BLM seeks public comment on wild horse issue

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Tonopah Field Office announced the availability of a draft environmental assessment to address potential environmental consequences associated with excess wild horses within and outside of the Reveille Herd Management Area near Tonopah.

The preliminary 10-year wild horse gather environmental assessment will be available for public review and comment for a period of 30 days.

The action is needed in order to reduce impacts to rangeland health and wildlife habitat within and outside herd management area boundaries, the BLM said in a news release.

The Reveille Herd Management Area is about 50 miles east of Tonopah and 12 miles south of Warm Springs, Nevada, in Nye County, the BLM said in an email last week.

The environmental assessment will be used to facilitate gathers and removals of excess wild horses in accordance with 43 Code of Federal Regulations 4700 regulation and the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as amended (Public Law 92-195). Court decisions from 1987, 2001, and 2002 require that when the appropriate management level of 138 horses is exceeded, enough excess horses must be removed to allow three years to elapse before another gather is necessary, the BLM said in a statement.

A 30-day public comment period on the preliminary environmental assessment is set to run through Jan. 3. The public is encouraged to review the environmental assessment, on the web at https://go.usa.gov/xpm24 and provide substantive comments or concerns, prior to 4:30 p.m. Pacific time on Jan. 3. All comments received will be fully considered and evaluated for preparation of the final environmental assessment.

Comments and concerns may be emailed to blm_nv_bmdo_2019_0020ea@blm.gov or sent in writing to the BLM Tonopah Field Office, Attention: Daltrey Balmer, assistant field manager for renewables, Post Office Box 911, Tonopah, NV 89049. Hard copies of the environmental assessment are available upon request from the BLM, Tonopah Field Office.