Wild Horse Management
Manage the Pokegama Wild Horse Herd in accordance with the Appropriate Management Level to ensure or enhance a thriving natural ecological balance between the wild horse population, wildlife, livestock, and the vegetation, and to protect the range from deterioration associated with overpopulation.
Provide for wild horse grazing in an environmentally sensitive manner, consistent with other objectives and land use allocations. Wild horse grazing use will be consistent with the objectives found in Appendix H, General Allowable Use Guidelines, Livestock Grazing in Riparian-Wetland Areas, and Allotment Management Summaries, and in the Water and Soils Section earlier in the Chapter.
Also, provide for range land improvement and management practices, that in whole or part are beneficial to wild horses, consistent with other objectives and land use allocations.
Land Use Allocations
The initial appropriate management level for the Pokegama herd management area, under this plan, will be 30 to 50 head. This number is based on the determination made when the Herd Management Area Plan was written in 1978 and current professional judgement of the grazing capacities of the herd management area.
Within the Pokegama herd management area, 150 animal unit months of forage are allocated for wild horse use. The numbers of animal unit months allocated, by allotment, are found in Appendix H, Allotment Management Summaries. This animal unit months figure reflects the land distribution pattern within the herd management area where 20 percent of the lands are BLM-administered and 80 percent are private. All wild horse use, within the resource area, is in the Dixie (0107) and Edge Creek (0102) Allotments.
The range land monitoring studies outlined in the
Livestock Grazing section and explained in Appendix H,
Range Land Monitoring and Evaluation Section, will be
used to collect information on the vegetative/
Base future adjustments in the appropriate management level on an evaluation of range land monitoring data (this process is also summarized in Appendix H). If the evaluation(s) show that wild horse numbers are exceeding the forage carrying capacity within their range, are responsible for unacceptable damage to soils or riparian-wetland areas, or become a management problem to the private land owners in the area, initiate control measures to return the horse numbers to the appropriate management level determined through those evaluations.
Revise and update the 1978 Pokegama Herd Management Area Plan based on current information, conditions, and herd management area plan standards.
Make aerial reconnaissance flights and/or ground survey of the herd management area every two to three years to census the wild horse numbers.
Establish areas with mineral and salt licks away from streams, riparian-wetland areas, and wildlife guzzlers (artificial structures that collect rain water and then regulate the flow to a drinking basin).
Apply the management actions/direction in the Special Status and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Special Attention Species section.