The Latest Federal Wild Horse Management Plan
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Government has and continues to be really successful failures at managing horse populations. They say that their goal is to manage horses, matched with the carrying capacity of the resource and they demonstrate their ability by having far more horses than the land is capable of sustaining. The costs of Wild Horse management not only comes in the form of taxpayer dollars, but also in the damage to the landscape and the reduction of forage and habitat for other resource users who are forced to endure the consequences of the inability of the land management agency to do what they hold everybody but themselves accountable for.
In a couple of weeks (June 14 and 15) the latest federal wild horse management plan will be discussed in Colorado, when the citizen advisory group for Wild Horses meet. Attributed as being the product of Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar the basic game plan is to get Wild Horse numbers to their appropriate management levels (AML) by tweaking the male/female ratio (by having less breeding females), increasing the use of birth control measures and acquiring more land (Kansas is the current target area) where grass grows tall and horses removed from the Western lands can be relocated to graze for the rest of their days. There are a few other ideas oriented to improving the public relations and marketing side of things to try and help taxpayers want to feel better about the money being spent on Wild Horses running free and wild with their flowing manes.
The plan, as drafted also suggest that maybe there should be some expansion of using public lands for Wild Horses. Never mind that little thing in the law which says that the federal government should manage the horses where they were in 1971 (when the law passed)…let’s think about buying out livestock grazing permits and replacing livestock with Wild Horses and expanding the places where federal land managers can fail to control numbers. To this point and concept – No, that would be a very bad idea and shouldn’t be pursued. What people want to do with the private lands…that is their business, but having Wild Horses on lands managed by federal agencies, where the horses aren’t supposed to be -- is not acceptable.
Given the inability to deal with horses which live a fairly long time and reproduce without any avenue -- except limited adoptions -- for the animals being produced it’s understandable that the numbers keep increasing and…so do the costs. As much as anything the real situation isn’t a natural resources problem -- it is a political condition, with those who don’t want Wild Horse numbers managed assisting in the management failures.
The biggest problem with the latest proposed Wild Horse management package is the lack of any accountability for better results than what have been achieved. Why should we expect a better outcome?
When bureaucrats fail to accomplish their assigned responsibilities (like managing Wild Horses in balance with the land’s sustainable yield) the answer is for them to seek more money and in the case of a land management agency -- more land. True to form, here we go again.
Until there is an improved way for excess Wild Horses to be relocated and productively used, by someone who is willing to put their money where their mouth is – the latest Wild Horse management plan is just another plan with bureaucrats looking for more money and more land.
Government has and continues to be really successful failures at managing horse populations. They say that their goal is to manage horses, matched with the carrying capacity of the resource and they demonstrate their ability by having far more horses than the land is capable of sustaining. The costs of Wild Horse management not only comes in the form of taxpayer dollars, but also in the damage to the landscape and the reduction of forage and habitat for other resource users who are forced to endure the consequences of the inability of the land management agency to do what they hold everybody but themselves accountable for.
In a couple of weeks (June 14 and 15) the latest federal wild horse management plan will be discussed in Colorado, when the citizen advisory group for Wild Horses meet. Attributed as being the product of Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar the basic game plan is to get Wild Horse numbers to their appropriate management levels (AML) by tweaking the male/female ratio (by having less breeding females), increasing the use of birth control measures and acquiring more land (Kansas is the current target area) where grass grows tall and horses removed from the Western lands can be relocated to graze for the rest of their days. There are a few other ideas oriented to improving the public relations and marketing side of things to try and help taxpayers want to feel better about the money being spent on Wild Horses running free and wild with their flowing manes.
The plan, as drafted also suggest that maybe there should be some expansion of using public lands for Wild Horses. Never mind that little thing in the law which says that the federal government should manage the horses where they were in 1971 (when the law passed)…let’s think about buying out livestock grazing permits and replacing livestock with Wild Horses and expanding the places where federal land managers can fail to control numbers. To this point and concept – No, that would be a very bad idea and shouldn’t be pursued. What people want to do with the private lands…that is their business, but having Wild Horses on lands managed by federal agencies, where the horses aren’t supposed to be -- is not acceptable.
Given the inability to deal with horses which live a fairly long time and reproduce without any avenue -- except limited adoptions -- for the animals being produced it’s understandable that the numbers keep increasing and…so do the costs. As much as anything the real situation isn’t a natural resources problem -- it is a political condition, with those who don’t want Wild Horse numbers managed assisting in the management failures.
The biggest problem with the latest proposed Wild Horse management package is the lack of any accountability for better results than what have been achieved. Why should we expect a better outcome?
When bureaucrats fail to accomplish their assigned responsibilities (like managing Wild Horses in balance with the land’s sustainable yield) the answer is for them to seek more money and in the case of a land management agency -- more land. True to form, here we go again.
Until there is an improved way for excess Wild Horses to be relocated and productively used, by someone who is willing to put their money where their mouth is – the latest Wild Horse management plan is just another plan with bureaucrats looking for more money and more land.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 6/2/2010 5:42 AM 
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Wild Horses Bureau of Land Management Public Lands
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Wild Horses Bureau of Land Management Public Lands
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