Wild Horse Update: Department of Interior Proposal Revamps Future
by Fran Jurga | 8 October 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com
The big news from Washington yesterday, for me, was not about healthcare or Afghanistan but about wild horses. I am printing for you here excerpts from the text of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's press release about his proposal to Congress to re-invent the way that our wild horses are managed...and where they are managed. I also suggest that you read the article in today's New York Times for more on this developing story.
For my own take on this, I have to congratulate Mr Salazar for admitting that the current system isn't working, and for trying to forge new solutions. The non-reproducing herds caveat is a big question for animal behaviorists--without reproduction, will there still be a herd?
But I would direct my questions to the environmental impact of relocating a large number of horses to any area; who will want them and how will they disrupt the native flora and fauna of such a large tract of land as would be required to truly adequately support a wild and free-roaming herd in a wildlife park setting? Wild horses are still protected by federal law so they'd have to still run free on thousands on acres, right?
I'd also hope that they would consult with the Australian Brumby Research Unit at the University of Queensland. A pilot study done there to switch groups of horses between different environments had mixed results. I've been told that years ago a mustang-to-Chincoteague swap was unsuccessful as well. A researcher from Queensland will be speaking on their wild horse studies at a special presentation in Missouri next weekend; read about the lecture here.
I don't think there is an easy solution for this problem, and I am glad that the Department of the Interior is attacking it at its highest level. But they need lots of input. It reminds me of the problem of snow geese. And the problem of beavers. And the problem of deer. Those three species are the bane of suburban life around here. They just won't go away on their own. Should they?
In my own coastal environment, I think of the hundreds of gray seals that live here now. There are thousands more further out on the coast of Cape Cod. They are a protected species. Ten years ago, seeing a seal was a big deal; now they are becoming quite commonplace and gather in large numbers. They're out in the harbor outside my office, they're on the beach right in town.
A beach on Cape Cod is closed off to humans because of the seals. They should not be disturbed, the environmental police say. That's great. But the fishermen who make a living look on the sea are starting to do the math of his situation much as the cattle ranchers out west look at the horses. The seals are eating the fish. How many pounds of fish a day does each seal eat and just how many thousand seals are there? This summer, the seals were blamed for attracting a great white shark to Massachusetts waters. And how do you manage one (or more) of those?
Gray seals and wild horses may have a lot in common. Both species have their fans and their opponents. There are no easy answers when it comes to managing nature and introducing/transplanting species.
The following text, printed in red, was provided by the Department of the Interior.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today proposed a national solution to restore the health of America’s wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them by creating a cost-efficient, sustainable management program that includes the possible creation of wild horse preserves on the productive grasslands of the Midwest and East.
“The current path of the wild horse and burro program is not sustainable for the animals, the environment, or the taxpayer,” Salazar said in a letter outlining his proposals to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other key members of Congress with jurisdiction over wild horse issues.
Salazar said he is “proposing to develop new approaches that will require bold efforts from the Administration and from Congress to put this program on a more sustainable track, enhance the conservation for this iconic animal, and provide better value for the taxpayer.”
The challenges to the BLM associated with maintaining robust wild horse populations in the West have been recognized by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has warned that gathering and holding costs have risen beyond sustainable levels and directed the BLM to prepare a long-term plan for the program. The Government Accountability Office also found the program to be at a “critical crossroads,” affirmed the need to control off-the-range holding costs, and recommended that the BLM work with Congress to find a responsible way to manage the increasing number of unadopted horses.
In response to Congressional direction, Salazar’s proposals aim to achieve a “truly national solution” to a traditionally Western issue. A key element of the Secretary’s plan, designed to address concerns raised by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Government Accountability Office, would designate a new set of wild horse preserves across the nation. Citing limits on forage and water in the West because of persistent drought and wildfire, Salazar said the lands acquired by the BLM and/or its partners “would provide excellent opportunities to celebrate the historic significance of wild horses, showcase these animals to the American public, and serve as natural assets that support local tourism and economic activity.”
