Speaker 1: In Nevada's high desert, a living symbol still roams free. The last of these wild horses might not be here for much longer. Across the range, the biggest roundup in a century is underway Speaker 2: It's on the mountain above the trap there. Should be some showing up there pretty quick. I see some [inaudible] over in that direction. Speaker 1: A hundred years ago ranchers slaughtered Mustang herds to make way for their capital in sheep. And today wild horses are once again at the centre of a fight for survival. Speaker 3: You wanted a one of those horses out of there? Shawna R: Yeah. Everything down in through here. Everything in here [crosstalk 00:01:31]. Speaker 1: Shawna Richardson is a horse specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, the BLM. It's her job to work out how many wild horses must be removed Shawna R: And are appropriate management level for the area within the shaded area is 198 animals and currently we have an estimated 1200 wild horses within the entire area. Speaker 1: From 2 million wild horses at the turn of the century. There are now just 14,000 and the government wants to slash that by half. As the chopper pilot cuts a bunch from the herd, contracted cowboys wait a special trip. Speaker 2: Okay, we're coming around the corner. Speaker 1: These wild horses will be auctioned off for adoption or sent to life on a feed lot. Across the west mustangs roam over millions of acres of public land. But ranchers say these foods are destroying. [inaudible] has managed wild horses out here for the Bureau of Land Management for 30 years. He agrees with the ranchers. John W: We have this finite area and if allow the animals to just reproduce and reproduce and reproduce, one, the land is destroyed. Do we want to do that? No. There's wildlife out there. There's indigenous wildlife out there and these animals will before they die, they will take everything they can to stay alive. It's self preservation. They will do that. Andrea L: Nothing could be further from the truth. In point of fact, what we have is a huge overpopulation of private domestic cows and sheep on our public lands. Andrea Lococo runs the campaign to save wild horses at The Fund for Animals. In essence, the BLM is saying we need to remove 50% of all the wild horses by the year 2005. At the same time, we have literally millions of domestic cows and sheep on those same lands. So even if you were to remove thousands of wild horses, it would have virtually no impact on habitat conditions. Speaker 1: 200 years ago, ranchers rolled across the West grabbing the best land for their livestock. The wild horse was pushed onto what was left, the marginal public lands. It's an argument as old as white settlement on the great plains. Eventually though, ranches wanted access to this range as well, and they got it. But to make it profitable, they first had to get rid of the wild horse. Andrea L: These ranchers would go out and poison the watering holes that these animals. They would shoot out the eyes of the lead stallions and literally drive herds of animals over cliffs. Speaker 1: But all that changed when housewife build Velma Johnston started a campaign to protect the mustangs by law is a wild native animal. Karen S: Brianna. Hey Bree. It's okay. Diana? It's okay, baby girl. Speaker 1: Today, you from her ranch in South Dakota, Karen Sussman runs the organisation that Velma started. Karen S: That's my girl, Bree. From what I understand, she was probably one of the bravest people in our country because what she did in our country was to show that the public lands that the ranchers were using actually it belonged to all American people and to the horses. And so it was our organisation back in 1971 that got the federal law passed to protect wild horses as a national heritage species in our country. Speaker 1: Despite the more activists are increasingly worried. They believe the Bureau of Land Management roundup is cutting the herds so much that will be genetically unsustainable. Andrea L: So the future is dim, it's bleak. And we genuinely believe that unless there is a turning point that takes place right now, that the future for wild horses is grim in this country. Speaker 8: Possibly extinct? Andrea L: For many herds? Yes. Extinct. John W: Not, no way. I disagree. I strongly disagree. These herds started ... Callahan started from 35 head. From that population in 1997 we gathered 1,859 horses out of this area that started some 35 head of horses. I don't think they're in any danger of going extinct or disappearing. Speaker 1: One man who wants to see the wild horse numbers cut dramatically is rancher Paul [inaudible 00:06:48]. Paul is at the gather today because he rents public land or Mount Callahan from the BLM to graze his cattle and sheep. And like most ranchers, he sees these wild horses as a pest destroying the scarce forage needed for his herds. Paul : Well, the problem is, they use the feed that we're supposed to get. And nobody has any benefit out of that. We don't mind a few horses around, but right now it's supposed to be only 35 head and it about the 500 or so. So that makes a problem. Speaker 1: A Basque from southern France, Paul came to America's West 52 years ago as a