BLM announced today the beginning of a 30-day comment period on an environmental assessment for wild horse and burro management in the Nevada WHR.
The WHR, one of four areas in the western U.S. (out of 177) managed primarily for wild horses, covers 1.3 million acres and has an AML of 500, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 0.4 wild horses per thousand acres. Normally a rate that low could be sign of trouble—if it was an HMA—but livestock grazing is not allowed on the WHR.
Amendments to the land use plan restricted wild horse management to approximately 484,000 acres in the northern part of the WHR.
Actions to control herd size could also include sex ratio skewing, contraception and sterilization. Options are discussed in Section 2.0.
Substantive comments can be submitted at this page.
The last roundup occurred in August 2018, with a 3.9% death rate.