By Willis Lamm, LRTC
|
A band of horses entering a trap.
|
|
Foreword
There are many issues and opinions surrounding wild horse management on public lands. It is not the intent of this feature to attempt to address those issues. Links will be provided at the end of this feature should the reader wish to explore the history and current issues associated with wild horses. Suffice it to say that we want to see healthy horse herds, and healthy horse herds are dependent upon maintaining healthy ranges. Wild horse population control is a controversial issue. Wild horses first evolved in North America and therefore they are a very successful species living on our ranges. Development of the range including private ownership, fencing, private control of water, reduction of natural predators and multiple uses of our public lands have disrupted the natural territories and evolutionary controls of horse populations. Horse populations tend to grow logarithmically in a specific area when these natural "control forces" are impeded and when the herds cannot spread out or migrate as they might have done centuries ago due to the activities of man. There are several approaches to wild horse population control however to date each has its own benefits, risks and drawbacks. Therefore there is no simple solution as of this writing. (Horse population control is also discussed in another feature.) Therefore gathering "excess" horses is the most commonly used approach to horse population management. Background We went to observe the Buck and Bald gather following a controversial gather conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge. Summer horse gathers have to be correctly conducted due to the potential presence of young foals and high daytime temperatures that can be stressful to the horses if the gather is not correctly managed. Activities involving moving and corralling wild horses carry inherent risks to the animals so a credible gathering operation should take into consideration all those probable risks. The gather activities should be directed towards achieving results while minimizing those risks. What we found at Buck and Bald was a well conceived and organized operation that in our opinion serves as an example as to how such operations should be conducted. Therefore what originally was going to be a simple report on conditions at the Buck and Bald gather has evolved into a report on various elements and techniques that agencies gathering wild horses should consider that can reduce risk and stress to the animals being gathered. In this presentation we will discuss the elements at issue and how they were addressed. The Buck and Bald Complex The Buck and Bald Complex comprises a large region of high altitude valleys and mountains in northeastern Nevada. It is located in an area roughly south of Elko and north of Ely and Eureka and includes parts of Elko and White Pine Counties. The most notable landmark is the Ruby Mountain range to the west-northwest. The region includes public, private and tribal lands. We estimated the elevation of the gather trapsites to be about 6,200 ft. Herd management areas found within the complex include the Buck and Bald, Butte and Cherry Creek Herd Management Areas administered by the BLM Ely District Office, the Maverick Medicine Herd Management Area administered by the BLM Elko Field Office, and the Cherry Springs Wild Horse Territory administered by the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest / Ruby Mountains Ranger District. The valley floors are generally large and shallow, a few miles across in some areas, covered primarily with sage and scrub. The surrounding foothills, buttes and mountain slopes are covered by fair sized pinions, junipers and similar vegetation adequate for providing good cover for horses, elk and other ungulates. The region is home to a variety of abundant as well as rare wildlife. Typical terrain and cover.
|
