Douglas County Commission votes support for Gardnerville community plan to keep wild horses wild

The Douglas County Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday stating the County's support for the local wild horses and the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates, the Gardnerville community organization working to protect local wild horses.

The resolution includes support for the PNWHA effort to prevent wild horses from going into neighborhoods and roadways through a public-private partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and private property owners to construct fencing along the Pine Nut range — including around the Fish Springs area of Gardnerville — to keep wild horses out of neighborhoods and roadways.

The resolutions states, "Residents of Douglas County take great pride in the Fish Springs wild horses and are passionate about the protection and preservation of the Fish Springs wild horse population..."

Over the past six years, PNWHA been working to secure a long-term agreement with the BLM to humanely manage the wild horses living in and around the Fish Springs area of Gardnerville, Nev. In 2018, the Trump Administration's Interior Department, in an effort to have the federal government be good neighbors with the local community, decided not to move forward with the planned massive roundup of wild horses living in and around the Fish Springs area.

This provided an opportunity for the BLM to work with the PNWHA to develop a partnership to work together moving forward. PNWHA is actively engaged in the care and management of the local wild horses and looks forward to creating a partnership with the BLM.

Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates, located in Gardnerville, Nevada, is a non-profit organization dedicated to humanely manage the Fish Springs horses through the use of humane fertility control, implement fencing and other range improvements to keep wild horses out of neighborhoods and roadways, and to work with the federal government to keep the Fish Springs wild horses wild.

Proclamation 2020P-008
By the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners
Declaring the Protection of Fish Springs Wild Horses in Douglas County, Nevada.
WHEREAS, Nevada is home to more than half of the Nation's wild horse population. WHEREAS, wild horses and burros are living symbols of our American Western heritage
as represented by the depiction of wild horses on the Nevada State quarter.
WHEREAS, The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 covers the management and protection of wild horses and burros on federal lands.
WHEREAS, wild horses have lived in the Fish Springs area for more than 100 years. WHEREAS, the BLM grazing permittee that holds the allotment that includes the Fish
Springs area strongly supports having wild horses in this area.
WHEREAS, residents of Douglas County take great pride in the Fish Springs wild horses and are passionate about the protection and preservation of the Fish Springs wild horse population.
WHEREAS, the Fish Springs wild horses are known across the country and internationally and bring tourism to Douglas County and the local communities.
WHEREAS, local residents are dedicated to contributing monetary and time resources to humanely manage the Fish Springs wild horses.
WHEREAS, the mission of the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates, a local IRS section 501c3 non-profit corporation, is to humanely manage the Fish Springs horses through use of fencing to keep horses out of neighborhoods and roadways, the implementation of humane fertility control to reduce the reproduction rate and, when necessary, to select some horses for removal.
WHEREAS, the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates are soliciting both public and private funding to construct a fence along the Douglas County portion of the west Pine Nut range to ensure the wild horse herd does not encroach on private property in the East Valley portion of Douglas County.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED BY THE DOUGLAS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, that Douglas County supports community efforts to protect and enhance the Fish Springs wild horse habitat area and to foster good community relations between the wild horse advocates and private property owners. Furthermore, Douglas County supports the community's proposal to work with the federal government and private interests to obtain the necessary funds to construct a horse fence along the Pine Nut range.
Adopted this 7th day of January, 2020
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS