Regarding Kim Crumbo’s recent letter to the editor about the Onaqui wild horse herd, as a retired Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manager with direct experience managing wild horse and burro populations, I respectfully disagree.
There are big differences between managed livestock grazing and wild horse and burro grazing. Currently, many ranchers have voluntarily reduced or curtailed grazing in response to the ongoing mega-drought. Wild horse and burro populations are regulated only by natural mortality and periodic gathers. Available fertility controls have a very limited effect and must be administered annually (which almost always requires gathering).
Current on-range populations of wild horses and burros are conservatively estimated to be in excess of 100,000 animals, which is over three times the appropriate management level that the Bureau of Land Management has determined through its land use plans. If populations are not reduced, through gathers and fertility control, these animals will suffer and die from a lack of forage and water due to the ongoing mega-drought.
Regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) managing wild horse and burro populations, as Crumbo pointed out, their mission is to “conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats.” Wild horses and burros are not native wildlife and are not part of the USFWS’s mission. In addition, most wild horses and burros that occur on National Wildlife Refuges are not subject to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and therefore considered feral animals.
Scott Florence, Ivins