News Release

For Release: November 15, 2005 (202-452-7753)
Contact: Sharon Kipping

Nomination Deadline Extended for Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board

The Bureau of Land Management is extending until November 30, 2005, the deadline for public nominations to fill three vacancies on the national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. The categories to be filled represent humane advocacy, livestock management, and wildlife management.

The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board advises federal managers for the BLM (an agency of the Interior Department) and the Forest Service (an agency of the Department of Agriculture) on the management, protection, and control of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands administered by those agencies.

The nine members on the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board represent a balance of interests, with each member having knowledge or special expertise that qualifies him or her to provide advice in the following categories: wild horse and burro advocacy, wild horse and burro research, veterinarian medicine, natural resources management, humane advocacy, wildlife management, livestock management, and the public-at-large. Members must also have a demonstrated ability to analyze and interpret data and information, evaluate programs, identify problems, work collaboratively to seek solutions, and formulate and recommend corrective actions.

Advisory board members serve three-year terms, on a staggered-term basis, with one-third of the advisory board subject to appointment each year. Any individual or organization may nominate one or more persons to serve on the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. Individuals may also nominate themselves. In accordance with Section 7 of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, federal and state government employees are not eligible to serve on the board.

The board meets at least two times a year and the BLM director may call additional meetings when necessary. Members serve without salary, but are reimbursed for travel and per diem expenses according to government travel regulations.

The BLM is accepting nomination letters plus resumes that include the nominee's name, address, profession, relevant biographical information, references, and specific category of interest. Nominations should be sent to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, P.O. Box 12000, Reno, Nevada 89520-0006, Attn: Ramona Delorme; phone 775-861-6583 or fax 775-861-6711.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act mandates the protection, management, and control of wild horses and burros to ensure a healthy, viable, free-roaming herd population within the limits of other public land resources and uses. This law authorizes the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service to manage wild horses and burros that roam public lands in the West, where the agencies gather excess animals from the range and offer them to the general public for adoption. The BLM also sells older wild horses and burros under a law enacted by Congress in December 2004.

-- BLM --