By ADELLA HARDING Elko Daily Free Press Staff Writer elkodaily.com | Posted: Friday, April 22, 2011
ELKO – Wild horse activist Madeleine Pickens said her Saving America’s Mustangs organization is applying to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to operate an eco-sanctuary on her land in Elko County.
The BLM is accepting proposals for two types of eco-sanctuaries that would be public-private partnerships with the agency. One of them is for a horse sanctuary on private land only and the other is for a combination of private and public land.
“We just filled them both in and will see what happens,” Pickens said.
The deadline for applications for the private-land eco-sanctuaries is May 14, and the deadline for the public-private combination is May 24, BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said Wednesday from Washington.
He said he doesn’t know yet how many have submitted proposals.
“We’re just in the process of receiving solicitations,” Gorey said. “Certainly, I can say there has been quite a bit of interest. We’ve received at least 20 phone calls. We’re looking for the best proposals for the good of the animals and taxpayers.”
The proposals for eco-sanctuaries are part of the BLM’s efforts to reform its program for handling the wild horses that roam in the West. Private landowners would take in wild horses removed from the range, and open viewing to tourists.
Currently, the BLM pays landowners in the Midwest to board wild horses taken from Western ranges, but there is no tourism element.
More than 40,000 horses are held in government-funded holding facilities and roughly 33,700 wild horses are roaming in 10 Western states, 50 percent of them in Nevada, according to the BLM.
Gorey said the tourism aspect will benefit local communities.
“We’re excited and Wells is behind this. For them it’s a real boon,” said Pickens, who owns the Spruce Ranch and adjoining Warm Springs Ranch about 25 miles south of Wells.
She said she has roughly 18,500 acres of deeded land and roughly 560,000 acres of grazing permits for public land and spent millions of her own dollars toward creating an eco-sanctuary to help save wild mustangs.
“I’ve hung my hat on this issue,” said Pickens, the wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens.
Saving America’s Mustangs also has a new heavy hitter, with the addition of Ted Turner to the advisory board, according to the organization’s website.
The Saving America’s Mustangs organization’s new billboards in Elko and Wells state that the Mustang Monument: Wild Horse Eco-Preserve is coming soon, although Pickens said Wednesday she isn’t sure how soon.
“There is no time estimate. People know we are working on this,” Pickens said.
One billboard is just off Interstate 80 at Wells and the other two are along Idaho Street in Elko.
Wells Mayor Kenny Huff said Wednesday Wells City Hall supports the eco-preserve proposal because of the tourism potential, but he wants to learn more about the mustang organization’s business plan and potential impact on Wells.
“I think it would be a good shot in the arm tourism-wise,” he said.
Matt Holford, president of the Wells Chamber of Commerce, said Pickens and the mustang organization are already spending money in Wells, hiring a local contractor, buying supplies and flying into the Wells airport and joining the chamber of commerce.
Pickens said Wednesday she has started work cleaning up the ranch property that is “not up to par” and needs new fencing and irrigation pivots.
“They’ve been great neighbors,” Holford said, adding that his goal is to promote “putting more heads in beds” and he has heard interest in the Pickens proposal from people throughout the country.
Pickens said there is a lot of excitement about the potential for tourists to visit the preserve, including from Europe, but she acknowledged ranchers continue to oppose the plan.
“We’re trying to fight to do something good for the horses and for taxpayers,” Pickens said, adding that the sanctuary won’t affect the grazing rights of ranchers who have had “a good deal” for years with grazing on public land. “We’re not asking the government to take away their grazing rights.”
Elko County Commissioners opposed a proposal last November that Pickens outlined for a sanctuary because of concerns about potential impacts to ranching.
Also, a resolution is pending in the Nevada Senate opposing any expansion of wild horse and burro herd management areas and the “creation of any wild horse and burro preserves on public lands in Nevada.”
The resolution, SJ5, points out that rangelands are subject to multiple uses, including grazing, hunting and recreation and wild horses. It also states that if herds aren’t managed, they threaten rangelands with overgrazing.
BLM Director Bob Abbey earlier this year rejected the proposal Pickens offered that called for the government to reimburse the sanctuary $500 per horse per year.
He was quoted then as saying the BLM didn’t have a detailed proposal and the plan wouldn’t save the government any money.
Pickens disagrees.
The latest figures on the Save America’s Mustangs website state that the organization would charge $475 per horse per year, the same as the government pays, and save the short-term holding costs of $2,500 a year per horse. In all, she said her plan would save more than $2 million per 1,000 horses per year.
Pickens testified last week before a congressional committee on the need for eco-sanctuaries, stating that the government can’t afford to continue gathering horses and keep them in long-term facilities.
“Quite candidly the leadership within the Department of Interior and BLM feel their hands are tied by the language within the Taylor Grazing Act and Wild Horse and Burro Act. These fine men and women are waiting for you to provide new direction and authority so they can create these public-private partnerships,” Pickens told the committee, according to the website www.SavingAmericasMustangs.org.
“If we do not act soon, America’s wild horses will be gone forever, and our nation will suffer an irretrievable loss.”
–Madeleine Pickens
Saving America’s Mustangs | 2683 Via De La Valle, G 313 | Del Mar | CA | 92014