Congress Must Intervene to Resolve Wild Horse Management Issues

For anyone who sees the absurdity of a public lands management policy that features more “wild” horses in publicly funded pens across 10 Western states than running free, last week’s report by the National Science Academy’s National Research Council on the BLM’s wild horse and burro program was vindication.

In the report, commissioned by the BLM, the 14-member council said that the current strategy of removing horses and placing them in long-term holding facilities is doomed to failure and may actually be making the problems that the BLM is trying to solve worse.

The panel recommended that the BLM stop the expensive, controversial roundups in favor of more emphasis on “fertility control” and allowing nature to take its course on the horse population.

Most troubling, the report found little scientific basis for the BLM’s estimates of how many horses the public lands can handle or even how many wild horses there actually are.

“It seems that the national statistics are the product of hundreds of subjective, probably independent, judgments and assumptions and assumptions by range managers and administrators,” according to the report.

The BLM appeared to agree with the tenor of the report, announcing on the same day policy changes to “strengthen the humane treatment of animals and increase public transparency.”

The real question, however, is whether Congress has the courage to take on the diverse groups interested in the horses and make the changes necessary for the BLM to do what it says it wants to do.

Somewhere between those who believe that “wild” horses are the true symbol of American freedom dating back many centuries and those who think that “feral” horses are an invasive species brought to America by Europeans, there has to be a middle ground that will 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 put it in a press release.

The National Research Council’s report made it clear that that’s not happening now because, as advocates for the horses have long argued, the BLM is taking too many horses off the range.

The council’s recommendation is a little tough love, a strong dose of Darwinism for the horses -- if they’re going to die from starvation or extreme weather, so be it.

That’s not going to go over well with supporters, many of whom already feed and water the wild horses, ignoring the requests of experts that they don’t do that.

It’s not going to go over well with the cattlemen who use the public lands to graze their animals either and continue to support the roundups.

And the BLM is still in a no-win situation, a dilemma that the council’s report acknowledged.

It’s time for Congress to step in by giving the BLM clear, effective, scientifically based guidelines. The BLM simply isn’t in the position to sort out these issues and find a common ground that may not exist. That’s the job of Congress.

Originally Posted By Reno Gazette Journal