The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comments on a Preliminary Environmental Assessment(PEA) for the roundup and removal of 630 wild horses from the Jackson Mountains Herd Management Area (HMA) in northwestern Nevada.
The plan would subject wild horses to a helicopter stampede in July, when desert temperatures are high, water reserves are low, foals are newly-born and mares are lactating. The ten-year plan includes multiple roundups, gender ratio skewing and castration of a portion of the wild free-roaming stallion population on the range.
The BLM will likely begin to roundup horses by water trapping or helicopter in late May or June, the heart of foaling season, but the impacts on newborn foals and heavily pregnant or lactating mares have not been analyzed, nor has any data describing the "emerging situation" been released to the public.
Despite the BLM's stated concerns about forage and water shortages in the HMA, cows remain grazing in the affected area.
Time is short. Comments are due by 4:30 p.m. PST on May 18, 2012. Please act today!
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