Advocating for Nevada's habitat, wildlife, horses and burros
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In early March 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a $1.5 trillion Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus spending bill that includes a $21 million increase for the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program to address what it called “a national crisis.”
Expected to be signed into law on Friday by President Biden, the bill would provide $137 million for the program, including $11 million for “administration of and research on reversible immunocontraceptive fertility control.”
BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program year over year has needed more funding boosts as horse populations increase due to horses increasing their populations by approximately 20% each year.
Key resources at stake from overpopulation of horses & burros:
Range
Long-term overgrazing reduces carrying capacity of rangeland for future generations of horses & burros and wildlife. |
Riparian Areas
Lifeblood of the Great Basin, provide key resources to all of the species that inhabit and migrate through Nevada. At risk of drying up due to overgrazing, trampling, and erosion from horses & burros
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Wildlife
Exclusion from seeps & springs by horses and burros prevent wildlife from obtaining water causing distress. |
We support the vision of the Wild and Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, healthy horses in a thriving natural ecological balance that must be supported by actions that include:
- Adequate short & long-term funding for for legal and sustainable ecosystem management
- A sustainable free roaming horse and burro program, that includes reducing numbers to Appropriate Management Level(AML) accompanied by fertility control.
- Federal funding to Nevada that is in proportion to the amount of horses & burros that our state contains
- Push for fast track approval of IUD & one-time vaccine fully approved and in use
- Incentivize public and/or private partnerships for new short term holding facilities and long-term pastures
- Encourage replication of innovative programs that train and adopt out horses eg. 4-H, prison horse program
- Establish a model HMA(s) using the above practices