Wild Horse Management Needs Urgent Reform

The Western Governors Association recently addressed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with concerns about the management of wild horses and burros onpublic lands. This initiative highlights the pressing need for reform in the current management strategies.

TheBLM's current management scheme, focused on roundups and maintaining unnaturally low numbers of wild horses and burros, is a failure. Unfortunately, the governors seem unable to look beyond the existing, flawed system. They believe the current system can be improved, but it requires a complete overhaul based on common sense andscience.

Population Concerns

TheBLMclaims, and the governors seem to agree, that there are too many wild horses and burros on public land. This belief is based on theBLM's own system of 'appropriate management levels,' which lacks scientific backing. Currently, theBLMallows just 14,186 to 23,768 wild horses to roam on 24 million acres of public land, equating to one horse per over 1,000 acres. This is not overpopulation, yet theBLMcontinues to manage based on these arbitrary numbers.

Impact on Livestock and Taxpayers

Appropriate management levels often favor commerciallivestockover wild horses and burros. The agency permits 35 times morelivestockthan wild horses and burros to graze onpublic lands. Since 1971, designated wild horse and burro habitats have been reduced by nearly 40 percent, over 15 million acres.

The National Academy of Sciences found no scientific rationale for theBLM's management limits. Publicly subsidizedlivestockgrazing costs taxpayers over $122 million annually, yet contributes only 3 percent to the nation's beef supply. Additionally, taxpayers spend an estimated $80 million annually on the government roundup program, which removes wild horses and burros from their native lands and confines them to holding facilities.

Proposed Solutions

The system is broken and requires significant restructuring. Solutions include managing populations humanely with the PZP fertility-control vaccine, which has a 30-year track record of safe, effective use. Despite recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, theBLMresists wider PZP use.

The concept of appropriate management levels must be revised to reflect the American public's will, who favor protecting wild horses over privatelivestockgrazing. Federally protected wild horses and burros are part of our history, with polls showing three out of four Americans support their grazing onpublic lands, and 80 percent oppose wild horse slaughter.

Call to Action

To ensure humane treatment and preservation of these species, and to reduce taxpayer waste, a new approach is needed. Asking tough questions is a start, but true change requires the Western Governors, Congress, and theBLMto listen and initiate reform from the ground up.

Originally posted by Santa Fe New Mexican