BLM envisions tri-state mega complex for wild horses in the West

Image by Elyse Gardner

Cross-posted from The Examiner By CARROL ABEL Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) California, Oregon and Nevada District Offices along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife are in the conceptual stages of creating a two million acre management complex for wild horses in Southeast Oregon, Northeast California, Northwest Nevada and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge also in Northeast Nevada. The concept involves a management shift from individual Herd Management Areas (HMA’s) and smaller HMA complexes to an aggregate of HMA’s called the Tri-State Complex. BLM’s Winnemucca District Office manager, Gene Seidlitz says, “We’re just in the initial discussion stages of developing that sort of strategy of treating all of those areas as one big complex based on what we’ve been finding recently which is a significant amount of movement between HMA’s and outside HMA’s into other areas.”

As District Office Manager, Seidlitz oversees Nevada’s Calico Complex, recently under scrutiny for the highly controversial roundup of almost two thousand wild horses. “BLM somewhat has always had a tendency to look at individual HMA’s on an individual basis… we just looked at those imaginary boundaries and thought that’s how these horses were to be managed.”

Seidlitz explained that they learned from the last two roundups in the Calico and are carrying that knowledge forward for more effective management. “Odd as it may seem” said Seidlitz, “we’re constantly learning something and adjusting based on that knowledge and expertise.” Read full story >> Please take our Poll before you go!