Wild horses roam refuge, for now

RENO -- Hundreds of wild horses and burros slated for roundup at a national wildlife refuge along the Nevada-Oregon line will continue to roam free, at least for now, to the relief of wild horse advocates and dismay of some other environmentalists and wildlife officials.

After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service canceled a planned gather last month under pressure from horse advocates and a House committee chairman, horse groups applauded.

But wildlife officials fear the herds will gobble up scarce resources and destroy habitat for the animals the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge was created to protect. The victory for horses endangers pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, pygmy rabbits, sage grouse, mule deer and untold species found in isolated springs, they say.

Other environmental groups, although not necessarily opposed to wild horses, argue too many will significantly degrade the delicate western Great Basin ecosystem and pillage the refuge's financial resources.

"We simply can't put the needs of horses above all other wildlife, especially when law requires these refuges be managed for specific species," said Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, an independent nonprofit organization that advocates for refuges.

As the dust over the proposed roundup settles, federal managers have agreed to reconsider whether horses and burros, viewed by many as romantic symbols of the American West, should have a bigger claim to the expansive high desert refuge than the stake they were given a quarter-century ago when cattle also shared the land.

"We're not saying there should never be a roundup of horses or they should let them go unchecked," Matt Rossell, outreach coordinator for the animal rights group In Defense of Animals.

"We just want to make sure the horses are gathered humanely and we really have good information on how many horses the land can sustain and that the horses are ending up in good homes."

Paul Steblein, project manager at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge and the nearby Hart Mountain refuge, said besides the horses damaging habitat and posing a threat to motorists on a rural highway nearby, managing the animals eats up a big chunk of the refuge's funding.

"Every dollar we spend on a horse is a dollar we don't have for other priorities," Steblein said. "In general, we've spent in the last year more than half of our budget on horses and burros."

"The No. 1 human experience that we are charged to implement is conservation to protect native plants and animals in the ecosystem," Steblein said. "There are species that occur no place else."

Horse advocates and other animal rights groups rallied in protest this spring after the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that reducing the herd was a continuation of an existing policy and would not "significantly affect the quality of the human environment" or experiences at the refuge. The finding made a thorough environmental study unnecessary under federal law.

But the service's finding brought a stern rebuke from Rep. Nick Rahall II, D-W.V., chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

In a letter to Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall, Rahall, D-W.V., said "it is hard to fathom how the service can justify as 'not significant'" its plan to drastically reduce "a viable herd of wild horses."

Horse advocates complained the Fish and Wildlife Service relied on studies done in 1980 and the late 1970s, when livestock grazing was allowed on the refuge, that set target population levels at 75-125 horses and 30-60 burros.

But grazing on the refuge was banned in the 1990s, and they argued that with cattle gone, new studies to determine how many horses and burros the refuge can support should be done before large numbers of the animals are removed.

Refuge officials estimate as many as 1,600 horses and 100 burros roam the Sheldon Refuge that was established in the 1930s and covers more than 500,000 acres in northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon.