Wild free-roaming horses and
burros live in
Herd Management Areas
Sounds mysterious, but it's not.
In 1971, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was
directed to identify Herd Areas where animals were located. In the first
few years following passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act,
the BLM inventoried and mapped these Herd Areas. Through its planning
process, which includes extensive public participation, the areas where
horses can be managed as a component of the public lands have been
designated. These are what we call Herd Management Areas or HMAs.
If you've adopted a wild horse or burro, your
paperwork will probably include the name of the HMA from which your animal
was gathered.
It might also name a field office (or district )
which manages those HMAs. This internet site allows you to find both the
Nevada HMA and the field office or district.
What if you see a number associated with an HMA? That
simply refers to the number the field office or district assigned to the
HMA.
Nevada's number assignments are: 1 is Elko; 2 is
Winnemucca; 3 is Carson City; 4 is Ely, 5 is Las Vegas and 6 is Battle
Mountain. Of course, there is an exception: some Ely horses have a 5
because the Caliente field office now reports to the Ely field office, not
the Las Vegas office, as it did 30 years ago when Herd Area inventory
began.
What if you can't find your Nevada horse's home
listed here? If you've adopted a horse or burro which strayed outside a
HMA or was from a Herd Area, you will not find it on this site. The BLM
strives only to manage horses on HMAs. So, if animals stray onto public
lands not designated for wild horse or burro management, they may have
been removed and placed into the adoption program.
Why might a Herd Area not become an HMA? One example
of why a Herd Area might not have become a HMA is where intermingled
public and private lands make management of private stock with public
horses difficult.
Could a Herd Area ever be reconsidered and become a
HMA, and visa versa? Yes. It is not a simple matter because planning and
environmental assessment work, and public participation, would be
necessary; but, the BLM does know where the Herd Areas are and if
conditions change, it is possible to re-evaluate and change these
designations.
How accurate are the boundaries? Mapping of HMAs and
Herd Areas was once done by hand. With modern technology, like Geographic
Information Systems (GIS), precise mapping is possible.
What are the special status HMAs? The Nevada Wild
Horse Range is about 394,000 acres in the northeast corner of Nye County.
It is cooperatively managed by the BLM, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Nevada Division of Wildlife and the Department of
Defense. It was designated as a wild horse
range in 1962, nine years prior to the Act.
The Marietta Wild Burro Range near Hawthorne, Nevada,
is the nation's only formally recognized wild burro range. At 68,000
acres, it is home to about 85 burros, and was dedicated in 1991, the 20th
anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
HMAs
- FIELD OFFICES (You
will need to go to the Adobe site to obtain a free copy of Adobe Acrobat
to look at the descriptions and maps.)
HMAs
- ALPHABETICAL (You
will need to go to the Adobe site to obtain a free copy of Adobe Acrobat
to look at the descriptions and maps.)
To
go to the Adobe site, click on "Get Acrobat Reader" box
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