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January 2010
by Ron Cerri

 

I had reservations about writing another story about wild horses, but because the wild horse groups seemed to have kicked their campaign up a notch with celebrities like Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson speaking out on their behalf, I felt it was necessary to set the record straight about ranchers and their feelings about wild horses.

As the population grows in the U.S., more specifically the West, demands for our public lands are changing, and changing rapidly. There is increasing pressure from special interest groups to do away with the multiple use concept. This concept, which began in the early 1940’s, has for the most part worked pretty well. When our public lands are managed for one special interest every other user of the public lands loses. That is exactly what the wild horse advocates are wanting. If these single interest groups are able to achieve what they want to, then all the public lands, not just in Nevada but the entire West, will be managed for the wild horses at the expense of the land, wildlife, recreation, and livestock grazing (a term that these groups are doing their darndest to convince people means something evil). These wild horse advocacy groups like to paint ranchers as selfish and wanting to eliminate all the feral horses from the range so that they can have it for their cattle.

I recently attended a Wild Horse and Burro Conference in Reno that was put on by the Society for Range Management. In attendance were agency folks from the BLM and the Forest Service, Native American Tribes, sportsmen, ranchers, wildlife groups, and wild horse advocates. I’m probably missing someone, but my point is that it was a very diverse group. There was probably 100 + people in attendance and at the beginning of the discussion the moderator tried to determine if there were any points that we could all agree on. It turned out that there was only one thing everyone agreed on—wild horses have a place on the public lands. No one there was disputing that, but the disagreement arose when we talked about how the horses should be managed. All but the wild horse advocates agreed that the horses and their numbers needed to be managed, not only for the health of the herds, but also for the protection of the land. The horse advocates feel that wild horses have priority over all other species and users of the land and their numbers should be allowed to grow and horses should have access to all the public land in Nevada. Their claims to justify this position were:

• Horses are native to North America

Truth Is: There once was an animal about the size of a fox resembling a modern horse. There were also mammoths, so should we reintroduce elephants? Should we have special protection for feral cats since there were once Saber Tooth Tigers in North America, who were a member of the feline family?

• Ranchers and their cattle do more harm to our public lands by over-grazing

Truth Is: Ranchers are required by the land management agencies to stay at or below set utilization standards (usually 50% or less). If they don’t, livestock producers are subject to a fine for non compliance or a reduction in allowable livestock numbers, and if done repeatedly, a loss of their permit.

As I write this, the BLM is going through an appeal on the Calico Complex. The wild horse advocates have gotten a temporary injunction against the helicopter gather and are requesting a permanent injunction. Their argument against the gather is that using helicopters is inhumane. They say it terrorizes, traumatizes, and injures horses. Is that worse than hundreds of horses suffering and dying of starvation? If these same people opposed to this gather saw that happening to their neighbors pet would they intervene to save the animal. The advocates might argue that this is nature’s way of thinning the herd. It happens to deer and other wildlife. The big difference is deer and wildlife are part of the natural ecosystem and wild horses are not. Man put them there. Therefore, it is man’s responsibility to make sure these feral horses do not upset the equilibrium of the natural ecosystem.

At the Cattlemen’s Convention held in November, in an effort to head off attempts by wild horse advocates wanting to portray ranchers as a bunch of selfish mustang haters, the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association adopted this position regarding wild horses:

The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association continues to be in support of sustainable, healthy, well-managed herds of Wild Horses and Burros on healthy Nevada rangelands.

Nevada Cattlemen’s Association has also joined with a coalition of organizations representing wildlife, wilderness, agriculture, county and state governments, resource professionals, and sportsmen. Together we have been working closely on the wild horse issue. This group is diverse and does not agree on a lot of issues, but one thing is very apparent even if you aren’t a proponent of public land grazing. Ranchers and their livestock are much easier to manage than mustangs and their proponents.

In closing, I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. I’ve always enjoyed reading cowboy quotes so I’m going to be sharing with you one of my favorites at the end of each of these monthly columns.

The West—the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage—the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man.

— John Wayne (1907-1979)

 

 

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