist there are distinct differences between the tribal horses and wild ones, among them size, general appearance, and behavior.

Also supporting the proposed gather are ranchers in the area who run cattle on federal grazing allotments. They are required to follow strict procedures to limit impacts on the land, including rotation of areas where grazing is allowed. The horses are there year-round without any controls, forcing ranchers to limit the number of cattle they can put on the land at any time. That comes at significant expense, said rancher Stephen Hall, owner of Crawford Cattle, LLC based in nearby Paradise Valley.

"They are eating the grass and beating the country up," Hall said. "We have taken a huge financial hit. It's hurting. It's making a big difference."

This summer's proposed roundup is similar to but different from the one conducted two years ago. Like now, the Forest Service and the tribe in 2013 planned a collaborative operation to remove horses from the Santa Rosas. But the Forest Service pulled the plug on its operation after wild horse advocates threatened a lawsuit, alleging among other things that the government had failed to conduct adequate environmental reviews of its plans.

The tribe went ahead with its own roundup, ultimately removing 465 horses which were taken to a livestock auction in Fallon. Horse advocates then filed suit to block the auction of 149 of the horses that were unbranded, contending they were federally protected wild horses that could not legally be auctioned off for possible slaughter. A federal judge ultimately cleared the way for the sale of the unbranded horses.

This time, the gather has been put through an environmental review with no major impacts revealed, said the Forest Service's Garrotto. Plans call for a helicopter roundup – possibly starting as soon as mid-July – conducted by a private contractor and lasting up to 10 days. Experts will be on hand in an effort to ensure wild mustangs are not mixed in with targeted tribal horses, he said.

Gathered horses will be moved by trailer to a holding facility on tribal land at Fort McDermitt, where state and tribal brand inspectors will work to determine who owns the horses. Tribal members will then decide whether to sell the horses or keep them, with the idea being to restrain them from again wandering onto federal land and continuing the cycle which led to the current problem. Smart insists the tribe does not intend to sell horses for slaughter.

Wild horse advocates are as skeptical over the new plan as they were the last time, with thousands of comments by critics submitted to the government. "People are very concerned about this," said Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation).

Roy's group contends the Forest Service's environmental analysis of the gather is inadequate and is pushing for preparation of a full environmental impact statement. The EIS, among other things, should examine the impacts of "prolonged large-scale domestic horse trespass" across 760,000 acres of Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and tribal lands in the area along with the impacts of all options to remove the animals, the group said.

"The Santa Rose District has now repeated its actions countenancing prolonged laissez-faire trespass punctuated by crisis helicopter removals paid for by U.S. taxpayers, with the tribe and domestic horse owners profiting," the conservation campaign wrote in comments to the Forest Service. "Gathered horses, including unbranded animals, were turned over to the tribe with no controls in 2013 and now this same pattern is being repeated."

Roy and others are worried many of the horses gathered would likely be wild mustangs – protected by federal law – that wandered into the gather area from the nearby Owyhee horse management area. "A significant number of horses are unbranded and there's really no way to ensure federally protected horses are not getting rounded up," Roy said.

Roy also questions the tribe's claims that gathered horses will not end up sold for slaughter out of the country. "What else are they going to do with those horses?" she said. "In all likelihood, they will be sold to slaughter."

Smart said he expects horse advocates to battle the proposal. "It's what they do," he said. But critics have no authority, Smart said, to interfere with the plans of his tribe. "I don't believe they do have the right to step in and try to change what we've decided to do," Smart said. "We are our own nation. We are the lawmakers. We make all the rules based on what's best for our own people."

Originally Posted By RGJ