The wild horse herds placed in these preserves would be non-reproducing.
In his letter, Salazar also proposed:
• Managing the new preserves either directly by the BLM or through cooperative agreements between the BLM and private non-profit organizations or other partners to reduce the Bureau’s off-the-range holding costs. This coordinated effort would harness the energy of wild horse and burro supporters, whose enthusiasm would also be tapped to promote wild horse adoptions at a time when adoption demand has softened.
• Showcasing certain herds on public lands in the West that warrant distinct recognition with Secretarial or possibly congressional designations. These would highlight the special qualities of America’s wild horses while generating eco-tourism for nearby rural communities.
• Applying new strategies aimed at balancing wild horse and burro population growth rates with public adoption demand. This effort would involve slowing population growth rates of wild horses on Western public rangelands through the aggressive use of fertility control, the active management of sex ratios on the range, and perhaps even the introduction of non-reproducing herds in some of the BLM’s existing Herd Management Areas in 10 Western states.
The new strategies would also include placing more animals into private care by making adoptions more flexible where appropriate.
posted by Fran Jurga @ 10/08/2009
8 comments
8 Comments:
simple mr. jurga... you don't manage any of them, at all. You let them do what they want until solid evidence exists that they are endangering the HUMAN population in a major way, not just stupid individuals, and then you do something about it.
I've been following your blog for a long time, and I can't express my disappointment in your take on this latest attempt by Salazar and the BLM to exterminate the wild horses.
First and foremost, moving the horses off their ranges is in direct violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which requires the government to protect America's mustangs as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." and stipulates that wild horses would be permitted to live free on lands where they existed at the time the act was signed into law.
What are they planning to do with these "preserves" - for which they're stiffing the tax payers for over 90 million dollars - after these non-reproducing herds die off in 30 years or so?
With 37,000 wild horses max in the wild, no matter the disinformation Salazar and the BLM dish out, aggressive birth control measures and taking the few herds left down past the point of genetic viability, I doubt the "preserves" will be repopulated with horses brought in from the wild.
If the BLM would restore the 20 million acres they've systematically stolen from the wild horses over the years - also in violation of the 1971 Act - there would be more than enough land for the wild horses with NO management at all.
Contrary to Salazar's statement, there ARE still predators on the ranges. The horses lived on these ranges for hundreds of years in equilibrium with the environment until the BLM started "managing" them to extinction so their ranching, hunting and mining interests could have their land.
It never was the horses that were damaging the ranges. It's the cattle that Salazar failed to mention. Cattle the outnumber the horses on the same range land by at least 200 to 1. Given that cattle are much harder on the range than horses, it's outright fabrication to say the horses are degrading the range.
This entire scheme is utter madness, and I would have expected you to be knowledgeable enough to see through it.
Suzanne, I don't know where in my blog post you got the idea that I was endorsing the Salazar plan? I was indeed questioning it and the concept itself.
The section of the blog post in red is a direct quote from Mr Salazar, so that readers could know what he is proposing.
Thanks for questioning this evil and devious plan to wipe out our wild horses and burros. Already they should be on the endangered list.
Well, Anonymous, they are protected by their own federal law, and I didn't go into that. What Mr Salazar's plan brings to mind is that the horses are protected but where they roam may not be...just that they roam. I have lots of questions about that. Seals seem a great comparison. They are also a federally protected species and the National Marine Fisheries, another federal agency, may start looking at them like they are wild horses of the sea. I hope not. Right now, the seals are much better off than the horses even though the horses have a specific law to protect them. It just doesn't make sense but the action by such a high-ranking government official means that they want some sort of change. It needs to be change that benefits the horses, that's all.
IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT NEEDS MUCH ATTENTION. HORSE LOVER'S & ANIMAL ADVOCATES IN GENERAL DON'T TRUST THE GOVENMENT OR THE BLM TO DO RIGHT BY OUR WILD HORSE'S - THE RECENT PRYOR MOUNTAIN MUSTANG ROUNDUP IS A GOOD EXAMPLE.
