Les Sweeney Papers

Les Sweeney was born in 1935 and grew up on the Squaw Valley Ranch near Midas, Nevada. He attended the University of Nevada, Reno from 1954-1959 and graduated with a degree in Agricultural Economy, Ranch Management Specialty. He began his career with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Carson City soon after graduation in 1959. He worked on both range and watershed programs throughout the state of Nevada. Sweeney also work for the BLM in Alaska, Idaho, and Utah before returning to Reno in 1979 as the Branch Chief of Biological Resources. In 1988, Sweeney transferred to Elko, Nevada as the Area Manager of the Elko Resource Area. He served in that position until his retirement in 1990.

During his time working at the BLM in the 1980s, Sweeney served as the State Wild Horse Specialist overseeing a staff of 6-8 employees. Before his retirement, he also served as the Contracting Officer's representative for two major contracts. The first was for the horse holding facility contract for Lovelock, Nevada and the second was for the University of Minnesota research contract study on wild horse fertility that took place between 1985 and 1988.