sheepherder. Over the years, he built a network of ranches and a family. There's a lot of excitement about the gather. In 1997 the BLM cut the number of cattle Paul could run on Mount Callahan by 65%. He and the family have waited five years for them to cut the wild horse numbers as well. Speaker 10: We'd like to see them come down and get in a truck and leave. Speaker 1: For decades this 10,000 acre ranch has provided a good life for Paul and his family, but it's a heavily subsidised life. Paul has access to 1 million acres of public land surrounding this ranch. He pays just $1.34 per month to run a cow and calf on that land. On the free market, it would cost 10 times that much. Karen S: If you look at the ranching industry, it's really a welfare industry in our country on public lands. Now, if you can imagine that you could feed almost 2000 pounds of cow at $1.34, I don't think you can feed a hamster for a $1.34 a month. John W: That's set by Congress. The congress sets the grazing fees. Last year it was $1.35. I believe this year it's $1.43 per per month and that's set by Congress. Speaker 11: The amount of money the government charges. The $1.35, I think, per per month for cow and calf is a massive subsidy. John W: It is. I agree. It is. Speaker 1: Despite the subsidy, back on Paul's ranch the realities of desert ranching are beginning to bite. Three years of drought have forced his 1600 cows down from the public land early again this year. The land is tired and Paul admits it's a life looking less and less attractive. Paul : It is going down. My kids too. They were pretty interested but I noticed that they taking less, less less. They get disgusted. I don't know. I can't ... it's going to have to change. Something is going to have to change. John W: I think that this range is degraded condition. We're finding some of our plots out here that we've looked at, our vegetation sampling, that there's native species that are not even hearing more. They're missing and they should be here. So they've been grazed out basically and out competed by sage sagebrush. Speaker 1: Why is it in such a state? John W: Too much, too much grazing. Just too much grazing. Too many, too many livestock over the years. Too many horses over the years. Speaker 1: Ironically, one answer to the problem of overgrazing is found on the wide grassy plains of the Cheyenne River Reservation Here, the Lakota Indians are beginning a bold experiment they hope will save their culture and their land. Raymond : Our people use the mustang for every reason in our life. Without it, I feel that my ancestors would died out years ago and I wouldn't be here today. Speaker 13: Raymond Who Uses a Knife, a name handed down from his forefathers is a Lakota chief pursuing a dream to return these planes to what they once were. Two years ago, his tribe bought this property from a bankrupt rancher and recently started restocking it with buffalo and a herd of wild horses. The buffalo came from a national park but the wild horses were saved by Karen Sussman's group. Karen S: We have very few wild horses left roaming in our country. So it's very important for us to be able to save loud horse herds. But what is so important about coming here is that the horses are actually coming back to the people who really honour and cherish them and hold them sacred. Speaker 1: But Raymond wants to do more than just bring the horses back. He believes the combination of buffalo wild horses and Indian culture is sustainable and has tourism potential. Raymond : Well, I think the ranchers and the farmers around here are scratching their own heads too because they're trying to make a living here in this rugged territory, and they don't know how to raise a crop or animals here. It's very difficult. John W: Livestock grazing 200 years ago, they thought, man, this is great. This is lush land. But it never had been grazed like that before. And basically 200 years ago, there was uncontrolled grazing. It was just the firstest with the mostest. Whoever was out there and they got the forage. Speaker 1: But Paul and ranchers like him, are not giving up easily. This is their way of life. A life that's so embodies the pioneering spirit of America and it has unquestioning political support. Andrea L: Livestock ranchers maintain a stranglehold on decision making in the West, either through the state legislatures or through their political allies in Congress. And so they wield a tremendous amount of influence. So the fact of the matter is it's this is politics, pure and simple. It has nothing to do with biology or ecology or anything like that. It has to do with power. Karen S: The mustang really is symbolic of what our country stands for, and that is freedom. The wild horse has been free for aeons of time and if we can save these wild horses, we have saved a species that has been able to exist for 60 million years and will continue to exist. Speaker 1: But saving the wild horse may not be that easy. Many feel, this modern day roundup represents the end for the mustang. Yet ironically, getting rid of the wild horse probably won't save cowboy culture as we know it. Two of the greatest and most enduring icons of America's wild west could end up disappearing together.