WIld Horse and Burro Plan

We encourage you to comment on this issue entered online. More information available at:

http://www.blm.gov/whbstrategy


. Please find below talking points that you can add to your letter. Please do not just copy and paste these into a letter and mail. The BLM and congress is looking for unique letters with specific responses. Our goal is to send a message that there are citizens that support gathers and proper wild horse management. Supporting the BLM on this issue is important along with the message that we need to keep horses at AML. Please also find attached a draft letter that is more personal and may be used if you so desire.

We ask that you do not postpone horse roundups or force a moratorium on gathers. It is important to gather horses that are dehydrated and starving because they are over Appropriate Management Levels. This is negligence for the wild horses and causing potentially permanent damage to vegetation resource base upon which we all rely.

· We know that wild horses and burros are not self-limiting. They double in population every 4 to 5 years. They have expanded well above the high end of Appropriate Management levels and outside of Herd Management Areas to range that they historically have never been before. We also know that even if cattle were removed and wildlife foregone, Wild Horses and Burros would over-populate to the point where they would suffer massive die-offs from starvation. We find that lacking compassion and unacceptable.

· The health of our rangelands is very important not only to the livestock industry, but for wildlife and the overall biodiversity and multiple uses of the landscape.

· Elevating one species over another, particularly a species which demands more forage than can be replaced, jeopardizes other users of public lands, and threatens native plants and wildlife species. Finding and keeping Appropriate Management Levels is the key to the balance of management and impacts on public lands. Tipping the scale towards the domination of wild horses does not correlate with the directive of the Bureau of Land Management.

We fear that by limiting management tools of the agencies, even more wild horse deaths will occur from starvation or lack of water. Leaving starving horses on public lands is not a humane solution to this ever growing situation.

· We manage our rangelands so that future generations can enjoy the beauty and the resources they possess. Management plays a key role in health of the multiple uses, and if wild horses are not managed the result affects all users of federal lands.

· Ranchers today develop water sources and forage that wild horses and burros enjoy. While cattle numbers in Nevada are at all time low levels, horse and burro populations are exploding.

· As ranchers and managers we use grazing systems to manage our livestock. We take care and pride in the health of the land and our cattle. With systems such as rest rotation, deferred grazing, dormant season use, and herding we achieve land health goals. With utilization records and proper management the health of the land is positively impacted.

· Degradation to our public lands is not acceptable by any user group. Management of wildlife and domestic animals is crucial to the health of the resource. If wild horses are kept unchecked their population can grow to unhealthy levels; causing not only resource damage but damage to the health of the herd.

· We support BLM’s plans to gather excess horses and manage numbers of those remaining with stacked sex ratios and non-breeding herds.



· We support keeping horses at Appropriate Management Levels and using gathers and fertility control as a way to keep the populations from exploding.