Managing Public Lands
Can preservation and energy development coexist?
By Jennifer Weeks

The millions of acres of publicly owned lands managed by the U.S. government produce valuable resources, such as timber, minerals, oil and gas. Mainly located in Western states, these scenic and historic lands also are prized recreation areas where each year millions of visitors hunt, camp, hike and explore. Some conservatives want to restrict the government's authority to protect public lands from. . . .

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• Will renewable-energy projects harm public lands?
• Are new guidelines for managing national forests strong enough?
• Does the nation have enough wilderness?

Does creating national monuments hurt local economies?

Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif. From Testimony before the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Sept. 13, 2011	Ray Rasker Executive Director, Headwaters Economics. From Testimony before the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Sept. 13, 2011

Wild Horses Are Expensive Western Icons

Many Americans see the thousands of wild horses and burros that roam 34 million acres of public lands in 10 Western states as beautiful legacies of the nation's frontier history. But for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) they are an expensive and controversial headache.

Horses existed in North America during prehistoric times, died out during a mass extinction about 10,000 years ago and then were re-introduced by Spanish explorers around 1500. Some animals escaped from captivity, and by the 19th century wild herds roamed the Great Plains. As the West was settled and lands were fenced, many ranchers rounded up and sold wild horses because the herds competed with their livestock for rangeland.

In 1971 Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which made it a crime to capture, kill or harass the animals in designated areas on BLM and Forest Service lands. The law directed the BLM to manage the herds in ways that would achieve a “thriving natural ecological balance.” But since natural horse predators such as cougars and wolves largely had been eliminated, the wild-horse population boomed — from 25,000 in 1971 to 69,000 in 2009.

In 1978 Congress amended the law, directing federal regulators to prevent herds from expanding to levels that would overgraze public lands. The BLM began rounding up “excess” horses and burros and offering them for adoption in 1980. But the agency could not place all of the animals it removed from the range and was criticized for transferring thousands of horses to inhumane adopters who sold them to slaughterhouses. In 1988 the agency started putting unadopted horses in holding facilities managed by private contractors.

By 2008 BLM was keeping more than 30,000 such animals in 11 holding facilities at a cost of about $21 million per year — two-thirds of the entire wild-horse program budget. The Government Accountability Office reported that off-range holding costs were “overwhelming” the wild-horse program and that it had reached “a critical crossroads.” The report noted that the BLM's options for dealing with excess animals were limited, especially since the agency had opted not to destroy them.

In 2009 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposed a different approach: creating seven new reserves for up to 25,000 excess horses and controlling the birthrates of horses on the range through measures that included capturing and spaying or gelding them.

But the BLM's “gathers,” or roundups, which used helicopters and off-road vehicles to chase horses into capture areas, were already unpopular. “There is inherent stress and risk in chasing an animal with a helicopter. BLM can make gathers as humane as possible, but they should be a method of last resort,” says Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife specialist with the Humane Society of the United States.

And some animal-welfare advocates objected to sterilization. “It takes the wild out of wild horse herds,” said Ginger Kathrens, a Colorado filmmaker who photographed wild horses in Montana. “[P]reventing them from reproducing is managing them toward extinction.” And members of Congress argued that spending more money on the wild-horse program was not realistic during a time of record deficits.

Wild horses have the run of public desert lands near Dugway, Utah. The Interior Department says the nation's expanding wild horse and burro population threatens other wildlife. (U.S. Bureau of Land Management)

Last February the department announced yet another new policy. Salazar commissioned a report from the National Academy of Sciences, due in 2013, on ways to improve management of wild horse populations on multiple-use lands. While the study was under way, the department said, the agency would reduce the number of wild horses it gathered from 10,000 to 7,600 per year. The BLM also would increase the number of wild mares it was treating with PZP (a contraceptive vaccine for animals) in a joint study with the Humane Society from 500 per year to 2,000.

“The root problem is stabilizing and reducing wild-horse population growth,” says Boyles. “At best, contraception could eliminate the need for roundups. At worst, it will reduce the need for roundup and removal, which has failed to meet BLM's targets and wasted millions of dollars.”

The Humane Society has urged the BLM to collect wild horses for PZP treatment by building corrals, baiting them with water or food and closing gates remotely after herds enter the enclosures. The group also wants BLM to change its helicopter-gather methods to reduce stress and risk for horses and burros. The National Academy of Sciences study could help the BLM tackle difficult challenges, such as estimating populations accurately and determining how many wild horses federal rangelands can support, taking into account the impacts of other grazing animals. “BLM needs technical and scientific guidance to mend a program that's been broken for a long time,” Boyles says.

Jennifer Weeks

[1] P.L. 92-195, online at www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20110920.pdf, p. 2.

Footnote: 1. P.L. 92-195, online at www.all-creatures.org/alert/alert-20110920.pdf, p. 2.

[2] Lyndsey Layton and Juliet Eilperin, “Salazar Presents Ambitious Plan to Manage Wild Horses,” The Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2009.

Footnote: 2. Lyndsey Layton and Juliet Eilperin, “Salazar Presents Ambitious Plan to Manage Wild Horses,” The Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2009.

[3] “Rangeland Management: Improvements Needed in Federal Wild Horse Program,” U.S. General Accounting Office (now Government Accountability Office), August 1990, p. 4, http://archive.gao.gov/d23t8/142041.pdf.

Footnote: 3. “Rangeland Management: Improvements Needed in Federal Wild Horse Program,” U.S. General Accounting Office (now Government Accountability Office), August 1990, p. 4, http://archive.gao.gov/d23t8/142041.pdf.

[4] “Bureau of Land Management: Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, October 2008, pp. 59–60, www.gao.gov/new.items/d0977.pdf. Congress amended the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1978 to require the BLM to have unadoptable horses destroyed “in the most humane and cost-efficient manner possible” but then barred Interior from doing so from 1998 through 2004.

Footnote: 4. “Bureau of Land Management: Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, October 2008, pp. 59–60, www.gao.gov/new.items/d0977.pdf. Congress amended the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1978 to require the BLM to have unadoptable horses destroyed “in the most humane and cost-efficient manner possible” but then barred Interior from doing so from 1998 through 2004.

[5] Jim Robbins, “7 Preserves Envisioned to Manage Wild Horses,” The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/08horses.html?sq=wild%20horses&st=nyt&scp=2&pagewanted=print.

Footnote: 5. Jim Robbins, “7 Preserves Envisioned to Manage Wild Horses,” The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/08horses.html?sq=wild%20horses&st=nyt&scp=2&pagewanted=print.

[6] “Caring for America's Wild Horses and Burros: Fundamental Reforms — An Overview,” Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, February 2011, www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Communications_Directorate/public_affairs/news_release_attachments.Par.4000.File.dat/WHB_Fundamental_022411.pdf.

Footnote: 6. “Caring for America's Wild Horses and Burros: Fundamental Reforms — An Overview,” Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, February 2011, www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Communications_Directorate/public_affairs/news_release_attachments.Par.4000.File.dat/WHB_Fundamental_022411.pdf.