RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is extending the public comment period on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's long-term wild horse and burro initiative.

BLM Director Bob Abbey today said his agency extended the deadline from Aug. 3 to Sept. 3 to ensure the broadest public participation possible.

Under Salazar's plan announced last year, thousands of mustangs that now roam the West would be moved to preserves in the Midwest and East.

Activists oppose the plan, which Salazar says is needed to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them.

The BLM estimates 38,000 wild horses and burros roam the range in the West, with about half of them in Nevada. Another 35,000 are cared for at government-funded corrals and pastures.