Healthy Western Lands: a proposal for healthy rangelands, wildlife, and free-roaming horses and burros

The Coalition for Healthy Nevada Lands, Wildlife and Free-roaming Horses (CHNL) is dedicated to proper management of free-roaming horses (Equus caballus) and burros (E. asinus) so rangelands are healthy, which benefits wildlife and the horses and burros themselves. The CHNL proposes the rapid reduction of horses and burros on designated public lands to achieve appropriate management levels (AML). After these reductions, the use of fertility control, supplemented with some gathers and adoption of gathered horses, should allow the Bureau of Land Management to economically maintain horse and burro populations at AML. The CHNL believes this approach will be the most expeditious to restoring rangeland to health and cost-effective as it reduces handling of horses and burros. Herein, we describe CHNL's rationale for this approach and our effort to have the Nevada Legislature pass a resolution supporting the proposal.