Wild horse advisory board makes recommendations

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board met Oct. 18-19 in Grand Junction, CO, to discuss the challenges of wild horse and burro overpopulation on public lands and the impacts they are having on the range.

The purpose of the board—which includes representatives of public interest groups, research groups, livestock groups, wildlife organizations, and veterinarians—is to make recommendations to the BLM to help improve management of wild horses and burros. Members are appointed by the secretaries of agriculture and interior.

Because the board serves an advisory role, the BLM is not required to adopt any measures it proposes. Many of the recommendations brought to the surface at the recent meeting were also proposed as action points in 2016, but not implemented.

Perhaps the most controversial recommendation was to allow for lethal management of unadoptable horses and burros. This measure was passed by the board with one dissenting vote coming from Ginger Kathrens, the humane advocacy representative and executive director of The Cloud Foundation.

Following the meeting, Ben Masters, the wildlife management chair on the advisory board, released a blog on his personal Facebook page explaining his support of the lethal management and other recommendations. Masters is a filmmaker, writer, and horse packer, known for his documentary film, “Unbranded,” and he has raised over $100,000 for wild horse adoption programs.

Masters explained that he takes his role on the board—an unpaid position—“very seriously,” adding, “It is a tremendous responsibility in a truly tragic situation.” He went on to call the current program a “complete wreck.” He noted that shortly after the meeting multiple organizations and individuals were directing “hate mail” to him through social media. His message through Facebook asked for people to understand his point of view, explaining that he has studied the issue extensively. “This is a hard pill for me to swallow because for the past several years of my life I’ve tried to find a solution to the wild horse and burro dilemma that got every single horse adopted.” He doesn’t just speak the words; Masters has personally adopted numerous mustangs.

The basis for all of the recommendations is to return population levels to BLM’s established appropriate management level (AML), or the maximum number of horses and burros that the range can handle without causing damage to vegetation, soil and other resources.

The recommendations, available at www.blm.gov, (click Wild Horse and Burro under the Programs heading) include:

Phase out long-term holding over the next three years and apply that budget to on-range management and adoptions.
Create funding mechanisms to maximize adoptions and or sales, especially through successful programs, and to include international adoptions and or sales.
Increase wild horse and burro funding for reversible fertility control by $3 million in fiscal year (FY) 2019.
BLM will immediately (within the next three years) follow the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and remove excess animals from the range to achieve AML. Further, BLM will use the help and assistance of all state and local agencies, organizations and individuals in achieving AML.
Maintain AML by using fertility control to slow population growth at levels where removals equal the adoption demand.

During discussions, Steven Yardley, a Utah rancher and board member representing the livestock industry, expressed concern that the board needed to address AMLs, noting that if nothing is done the population would go from 75,000 this year to potentially 150,000, assuming there isn’t a population crash. He explained that a population crash is really a kind word for animals starving and dying from thirst, saying, “I don’t think that’s humane in any way, shape or form.”

Yardley went on to say he believes God gave man stewardship to take care of animals and “sometimes that means making hard decisions that’s best for them. I would like to see a sustainable herd of healthy horses on healthy ranges and using fertility control, adoptions and permanent sterilization as part of that.”

Budget legislation currently stalled in the Senate would allow a provision to be made for the BLM to sell or destroy healthy animals at its discretion to help reach appropriate management levels.

Ethan Lane, Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Federal Lands executive director, told WLJ the recommendations from this meeting may have some impact where they haven’t in the past. “I think you see a conversation that is continuing to evolve,” he said. “As the situation gets worse, you see groups like the wild horse advisory board come to a conclusion that the current situation is unsustainable and reaffirming recommendations from last year.”

Asked about the recommendation to return to the original intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act, Lane expressed agreement that it happen. “We’re not talking about something exceptional here; we’re not talking about an invasive species. All we’re asking is that the controls that were put in place to both protect them and the range be followed.

“It shouldn’t be a big ask.”

The board will meet in early 2018 to present its recommendations to agency officials in Washington, D.C. — Rae Price WLJ editor

10 Western states have wild horses and burros;
177 Herd management areas;
26.9 million acres of public rangelands;
26,715 is the AML;
72,674 animals on the range (March 2017); half are in Nevada;
48,813 animals in holding (September 2017); (10,925 in 26 corrals; $5.19 per day; $24.3 million total in FY 2017); (32,888 in 31 pastures ($1.97 per day; $23.3 million total in FY 2017);