The Elko Daily Free Press published a rebuttal today of a November 9 interview about the way the agency manages land and wild horses.
A distinction should be made between the leading consumers of resources on America’s public lands: Those who compete with wild horses and those who don’t.
Drillers and miners are not exploring for forage. Wild horses don’t care about oil, gas, vanadium and uranium.
The conflict is with the public-lands ranchers.
A drill pad might occupy an acre or two and an open pit mine might require a few thousand acres, while permitted grazing devours entire HMAs and beyond.
As for economics, if the BLM pays $60 per AUM for a horse in long-term holding, as noted in the column, while collecting $1.35 per AUM from the permittee whose cow/calf pair replaced him, how can that ever be viewed as a wise use of the public lands?
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Western Horse Watchers Association 