Elko County Seeks Solutions for Wild Horse Overpopulation

Elko County is facing a significant challenge with the overpopulation of wild horses, impacting public lands and local ranchers. In a recent meeting, county commissioners, ranchers, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) personnel discussed potential solutions to this pressing issue.

ELKO – Commissioners, ranchers, and local Bureau of Land Management personnel all expressed frustrations Thursday over the issues involved in managing wild horses.

Commissioners spoke with BLM personnel and ranchers about how wild horses affect public lands in Elko County and neighboring counties. Last week, the BLM sent letters to 10 permittees regarding 14 allotments, asking the ranchers to reduce grazing because there is an overpopulation of wild horses south of Wells.

“We are way over AML, appropriate management level, and we are working proactively to try to potentially round up those horses,” BLM District Manager Jill Silvey told the commission.

Commissioners Demar Dahl and Rex Steninger both questioned why the BLM waited until April 26 to send the letters to the permittees instead of sending them in November. Both commissioners said the BLM knew the horses were over the AMLs.

“It isn’t that cut and dry,” Silvey said.

She said they knew there were too many horses, but it hadn’t been quantified, and there are more horses in the area than they expected.

Melanie Mitchell, acting field manager for the Wells office, said she has spoken to all the affected permittees and she continues to talk with them.

Dahl asked Silvey if she was familiar with the NACO lawsuit against the BLM. He said the bottom line of the suit is asking the court to require the BLM to adhere to the Conrad-Burns amendment to the Wild Horse Act. Dahl said it states “if you can’t maintain AML and adopt the excess, then the horses shall be sold at auction without limitation.” He asked Silvey if that was the solution to the problem.

“I don’t know the answer to your specific question,” she said. “What I do know for sure is that everybody in this situation is frustrated. The ranchers are frustrated. The people that want to see the wild horses on the landscape are frustrated. This has not been an easy issue for people that work within the BLM to manage. I think everybody’s frustrated.”

The AML for the horses in four herd management areas south of Wells are supposed to be between 444 and 740 but actually total 4,891, Silvey said.

Nevada has 83 herd management areas and 74 are at or exceeding their AMLs, Greg Deimel, BLM public information officer, told the Free Press after the meeting.

Commissioner Glen Guttry said he understands it is a difficult situation for the BLM, but when the permittee allows his cattle on a closed allotment purposely, that is a violation of federal law.

“It can be,” Mitchell said.

“And when the BLM allows horse populations to increase over and above AMLs that were ordered by Congress, by law, aren’t you in violation of the federal law?” Guttry asked.

Mitchell said the courts have ruled the BLM has broad discretion as to how it manages the horses. She said the numbers weren’t determined by Congress.

“I would like to point out that it’s not exactly like we’re allowing,” Silvey said. “We don’t have a lot of tools in our toolbox to manage here. … We’re doing the best we can with what we have.”

She agreed with Guttry that Congress mandates the BLM to manage the horses, but then “they don’t fund it and tie our hands.”

Hank Vogler of White Pine County said there needs to be cooperative agreements between the counties and the BLM districts. He said the overpopulation of horses needs to be fixed statewide, and not done county by county.

Ken Jones of Lamoille said his ranch was lucky because the one area that was affected was winter feed and he is about to move his cattle off it. However, before he can put his cattle on public land next winter, he will have to go out with a range specialist to see if the horses left any feed for his cattle.

State Veterinarian J.J. Goicoechea told the commissioners and BLM personnel “we’ve got to find another way to manage these horses.” He said the horses will affect more than cattle in the state. He said there is an estimated 1 million acres of sage-grouse habitat in and around the herd management areas.

“We’re not going to have any multiple uses in some of these places,” Goicoechea said. “We’re not going to have wildlife. We’re not going to have livestock grazing. We’re not going to have recreation. All we’re going to have is horses if we don’t get a handle on it pretty quick.”

Commissioners voted to send letters to Sen. Dean Heller, Gov. Brian Sandoval, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Rep. Mark Amodei, Rep. Cresent Hardy, Nevada State BLM Director John Ruhs, state Sen. Pete Goicoechea, and Assemblyman John Ellison asking them to support the portion of NACO’s lawsuit that will force the management of wild horses.

They also will send a letter to Ruhs supporting his efforts to gather the 4,000 excess horses.

Originally posted by Elko Daily Free Press