Please see the letter below from the Northern Coalition regarding the management of Wild Horses and Burros…
Coalition for Nevada’s Wildlife
P. O. Box 70143
Reno, Nevada 89570
March 8, 2013
Sportsmen:
Senate Joint Resolution No. 1 supporting wild horses will be heard in Senate Natural Resource Committee hearings next Tuesday afternoon. The resolution, if passed, will be used to lobby the National Congress, Interior and Agriculture Departments, BLM, Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop gathers of excess horses.
We need your immediate communication to the state legislature. We are not opposing the resolution, only trying to amend the wording. We want to change wording so that the resolution states that wild horses and burros are an important resource to the state only if they are maintained at Appropriate Management Levels. Gathers and removal of excess animals is the only viable option available at this time to attempt to reach the ecological balance mandated by the 1971 Act and its subsequent amendments. We simply ask BLM and USFS to follow the law. Talking points are as follows:
- The 1971 Act and subsequent amendments mandate BLM and USFS to maintain an ecological balance with all other uses. It mandates removal of excess horses.
- A multitude of scientific range management studies have shown that excess wild horses adversely impact both range conditions and wildlife populations (the USFWS Sheldon EIS alone documents over 75 studies).
- Wild horses should not be managed as the priority species as they presently are to the detriment of all other uses.
- Excess wild horses damage the range to the detriment of the horses themselves; no one wants to see starving animals of any kind.
- Everyone loves to see wild horses on our range; they are beautiful and a valuable resource, but, like any other resource, require management or all uses of our public land, including the wild horse itself, will suffer.
Please contact the members of the Senate Natural Resource Committee. Contact information is as follows:
To email the Senate Natural Resource Committee:
James.Settlemeyer@sen.state.
nv.us Pete.Goicoechea@sen.state.nv.
us
To Telephone the Legislative Message Center to Contact a Legislator:
684-6789 (from Reno/Carson City area)
486-2626 (from Las Vegas area)
(800) 995-9080 (from other areas in Nevada)
Thank you for your help.
Larry J. Johnson, President
Coalition for Nevada’s Wildlife