BLM halts Wyo wild horse roundups

By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter Tuesday, filed this story today:

JACKSON — Federal spending restrictions and poor range conditions in Nevada have halted wild horse roundups in Wyoming, drawing the ire of Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

The governor sent a letter to BLM officials this week blasting the decision to shift funding for wild horse roundups from Wyoming to Nevada. The BLM notified Freudenthal’s office last week it needed to redirect funding from Wyoming to Nevada, as horses there were in danger because of drought and wildfires.

“… (W)hile the situation in Nevada may warrant additional resource allocations for horse gathers there, I am hard pressed to see how Wyoming’s funding for horse gathers must be sacrificed to address conditions in Nevada,” Freudenthal wrote in his letter to Wyoming BLM Director Bob Bennett. “Clearly the ‘emergency situation’ in Nevada, when read together with the difficult range conditions in Wyoming, lends itself to new dollars being added to the budget instead of shuffling dollars to Nevada, which will, in turn, exacerbate problems in Wyoming.”

Wyoming’s BLM wild horse and burro specialist, Alan Shepard, was out sick Tuesday. BLM spokesman Steven Hall in Cheyenne said the decision to shift funding stems from a “continuing resolution” in the federal budget saying the agency is allowed to spend 12.5 percent of its fiscal year 2007 budget between Oct. 1 and Nov. 16 as a 2008 budget is being debated.

That budget squeeze led the agency to prioritize, and it determined only to do roundups where horses are in immediate danger. About 2,200 horses are at risk in Nevada because of range conditions, Hall said. The agency had planned to gather 725 horses in Wyoming this fall, which will be delayed to next year.

“We have certainly heard the governor on this issue” and are looking at ways to address his concerns, Hall said.