 - A legislative committee plans to spend time this year exploring opportunities to collaborate on wild horse management with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes through the federal Good Neighbor Authority.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – A legislative committee plans to spend time this year exploring opportunities to collaborate on wild horse management with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes through the federal Good Neighbor Authority.
Congress recently added wild horses to the GNA law, Wyoming Rep. Robert Wharff, R-Evanston, told the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council during an interim topics meeting April 1, citing reports to the committee.
The move prompted the Select Federal Natural Resources Management Committee, which Wharff co-chairs, to consider scheduling a meeting with tribal representatives to see “if we could get a slaughter plant built” on the Wind River Reservation.
“Under the Good Neighbor Authority, if we could get the tribes working with us on this, they could help us sort out those horses that are salvageable … versus those that would need to go to slaughter,” he explained.
The committee is also considering having a meeting in Riverton so they can visit the Wyoming Honor Farm with tribal leaders in order to study that facility’s Wild Horse Program and explore “giving that as another venue for the tribes to be able to sort out those horses that they can break and make usable,” Wharff said.
“We were thinking how cool that would be, if we could actually get the tribes to where they’re taking these wild horses from Wyoming – those (that) merit breaking and utilizing,” he said. “What we envision is taking like what the Honor Farm is doing in Riverton, but also … getting the tribes engaged. It could actually blossom to where we have multiple tribes that are actually down there taking those horses, taking them back to the reservation and kind of (bringing) back in some of their heritage where they can break horses.”
The topic was listed as the committee’s No. 2 priority for the interim, Wharff noted.
“We think this Good Neighbor Authority should be looked at pretty hard,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to get a handle on managing wild horses.”
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled to take place July 13 in Lander.