The United States has a problem: the Bureau of Land Management rangeland in the Western states can accommodate about 26,000 wild horses and burros, but there are currently about 32,000 roaming free and 37,000 in pens awaiting adoption. So when you add in the costs of maintaining the horses, in the neighborhood of $25 million annually, the BLM needed to take action.
On Oct. 7, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposed a series of initiatives to improve long-term management of the Mustangs and save the taxpayers some money.
“The current path of the wild horse and burro program is not sustainable for the animals, the environment, or the taxpayer,” Salazar said in a letter outlining his proposals to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other key members of Congress with jurisdiction over wild horse issues.
Salazar’s plan entails acquiring more productive grasslands on which to manage the herds and using strict fertility controls to reduce reproduction, and partnering with non-profit organizations to oversee the animals.
Citing limits on forage and water in the western states because of persistent drought and wildfire, Salazar said the lands acquired by the BLM and/or its partners “would provide excellent opportunities to celebrate the historic significance of wild horses, showcase these animals to the American public, and serve as natural assets that support local tourism and economic activity.”
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, welcomed Salazar’s plan, which he said would reverse decades of government policies that treated wild horses and burros as a nuisance.
“Years of attempts by BLM to shoe-horn these magnificent animals into ever-shrinking territory has manufactured an overcrowding problem,” Rahall said. “Re-storing horses and burros to the acreage from which they have been needlessly removed is critical.”
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Wild horse advocates have long been critical of the BLM’s management of populations on the western rangelands. Ongoing round-ups and a fall-off in adoptions have seen the number of horses held in captivity nearly match those estimated to still roam free on the Western rangelands.
Salazar is seeking Congressional support for his plan, which includes the possible creation of wild horse preserves on the productive grasslands of the Midwest and East. It would also involve aggressive use of fertility control, managing sex ratios on the range, and including non-reproducing herds to slow population growth.
Salazar is proposing that the federal government spend about $96 million to buy land in the Midwest and East to create the two preserves that could each support 3,600 horses. The BLM reported that the annual operating and maintenance costs would be about $1.7 million, according to The Washington Post.
BLM director Bob Abbey commended Salazar: “The proposals we are unveiling today represent a forward-looking, responsive effort to deal with the myriad challenges facing our agency’s wild horse and burro program.”
The challenges to the BLM associated with maintaining robust wild horse populations in the West have been recognized by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has warned that gathering and holding costs have risen beyond sustainable levels. It directed the BLM to prepare a long-term plan for the program.
In response to the Congressional direction, Salazar’s proposals aim to achieve what he called a “truly national solution” to a traditionally Western issue.
“Wild horses have no natural predators and herds grow quickly,” Salazar said. “More than 33,000 wild horses live in 10 Western states. Unfortunately, arid western lands and watersheds cannot support a population this large without significant damage to the environment.”
