The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is requesting that a Nevada court to dismiss a lawsuit directing the agency to remove horses from public and private rangelands on grounds that the BLM lacks the resources to gather and maintain the horses.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 federally protects wild horse and burro herds residing on Western rangelands and places them under the BLM's jurisdiction. The BLM website indicates that more than 20,000 wild horses and burros resided in Nevada during the last fiscal year; the BLM says Nevada's maximum management level is about 12,700.

In January the Nevada Association of Counties and the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada, alleging the BLM violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act because the agency failed to remove “excess” horses from the Nevada rangelands.

The complaint, filed on behalf of Nevada ranchers who graze their livestock on the same ranges, claims that the BLM's failure to remove the animals resulted in damage to the ranges' ecological integrity, threatening the ranchers' livelihoods. Wild horse advocates subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on grounds that the lawsuit was without merit