Environmental Group’s Wild Horse Count Sparks Debate : Wildlife: Survey of Nevada rangeland funded by ‘Dances With Wolves’ author concludes population is only one-fourth of federal estimate.

A survey championed by “Dances with Wolves” author Michael Blake concludes that the number of wild horses roaming Nevada’s rangeland is about one-fourth the federal estimate. The government says that’s nonsense.

“We were shocked once we found out how much lower it was,” Vanessa Kelling of the Public Land Resource Council said this month. “There just simply are not that many wild horses left in Nevada.”

The council, based in suburban Los Angeles, said its census of the wild horse population in Nevada tallied 8,231 compared to the Bureau of Land Management’s latest calculation of 33,434.

“We expected about 17,000. This was pretty discouraging,” Kelling said. “We would have loved to have been proven wrong. We would have loved to have found 10 times that many out there. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”

But Michelle Ravnikar, the BLM’s deputy state director for external affairs, said the council’s tally was low because its survey was flawed.

“Their count is ludicrous,” she said. “The Nevada BLM just finished its most extensive census ever. We went out and counted 98%. The Ely district spent longer doing their census just for their district than Michael Blake’s people did the whole time they were out.”

The council said the government used BLM data to target 14,439 animals for removal as excess in Nevada.

“When we’re counting less than 10,000, that’s pretty scary,” Kelling said.

Federal law requires the protection, management and control of all wild horses and burros on public land. The council charged that its census indicates the horses are disappearing from the range rather than increasing, as the BLM contends.

It called for a moratorium on wild horse removals until population discrepancies are resolved.

“These people are well-intentioned,” Ravnikar said. “I think they really do love the wild horses. They’re just not qualified or experienced to do this. They used a plane and we use a helicopter. The fact is that when we use fixed-wing aircraft, we won’t even call that a census. That’s how little confidence we have in an aircraft.”

The resource council began its census Aug. 19 and finished it Oct. 6, using seven planes to tally the animals. The council divided the state into grids and counted the number of horses in each. It was forbidden to fly over the Nellis Air Force Base herd area, as was the BLM.

Blake, who became a champion of wild horses while researching a screenplay about the animals, promoted the study and paid a portion of its cost.

Kelling said that would come to $40,000 to $42,000.

Ravnikar said the BLM spent about $300,000 on helicopters and flying time for its survey, plus personnel costs.