Those who attended a private fundraising event for Nevada Senator Harry Reid Tuesday night paid big money for a chance to bend the senator's ear and get a few minutes with the president.
One of the beneficiaries could be the wild mustang herds that roam Nevada and other western states. Two longtime champions for the wild horses took advantage of the opportunity.
Harry Reid has been grappling with wild horse issues ever since he went to Washington, and it's still a mess. It's a widely held opinion that the BLM has screwed up the management of the wild horse program to the point where the bureau is talking about euthanizing thousands of mustangs now in holding pens.
Wild horse advocate Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, thinks she has a long term solution and used last night's gala to make her pitch. "I don't own the sanctuary. It isn't me, it's the foundation. And nobody gets million-dollar salaries. I work for free. In fact, I'm fronting all the money," she said.
Pickens has put up a bundle of her own money to advocate an audacious proposal to save the wild horse herds -- a million acre sanctuary to be created in northern Nevada where the horses would be protected forever.
It could not only take pressure off the BLM enough to squash discussions about mass euthanizations of horses in government pens, but the sanctuary could also become an eco-tourism draw that would boost the economy of rural Nevada.
That's the pitch Pickens made Tuesday night to Reid. "He understands this is simply a sanctuary, that it will bring in a million and a half visitors a year. And he's talking about Nevada going green. What a wonderful eco-resort they would have here in Nevada, which fits in with everything else," she said.
Reid has not yet committed to supporting the sanctuary plan, but after more than 20 years of trying to resolve the complicated issues surrounding the mustangs -- trying to protect the range while also preserving these living monuments of western heritage -- he might be willing to put his weight behind the idea.
Pickens is hoping to get the ear President Barack Obama as well. She was accompanied to the Reid fundraiser by longtime wild horse advocate Jerry Reynoldson, who was Reid's district manager for several years.
Thus far, the right formula for managing the horse herds has eluded the government. The situation for both the horses and the range is a mess. BLM is now paying to feed and care for more than 30,000 horses in its pens and facilities.
Pickens says BLM's national leaders initially expressed support for her plan in private, and then trashed it in public. BLM spokespeople have accused her of trying to make a pile of money for herself because BLM would pay a stipend for each horse she takes. "Running around saying ‘Oh, she wants to make money. She's going to get rich,' and I'm thinking, ‘My goodness. Why didn't they explain the whole story to them?' The fact is, the foundation will own the ranch. There is nobody making money on this. This is a foundation for the safety of the horses," she said.
And while disparaging the Pickens plan, some BLM operatives have encouraged private ranchers to apply for the per-head stipends. Ranchers who, for the most part, despise wild horses and have long called for their complete removal from public ranges.
Pickens knows that even if Reid gets in her corner, powerful interests will try to kill the plan for a sanctuary. "You've got big factions working against me. You've got cattlemen, land owners, ag states working against it. And it really comes from fear. They don't understand the program," she said.
Pickens estimates her sanctuary could save the wild horse budget hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 20 years and would do a better job of restoring the range in and around the million acre sanctuary than BLM has done.
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