Find money elsewhere for wild horses

It was with some relief we read promises this week from the Bush administration to back off a plan to divert money from Southern Nevada federal land sales to management of wild horses.

Not that the Bureau of Land Management couldn't use some additional money toward wild-horse management. With 20,000 or so wild horses and burros roaming Nevada, the BLM has some issues to deal with that will only get worse without attention.

The main problem with the proposal in Bush's budget, however, was how easily it would wreck a good piece of work by Nevada's representatives in Washington, D.C. - namely, the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

The act directs proceeds from sales of federal land toward the purchase of environmentally sensitive land. In other words, as the BLM disposes of property not particularly suited to public uses, the money ($700 million so far) can be used to help protect places like Lake Mead, Red Rock and Mount Charleston.

While the act was specifically aimed at cleaning up messy - and often questionable - land deals in the rapidly growing Las Vegas area, it also has applications in the north, where places like Lake Tahoe and the Black Rock Desert can benefit.

Diverting that money toward wild-horse management would have some environmental benefits, but it would have created two bigger problems.

One, the money would shift toward an operational budget. Managing wild-horses is an expense that will last forever, so the funds would be eaten up with nothing tangible in return.

Two, if the Southern Nevada lands act were opened as a funding source for wild horses, it would be vulnerable to raids on the money for other projects. It's working nicely as it is, so leave it alone.

That still leaves the problem of an underfunded horse-management program. Lest wild horse-lovers think this is a good thing, the first item on the chopping block would likely be the horse-adoption program.

The most humane ways of dealing with horse populations - adoptions and sanctuaries - are also the most expensive. The BLM needs more than its $30 million a year to operate such programs nationally, but additional money shouldn't come from the Southern Nevada lands fund.

While there are plenty of places in the federal budget to find the money, Bush need look no further than the $303 million increase he has proposed at Yucca Mountain.