Open-Range Habitat Acquisition and Conservation for Nevada’s Fish Springs Wild Horses

In 1971, the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros act pledged to protect America’s wild horses forever. But in the five decades since, the land where wild horses run free has been cut in half, with wild horses living on 27 million acres of public land spread across 10 Western states—the largest population residing in Nevada. Most are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, under the US Department of the Interior, and live in habitats called herd management areas in some of the most remote and rugged landscapes in the country.

The future of America's wild horses is in the balance. The federal government, under pressure from the powerful beef industry, continues to reduce America's wild herds through a program that rounds them up by the thousands each year to make space for commercial livestock grazing. Captured wild horses are loaded onto trailers and transported to taxpayer-funded holding facilities, where many of them end up in the slaughter pipeline.

There is a better way to keep wild horses wild. Over the past decade, our partners at the American Wild Horse Conservancy (AWHC) have won important legal battles to uphold the original law, created a land trust to preserve the range where wild horses can roam freely, and launched field conservation programs to protect wild herds across the west. Land acquisition in particular can effectively secure key habitat for America’s wild horses, as conflicts often arise on private lands that are adjacent to or within wild horse habitat areas on public lands.

This is why CCF is partnering with AWHC and other donors in a pilot program to create a new 3,300 acre open-range conservation area in Nevada’s Carson Valley. Just 30 minutes east of South Lake Tahoe, this region is home to abundant wildlife, including the beloved Fish Springs wild horse herd, which lives in the Bureau of Land Management Herd Area outside of the Pine Nut Herd Management Area.

In late 2022, CCF acquired a 40-acre open range parcel with access to Pine Nut Creek, which provides a year-round water source for wild horses and other wildlife in the area. The CCF land comprises a critical part of the wildlife conservation area. The land has been placed in conservation easements for long-term preservation. The broader conservation area also includes such important habitat as the 1,871-acre Buckeye Creek Ranch property in the hills of the Pine Nut Mountains with a meadow and creek, a 665-acre parcel that is another key watering and gathering ground for the horses, and nearly 800 acres of other habitat with natural springs— ensuring that wild horses and other wildlife have access to water year-round and benefit from the protection of a vital movement corridor.

Local organization Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates will continue to implement fertility control and other stewardship activities for these wild Nevada mustangs. And a Wildlife Preserve Manager has been hired to develop and implement a long-term habitat conservation and restoration plan, spearhead plans for a visitor’s center and ecotourism activities, and ensure compliance with conservation goals.

Impact Overview:

• $176,000 investment to buy land

• Creation of a new 3,300-acre open-range conservation area in Nevada’s Carson Valley, home to abundant wildlife, including the beloved Fish Springs wild horse herd.