Comprehensive Review Needed for Failing Wild Horse Program

Love wild horses or hate them, one thing we should be able to agree on is that the federal government’s wild-horse management is an expensive, ineffective mess that should be put out of its misery.

Just how absurd is the nation’s attempt to “manage” the wild horses on public lands, as required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971?

Well, in 2012, the number of horses and burros in holding corrals around the country surpassed the number of “wild” horses and burros on the range. That was 47,000 horses and burros in short- and long-term pens, versus a reported 40,000 on the range (although the actual numbers are debated).

No wonder the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Joan Guilfoyle, Wild Horse and Burro Division director, said last summer that the program is in crisis and warned that without “drastic changes” it’s heading for financial collapse.

In the last fiscal year, in fact, 61 percent of the program’s budget — $46 million out of the $70 million budget — went to support the holding costs.

If nothing is done, Guilfoyle wrote in an internal memo, U.S. rangeland-improvement goals could be set back 20 years.

Guilfoyle advocated suspending all of the controversial roundups conducted by the BLM until the thousands of mustangs currently in federal corrals can be sold or adopted.

That’s not good enough, however. What’s needed is a complete rethinking of the wild horse and burro program. What’s needed is a more cost-effective, humane, common-sense way of dealing with the proliferating herds. What’s needed is for Congress to take charge.

Not the BLM's Fault

It’s easy to blame the Bureau of Land Management, which is the lead agency for dealing with the public lands.

The BLM can’t win, however.

That’s because of the huge gulf that separates those who see the horses as the ultimate symbol of the freedom of the West, dating back several millennia, and those who see them as an invasive species brought to America by Europeans that threatens to overrun the public lands and force out any other species that gets in its way.

The chasm is represented by the choice of the wild horses to represent Nevada in the U.S. Mint’s state quarter program. At the same time, the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation and Nevada Association of Counties are suing to force the BLM to sell some older animals without the usual prohibition on slaughtering the horses.

Somewhere, there should be a middle ground that would allow the government to “manage for healthier animals and healthier rangelands so that we can keep these symbols of the American West on our nation’s public lands,” as the BLM suggested in a press release nearly a year ago.

What’s clear is that the current strategy of rounding up “excess” horses and putting them in corrals spread around the country is not an effective way to do that. In fact, the National Research Council said in a report in 2013 that the program may be doing more harm than good. By removing horses, the council explained, the program is making it easier for the horses to survive and reproduce. The council suggested a bit of Darwinism for the horses. If they’re going to die from starvation or extreme cold, the council said, well, so be it.

That won’t satisfy the horses’ many supporters, of course. And neither will it satisfy the opponents who want the horses gone from the public range.

In another report, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the BLM spend more on fertility control — providing contraceptives to mares on the range. That’s not happening, either.

No Simple Solutions

There is no easy answer to the dilemma posed by the wild horses. The issues are emotional, practical, and financial. And advocates have shown little interest in compromise.

Nor is there anything new about the problems facing the program. In 2009, Ken Salazar, then secretary of the interior, wrote “the current path of the wild horse and burro program is not sustainable.” A year earlier, the Government Accountability Office said that the costs of holding horses in corrals would continue to climb.

Since then, little has been done to change the trajectory. As Guilfoyle’s memo made clear, the holding pens threaten to engulf the entire wild horse and burro program.

In this day of budget-cutting, when even the Pentagon is facing significant decreases in spending, Congress cannot long tolerate a program that is taking an increasing chunk of the budget while providing little of value in return. It’s well past time to reconsider the entire horse and burro program.

Originally Posted By RGJ