Department of Interior Wild Horse Policy: A Critical Examination

Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic has penned a critical article accusing Interior Secretary Sally Jewell of ignoring a significant report by the National Academy of Sciences. This report questions the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) costly and ineffective policy of rounding up thousands of wild horses from public lands and corralling them in vast holding facilities, which comes at a great cost to the American taxpayer and benefits the ranching and livestock industries.

When repeatedly questioned about her response to the NAS report, Secretary Jewell ignored the NAS's pointed criticism of the BLM's wild horse policies. She focused on the assertion that wild horse populations can increase by 20 percent annually, without acknowledging, as the NAS did, that the BLM's faulty management practices are facilitating high rates of population growth. When asked to what extent the BLM would implement reforms based on the NAS report, the Secretary of the Interior simply ignored that part of the question.

Cohen concludes that this suggests the Interior Department, under Secretary Jewell, is more concerned with papering over faulty BLM practices than with fixing those practices to align with accepted scientific methods.

For a historical perspective on the issue, Retro Report offers a fascinating video.

Originally posted by Wonk Wire.