Announcing AWHC’s innovative Land Conservancy Project!

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We’ve got BIG news.

The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is excited to announce the Land Conservancy Project, an innovative new initiative that will significantly advance our mission to protect wild horses and burros and keep them in the wild where they belong!

This project aims to preserve and enhance key habitat for America’s wild herds to support self-sustaining wild populations in ecological balance with other wildlife. The project will focus on three critical areas: land acquisition, habitat restoration, and humane management.

Land Acquisition

Much of the public lands where wild horses and burros roam are surrounded by privately owned lands. In fact, private lands sometimes run through the federally-managed areas that wild horses call home, creating what is called checkerboard lands. This can sometimes give rise to conflicts between landowners and wildlife, including wild horses and burros. That’s why land acquisition is a vital component of AWHC’s Land Conservancy Project.

We believe the acquisition of key private lands in these areas presents an opportunity to secure and enhance habitat, resolve horse-human conflicts, and establish AWHC more firmly as a stakeholder in decisions about the future of wild herds.

To this end, AWHC has recently acquired 3,300+ acres of prime habitat in Nevada’s beautiful Carson Valley to serve as a pilot program for our Land Conservancy Project! Through this pilot, we aim to set the conservation standard for wild horse and burro protection by preserving and restoring habitat and developing partnerships with federal and local governments to further land and wildlife conservation goals.

FUEL THE LAND CONSERVANCY PROJECT

Habitat Restoration

According to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) own range evaluations, much of the land it manages is in degraded condition due to extractive uses such as overgrazing of livestock. These activities have caused significant damage to riparian areas, drained aquifers, and – along with fire and drought – depleted habitats for all wildlife, including protected species like wild horses and burros.

AWHC has a strong track record of addressing habitat challenges. In the Greater Reno Area, for example, we are currently working with local governments, developers, and businesses at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center to improve habitat, preserve wildlife corridors, build water sources, and manage traffic safety hazards.

Our Land Conservancy Project aims to build on this strong record by bringing back these degraded habitats through the restoration of meadows, protecting creeks and springheads to provide life-sustaining access to water, and reseeding areas with native grasses to ensure that wild horses and other wildlife have the natural resources they need to thrive.

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Humane Management

For over a decade, AWHC has been a leader in the fight to reform federal management of wild horses and burros by advocating for a shift away from cruel roundups and removals towards humane fertility control like PZP vaccine programs. Through our PZP program on Nevada’s Virginia Range, the largest program of its kind anywhere in the world, we’ve proven that there IS a better way to manage our wild herds.

The acquisition of private land in and around federal wild horse and burro habitat will enable AWHC to support the expansion of fertility control programs – thus reducing the need for the inhumane roundup, removal, and warehousing of these majestic animals for life in dangerous, overcrowded off-range holding facilities.

FUEL THE LAND CONSERVANCY PROJECT

AWHC is proud to embark on this new and exciting program. With your support, the Land Conservancy Project can and WILL further our mission to better protect wild horses and burros and keep them in the wild where they belong.

If you’d like to help us support and expand this program to other areas of the West, please consider making a donation today. Your generosity will help ensure we have all the resources we need to make this initiative a success.

Stay tuned for future updates on the progress of this innovative project. And as always, thank you for standing with our wild herds.

American Wild Horse Campaign