I respectfully oppose reaffirming Elko County’s endorsement of the Wild Horse Fire Brigade proposal at this time.
The concept of moving excess Nevada wild horses to forests in the Pacific Northwest is innovative, but it has not been sufficiently demonstrated as a safe, effective, and sustainable wildfire-management strategy. Before continuing its support, the County should require independent scientific evidence that large-scale horse relocation will reduce wildfire fuels without creating new environmental, financial, or land-management problems.
Key questions remain unanswered: What is the carrying capacity of each proposed release area? Who will monitor horse populations and control reproduction? Who will pay for veterinary care and long-term management? What happens if horses damage riparian areas, water sources, native vegetation, or sensitive habitat? What is the removal plan if the project fails? Observations from the Klamathon Fire may suggest that grazing can reduce vegetation, but they do not prove that relocating large numbers of horses will reliably reduce wildfire intensity across different forests, fuels, terrain, and weather conditions.
Until these safeguards and independent evidence are provided, I respectfully ask the Commission not to reaffirm its endorsement and instead request a thorough scientific and environmental evaluation.

The Nevada Cattlemen's Association asks the Board NOT to reaffirm its support for the Wild Horse Fire Brigade plan. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. 1339, bars the Secretary from relocating wild horses or burros to public lands where they do not presently exist. We believe it should stay that way; Wild Horse Fire Brigade seeks to change it. A lawful path already exists for private land. Any group wanting to relocate wild horses can adopt them and place them on private sanctuaries, as many do across the country.

The plan also does not serve Nevada cattle producers. Wild Horse Fire Brigade's own website describes its target areas as wilderness "unsuited for invasive species livestock (cattle & sheep)." Its founder has published at length calling cattle and sheep invasive and arguing that livestock grazing has failed as a wildfire fuels tool. That is the opposite of the position Nevada and Elko County ranchers are defending before the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, where targeted grazing is an approved fine fuels strategy and additional grazing capacity is under consideration.

We share the Board's goal of bringing the number of wild horses on Elko County's rangelands to Appropriate Management Levels. However, endorsing this plan lends County credibility to an organization that has sued BLM to stop a horse gather and that attacks public land livestock grazing throughout the West.

Martin Paris, Nevada Cattlemen's Association