Letter: Mistrust of BLM bigger problem than horse issue

In this instance, two groups bent on conservation (the Bureau of Land Management and the National Wild Horse Association) stand at opposite ends of an argument and may end up hurting environmental issues to be tackled in the future.

The issue is clear: The horses and burros need to be moved for the health of the Red Rock area. What is now at issue is the mistrust of the BLM. Horse advocates don't trust that the BLM has come to the removal conclusion without considering the impact on their own budget and potential for making a greater cash flow from fees.

Maybe the answer is to use independent experts to educate the public that the removal plan is needed. There are a number of good ecologists and environmental economists in this city and neighboring areas (both university and privately employed) that may be able to add to this issue. Maybe if the media approached these people, we could then move beyond the decision of the removal and get down to why the public distrusts BLM.

In my opinion, this distrust is misplaced and is keeping an ecologically important management decision that affects us all from being correctly placed into operation.

TRAVIS E. HUXMAN

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