Home Means Nevada for Wild Horses

[Twelve Horses]

“Nevada has gold, silver, and wild horses.” Ray Field, Executive Director

Wild Horse Foundation

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From our offices here in South Reno we can look out the windows up to the scraggy peaks of the Virginia Range where wild horses forage in the sage and grass. We hike and ride bikes among the Virginia Range Mustangs, we drive up after work to catch the sunset over the Sierra Nevada as they graze the flanks and meadows.

Nevada is home to more than half of the wild horses in the United States, and for the most part they exist in harmony with the land and people, as integral to our identity as the Sage, Bighorn Sheep, and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout that we hold as official icons. The state derives identity from the western ethos the wild horses represent, and we as a company derive inspiration from their intelligence and tenacity.

So when the Nevada Department of Agriculture announced plans to monitor the largest contiguous herd in the United States with the notion that more than half needed to be removed from the land, we decided to go out and take a closer look.

Thankfully Willis Lamm, a wild horse supporter and owner of Least Resistance Training Concepts; country singer and president of the Let 'em Run Foundation, Lacy J. Dalton; and Craig Downer, Wildlife Ecologist and expert on the Virginia Range Wild Horses from the University of Nevada, were more than happy to show us around. We would have also liked to have spoken with representatives from the Nevada Department of Agriculture, but they were either unable or unwilling.

What we found were a few bands of healthy and happy looking horses ranging peacefully across the low hills above the Carson Valley, southeast of our offices in Reno. The main thrust of the NDA Wild Horse Position Statement is that the range can support about 500 to 600 wild horses, according to an estimate in a study by the Natural Resource Conservation Service in 2001. But that estimate appears only to pertain to the 85,000 acres of rangeland in the study plot. The herd actually roams on more than 200,000 total acres of rangeland. According to the NRCS projections, there is more than enough rangeland to support the 1000 to 1200 Wild Horses known to exist in that area.

Most visitors see the Wild Horses when driving to and from the Virginia City area, but much of the range is publicly accessible by 4x4, ATV, foot and bicycle. Other states like New Mexico and Maryland are actively promoting their wild horse herds and get many thousands of visitors as a result.

From Mammoth Lakes, CA to Yellow Stone National Park wildlife and humans have been butting heads in the West for much of the last century. In Nevada, encroachment on habitat and conflicts with humans are a constant and growing problem. There is no doubt that the Virginia Range Mustangs need to be actively managed to survive; but the volunteer groups, and local adoption can be a benefit to the community rather than a drain on tax dollars. Since wild horses are so closely tied to the existence and history of humans in the west and the unique identity of Northern Nevada that we owe it to ourselves to find a palatable way past this crisis that benefits our land, our horses and the Nevada brand.

For more information or to get involved visit:

• NVWildHorses.com
• Wild Horse Mentors
• Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association
• Let ‘em Run
• Save Nevada’s Wild Horses Diigo Group

-Mike

[davidlaplante]

Great post and video Mike. Thanks for starting this up.

[oliviaharis]

Around 33,000 wild horses are spread across 10 western states, while the US Bureau of Land Management, which floated its proposal in June, has said that the total needs to be reduced by around 6,000 horses. That is in addition to an estimated 33,000 excess horses in government-funded holding facilities.
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oliviaharis

Nevada Treatment Centers