Time Magazine has completed a report on Madeleine Pickens and her plans to make her eco-preserve a home for thousands of wild horses gathered from western range lands by the Bureau of Land Management. Approximately 40,000 wild equines are currently held in pens and corrals cared for by the BLM.
Because part of her horse sanctuary will be on federal land, and because she wants cooperation from the federal government to keep the refuge running long after she is gone, Pickens needs approval from the BLM.
So far, the agency has been slow to respond.The BLM says it is studying Pickens' proposals before making a decision on whether to help her sanctuary
Pickens envisions a Mustang Monument with a museum and lodging for visitors in futuristic teepee villages beside a creek so they can view the roaming mustangs in a more natural habitat.
She believes the sanctuary will have tourism potential, benefiting the local community, and provide thousands of wild horses with a lifelong home in a rangeland environment
Animal rights' advocates claim that the government is more into providing range land for big-time cattle ranchers and drilling sites for oil and gas companies than it is into preserving the western range lands that many see as a preservation of historically significant wild mustangs and a way of life.
Nobody can dictate to ranchers if they want to raise cows or kangaroos on their own land. But in Nevada's high deserts and extreme weather, most ranches are granted access to vast tracts of federal land for grazing.
She has applied to the bureau under its new policy that allows for public-private partnerships in the care of the horses.
Pickens said she wants to thank journalist Tim McGirk for drawing attention to the issues wild horses are facing.
The report includes footage of the first 500 horses on Pickens' ranch - 500 wild horses bought from the Paiute tribe.
The animals had been removed from tribal land to control numbers.