Wild horse report concludes that BLM management program needs overhaul

About 50,000 wild horses are in holding facilities, costing about $40 million a year, according to a report. (Scott Sonner, The Associated Press)

Denver Post: GRAND JUNCTION — A long-anticipated report on government management of wild horses and burros has reached a conclusion that all sides of this controversial issue, including the ASPCA, can agree on: The management program needs an overhaul. 

A 14-member panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences released a report Wednesday, based on two years of research, that found the current method of managing wild horses and burros has only served to worsen the problem of overpopulation in the wild. It has allowed horse populations to grow at a rate of 15 percent to 20 percent annually and has resulted in an untenable and expensive situation of having about 50,000 wild horses in holding facilities at a cost of about $40 million a year.

The 436-page report found that the Bureau of Land Management has used some haphazard science in estimating herd sizes and in predicting how removal of animals would affect herd size and range conditions. The agency also has not done well at incorporating public opinion into its decision-making, the report found.

The $1.5 million report was commissioned by the BLM, the agency responsible for management of the wild herds under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act that mandated protection for the animals.

Wild-horse activists have long charged the agency has unnecessarily shrunk the areas where the animals are allowed to roam, removed too many of the animals from the range to accommodate livestock, and used ineffective and sometimes cruel ways of trying to control herds.

Government bureaucrats and wild horse activists were scrambling Wednesday to digest the lengthy and dense report to try to divine what it will mean for the future of mustangs on the 179 herd-management areas in the country, including four in Colorado.

Horse advocates were lauding what they view as the report’s vindication of their criticisms of the BLM’s management.

“For years we’ve been saying the BLM has been pulling numbers out of thin air,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation, which was named for a wild palomino stallion. “Hopefully, the BLM will take this to heart.”

The controversy over management of wild horses had bedeviled former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and he said Wednesday that he hoped the report would help with a problem that has been festering for nearly four decades.

“It has had significant challenges, and many of my predecessors have sought solutions to the problem,” he said, after noting that he hasn’t seen the report yet. “I am sure that my successor is continuing to look at it. It’s a very difficult and complex problem, and I’m hoping that, as the BLM continues to look at those issues, they’ll be able to find a common-sense solution.”

His successor, Sally Jewell, could not be reached for comment. She said last month in an interview with The Denver Post that she was still undecided about how to handle the wild horse and burro issue and that she was awaiting the study to determine how best to handle the horses.

“It’s going to help identify what’s the sustained capacity of our public lands to handle our wild horses, what is the effectiveness of things like birth control methodology to try and deal with the issue,” Jewell said.

The report looked at those issues, as well as the issues of maintaining genetic diversity, estimating population and growth rates, and maintaining enough forage for the animals. It also devoted a chapter to a topic that was a welcome surprise for some involved in horse management — societal opinions.

The report recommended that the BLM find ways to involve citizens in data-gathering and other scientific practices relating to herd management so that the public will have more understanding of the issues involved in management of the horses and burros.

“I do believe the public should have input,” said Callie Hendrickson, a member of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. “But I don’t think that should be how decisions are made.”

Hendrickson suggested that the BLM should turn to local elected officials for more input on herd management in specific areas.

The report also urged the BLM to do more fertility control using three favored methods. They include administering a contraceptive drug to mares, using more of a vaccine that works on stallions and also adding a “chemical vasectomy” for stallions.

Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957, nlofholm@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nlofholm

Denver Post Staff writers Allison Sherry and Lynn Bartels contributed to this report.

Technorati Tags: horses,burros,BLM,Bureau of Land Management,mustangs,herd-management,Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act,Ken Salazar,wild horses,wild burros,ASPCA