THE FACT THAT SALAZAR IS LOOKING INTO A HOPEFULLY BETTER WAY IS A BEGINNING. BUT THIS WILL CONTINUE TO BE AN EMOTIONAL SUBJECT AS LONG AS THE BLM IS OUT OF CONTROL.
I THINK SUZANNE IS RIGHT ON WITH HER OPINION.
Thank you for addressing this issue, Ms. Jurga. However, I too feel you are FOR Salazar's plan. One needs to read between the lines here. What you manifestly say and your underlying latent message.
For one, your comparison of seals to wild horses is absurd. So seals eat fish causing the fishermen to lose money. Wild horses enhance the land. They do not pull up plant life by the roots and kill it. They disperse more seed via manure! They vary their forage areas. Cattlemen lose no money due to wild horses except if they want more land. Cattle trample the land, eat plants pulling up roots, their digestion does nothing to reseed.
And where is the competing aquatic mammal for the seals? None. Wild horses? Just the imbalance of wild horses to cattle should explain it all...but this is politics.
About 27,000 wild horse on the range, @ 35,000 in captivity. Total wild horses=62,000.
Cattle on the range? Estimates are from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000!
It is well documented that cattle have ruined the ecological balance on the range, at the ponds and streams. Plants and small animals no longer thrive, and many are extinct...all due to CATTLE! Water supply is fenced off from the horses. Many die feet from water.
The reason the BLM is in such a mess is their own making. They are the ones rounding up hundreds of horses /year for the CATTLEMEN. We all know the cost to the BLM for round-ups, captivity. Left alone the wild horses manage themselves: natural selection. In difficult times and/or too many foals, mating does not occur. The horses know. Importantly, rarely is it mentioned that the horses have a predator: mountain lions!
Salazar now seems like the Good Samaritan. The genius to fix it. No way. It is a spin on the same old.
The BLM's goal for decades has been to get rid of wild horses. The BLM was to protect wild horses. Is even THINKING of euthanizing 35,000 wild horses caring for them? TheY continue to spin the story, the maneuvers, with the same goal: get rid of the wild horses.
The latest by Salazar, sanctuaries, is loaded with danger. The horses will be sterilized. Non-reproducing. To be determined who will house them on land: BLM only, BLM w/ private non-profit or other partners. For sure it will not be BLM only. They do not want the blatant responsibility of doing what they have been doing undercover for years: slaughter! Yes, slaughter.
The wild horses on the "sanctuaries" (zoos) will be more readily available for ADOPTIONS. However, to facilitate more quick adoptions, the adoptions "would be made more flexible." And this means kill buyer and SLAUGHTER. Read carefully between the lines. It happened before with the BLM by deception, and will happen again, only this time, again, again, a different spin.
The DOI, Salazar, BLM are cornered. Congress, GAO, were closing in for accountability and major change. ROAM just passed the House and was looking very good to pass the Senate. The BLM Advisory Board wanted ROAM in the trash. Salazar needed to quickly introduce measures palatable to the unknowing public...and those in DC who do not fully know.
But the goal is the same. Get rid of the wild horses. To extinction. And bring on the CATTLE. Never forget how powerful cattlemen are in DC: POWER BROKERS.
So Ms. Jurga, I would NOT congratulate Mr. Salazat at all. The wild horses belong on the range with their rightful land given back. No more money needs to be spent. The wild horses free, on their own, will save taxpayers millions, billions.
Unbelievable BS coming from the DOI The solution is AMLs for the HMAs. If some non-rancher in the BLM would make every HMA come back to life and set the minimum AML at 200, the problem is solved. Be damned the folks that sit on public lands with their stinking hamburger. That is the problem. Salazar is an equine dolt to think anything in the East or Midwest is remotely useful to horses out on millions of acres with limited exposure to disease. This is a ranchers pipedream - ship the varments back east and let them pick up the poop. Just as all the exposed Native Americans in the Victorian era, the horses will be castrated, separated by sex, and die from diseases.
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