Poor on the range

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

A federal program designed to protect the nation's wild horses and burros pays more to domesticate the animals than to keep them wild, officials said.

Roughly 53 percent of the nation's entire wild horse population lives in Nevada. Yet Nevada receives less than 14 percent of the BLM's national wild horse and burro program money, agency officials said.

Nationally the horse and burro program had $18.4 million to spend this year and $19.5 million last year. Nevada received $2.5 million and $3.2 million respectively, Maxine Shane, a spokeswoman for the agency's Nevada office, said.

The money pays for the rounding up and adoption of the animals. It pays for the care of those awaiting adoption in government-run corrals.

It pays for the salaries and benefits of the Bureau of Land Management workers charged with managing the herds. It pays for electricity, offices, fences, trucks and other operation costs.

However, it only pays for open range improvement when the wild equines share space with cattle, Nevada BLM officials said.

"But the public isn't going to let us get away with that anymore," said Phil Guerrero, spokesman for the agency's Las Vegas district office.

He was referring to recent public outcry over the agency's long-term plans for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Part of the plan will change where some of the wild horses and burros live.

Federal land managers want to remove 17 horses and about 30 burros from Red Rock Canyon's most popular tourist areas north of State Road 160.

The burros would be put up for adoption. The horses would be moved to a more remote region south of State Road 160 and brought back to their original spot when the springs and vegetation there have been naturally restored. That could take up to 10 years, BLM officials have said.

Wild horse advocates say it's not acceptable. They want the agency to clear out the springs north of the highway and develop a couple of more to accommodate the animals where they are. Otherwise Red Rock Canyon visitors won't be able to see the wild horses, the advocates have said.

David Wolf, BLM's manager for Red Rock Canyon, said they don't have the money or people to do ongoing maintenance that would keep the springs viable.

"Money from the horse sales (adoptions) goes into the general treasury, and the BLM gets what Congress says they'll get," Wolf told Las Vegas Valley residents and wild horse advocates who perused the long-range options during open houses last week.

Still, some of those in attendance wondered why a district that receives $4.1 million a year doesn't have the money for ongoing maintenance of the springs and range areas used by wild horses.

It's because the wild horse and burro program isn't designed to maintain a range for the animals, Shane said.

The program is designed to maintain healthy, manageable herds through the removal and adoption of the animals as the range conditions warrant. So that's where the money goes. Left unchecked, the wild horse population increases by about 25 percent a year, experts said.

"The adoption program takes a big bite of the money. It has for many years," Shane said. "The health and welfare of the animal rises to the top, not necessarily range improvements."

The agency's 3.5-million acre Las Vegas district encompasses all of Clark County and the southern portion of Nye County to Pahrump. This year it had $116,000 for its wild horse and burro program, Guerrero said.

Gary McFadden, the district's wild horse and burro specialist, drew $76,000 of that money in salary and benefits. The remaining $40,000 covered operation costs like the electricity for McFadden's office, the upkeep for his work truck and fencing materials, Guerrero said. McFadden said he is responsible for the estimated 1,200 horses and 700 burros living on his district's nine wild horse management areas. Statewide there are about 24,000 horses in 99 management districts.

States with the most people adopting animals -- not the ones managing the most herds of animals -- typically get the most money, Shane said. Most adoptive owners live in the East, while most of the wild horses and burros live in the West.

Nevada's money pays for roundups, contraception that is being done with some horses and range improvements in areas where wild horses share the range with cattle.

In the Las Vegas district, wild horses share their space with people who live and play on the land, not cattle, McFadden said. No range restoration money comes here. It's up to McFadden to figure out how to pay for tasks like spring development and repair.

He gets some help from Red Rock Canyon. All of the visitors' fees go back into the conservation area to pay for maintenance and improvements. That includes restoration efforts on the wild horse and burro range, but that's not highest on the list of priorities, Guerrero said.

The most recent improvements included purchase of new picnic tables and expansion of some campgrounds, parking areas and the visitors' center. That took about $1.8 million of the $1.9 million in fees collected, Guerrero said.

As a result, McFadden is making do with military surplus items for watering tanks and other materials and labor donated by volunteer and non-profit groups. A large amount of his time is devoted to cultivating those relationships, he said.

Members of the Las Vegas-based National Wild Horse Association visit springs and riparian areas weekly to make sure pipes remain clear and watering holes remain full. They've laid pipe, donated water storage tanks and performed thousands of hours of free labor, Laurie Howard, an association member, said.

Earlier this week McFadden and two men from the Utah-based Wild Mustang Association spent half a day in the Red Rock's vast Cottonwood Valley region south of State Road 160, examining a once-prolific spring that is threatening to dry up.

It is one of two that serves the area that two-thirds of the Red Rock wild horse population calls home.

Richard Sewing, a mustang association member who traveled here from Cedar City, said his group would provide all the materials needed to restore the spring if the BLM provided the workers. Sewing said they also would pay to have water hauled to the remote watering trough's holding tanks, if needed, while the work was being done.

By day's end, it was a done deal -- one McFadden started working on two years ago. Sewing said they hope to start digging in a month.

McFadden said he would be lost without the help of volunteers.

A different distribution of money could help too, but that decision must come from Washington, D.C., local BLM officials said. Congress created the wild horse and burro law in 1971, and it's up to Congress to make changes, McFadden said.

That time has come, he said. The BLM historically has been an agency that handled vegetation and mining issues. Wild horses and burros are the first and only animals they've managed, he said.

"When they passed the law it was a fuzzy, warm thing to do. But nobody got down to the nuts and bolts of it," McFadden said. "Nobody decided what they were going to do with these animals."

Shane said BLM officials need to continue working on partnerships with volunteers and find new ways to attract more people who will adopt wild horses.

They have posted photos of horses that are up for adoption on the Internet and plan to host a first-ever auction by satellite link Aug. 6. More money never hurts, but it isn't necessarily the only solution, Shane said.

"Just throwing money at a program doesn't make it better," she said. "We would like to do more about setting appropriate management levels and gathering than we are right now. And you have to adopt them after you gather them.

"Money just isn't the whole thing."

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