High Wild Horse Numbers Have Ranchers Concerned

For decades, ranchers and wild horse advocates have traded barbs. Yet now that Nevada’s wild horse population has reached an all-time high, most agree that some herds have too many horses. The eastern side of the state in particular has thousands more horses than the Bureau of Land Management says the area can sustain, and many ranchers say the horses are overgrazing, which is costing them big. Driving through Butte Valley, south of Ely, third-generation Nevada rancher Gracian Uhalde points out areas that have been repeatedly overgrazed on public lands he leases. Uhalde hasn’t turned out livestock in this area in over two years, but vast stretches look like a dirt field sprinkled with one-inch tufts of green sage. “The thing that upsets me the most, these white sage communities, our families tried to protect,” says Uhalde.

"...if that was a rancher, we'd be in prison"

“I've been very careful about how we raise them, and now they’re in danger.” Uhalde is 62, gracious, and sports a bushy white handlebar moustache. He started lambing with his grandfather at just 13 years old. To measure grazing impacts on the land, the Bureau of Land Management set up cages that protect about 4 square feet of earth from horses, wildlife and livestock. The plant growth inside the cage shows what plant communities would look like without any grazing. Uhalde points to the healthy white sage and green forbs in one such cage and then compares it to the land outside the cage, which has been grazed “down to the dirt, damn near.” The BLM estimates there are 1,500 horses in this area— that’s 1,000 more than are supposed to be here.  The damage is so significant Uhalde says he won’t turn out his sheep again this year. “I mean there's no point in going out there if there's nothing to eat; you're only hurting yourself,” says Uhalde. “The horses are there 24-seven, 365 [days a year]. And if that was a rancher, we'd be in prison.”...MORE