Horse control blasted

Monday, Aug. 12, 2002 | 8:50 a.m.

A state board charged with managing wildlife resources blasted the federal government Friday for failing to control horse and burro populations in the Spring Mountains.

The Nevada Wildlife Commission directed state staff members to write a letter to the federal agencies with jurisdiction over the mountains and to investigate legal action to force the agencies to reduce the horse population.

The Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon areas, mostly under Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service jurisdiction, are home to hundreds of horses and burros. The federal government maintains those herds, and sometimes rounds up the herds to reduce their numbers -- particularly when a condition such as a drought, which the mountains are now experiencing, threatens the lives of the animals.

The mountains are also home to several hundred elk and deer, which are maintained by the state for recreational and hunting purposes.

Doug Hunt, habitat bureau chief for the Nevada Division of Wildlife, told the commission that his agency does a good job of keeping the numbers of elk within "appropriate management levels," about 250. But the population of horses can be hundreds more than the number -- 26 -- established for the Spring Mountains' Cold Creek herd in a 1996 pact.

He noted that many of about 200 horses rounded up in an "emergency gathering" last May were subsequently released back to the mountains. Many of the horses were on the verge of starvation from lack of sustenance in the drought-plagued mountains when they were rounded up by the BLM.

Wildlife Commission Chairman John Moran Jr. blasted the federal agencies for failing to control the horse population and failing to work with state authorities.

"We're managing our herds, but getting no cooperation from them," he said. "Nothing has been done in 10 years to control those numbers."

But Forest Service District Ranger Steve Holdsambeck said federal agencies are doing what they can to control the horse numbers. In the Cold Creek gathering, about 130 animals were permanently removed from the mountains, with about 65 released back into the wild, he said.

Federal law directs that almost all the animals rounded up have to be put up for adoption. But the BLM's facilities simply do not have enough space to control the dozens of horses that would need to be relocated and held until they could be adopted, Holdsambeck said.

"The critical issue is that the BLM horse processing system is just jam-packed," he said.

Holdsambeck said federal agencies have worked to fully involve the Division of Wildlife in animal management efforts for the Spring Mountains.

But commission members and members of the public said not enough is being done.

Nancy Knight, a Sandy Valley resident and self-described horse person, said she was horrified by pictures in the media earlier this year of emaciated, dehydrated horses.

She said it would be kinder to sell the horses to animal-food processors -- a once common practice now banned.

Holdsambeck, however, said attempts to cut the population of wild horses with such drastic moves would certainly prompt lawsuits, which could ultimately restrict the ability of the federal government to reduce the population of horses.

"The public would never tolerate that," he said.