The Solution To Crash Wild Horse & Burro Management On Federally-Managed Lands
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Over the last couple of days we’ve seen an escalation in the media’s attention to the attempts by the Bureau of Land Management to carry out management of Wild Horses. The attention being given to the issue is an orchestrated plan by those who claim to be advocates for Wild Horses to implement their version of the “Cloward-Piven ” Strategy of chaos to force gridlock…crisis to prevent responsible management.
Lost in the turmoil is the need for some type of management. BLM is quick to require livestock owners, using to federally-managed range lands to conform to the standards for rangeland health that have been in place since the Clinton Administration’s “Rangeland Reform ‘94”. In the classic “Do as We Say – Not As We Do” mode, government bureaucrats hold other multiple use interests accountable for range land management that they struggle to accomplish when it's their animals in question. Under federal law, BLM is responsible for managing Wild Horses and Burros.
Advocates who don’t want Wild Horses and Burros managed are attempting to use the “Cows vs Horses” argument with ranchers as the scapegoats for their public relations campaign.
Somehow, in spite of highly-restricted regulations that stipulate the conditions under which livestock grazing can be carried out on federal lands, irresponsible and untrue comments of how horses are being removed to increase cow numbers are fed through media accounts, putting livestock producers in a juxtaposition of being the evil/greedy pillagers and the majestic Wild Horses as the victim’s driven from their homes.
Resource management and any other use of these land areas (wildlife and their habitat being harmed in major ways as a consequence of non-management for Wild Horses) is emotionally dismissed as being manipulated for ill-begotten gain.
Through a constant bombardment of this coordinated scheme of public misinformation and heart-tugging prodding the end of the plank which is being walked comes closer and closer…with the potential grid-lock of doing nothing soon to be realized. Once ground to a halt, fixing the mess will become so impossible and expensive the simple solution will be to just give up.
Mission accomplished for those who don’t want Wild Horses managed and their allies who want livestock grazing forced from the federal lands.
Over the last couple of days we’ve seen an escalation in the media’s attention to the attempts by the Bureau of Land Management to carry out management of Wild Horses. The attention being given to the issue is an orchestrated plan by those who claim to be advocates for Wild Horses to implement their version of the “Cloward-Piven ” Strategy of chaos to force gridlock…crisis to prevent responsible management.
Lost in the turmoil is the need for some type of management. BLM is quick to require livestock owners, using to federally-managed range lands to conform to the standards for rangeland health that have been in place since the Clinton Administration’s “Rangeland Reform ‘94”. In the classic “Do as We Say – Not As We Do” mode, government bureaucrats hold other multiple use interests accountable for range land management that they struggle to accomplish when it's their animals in question. Under federal law, BLM is responsible for managing Wild Horses and Burros.
Advocates who don’t want Wild Horses and Burros managed are attempting to use the “Cows vs Horses” argument with ranchers as the scapegoats for their public relations campaign.
Somehow, in spite of highly-restricted regulations that stipulate the conditions under which livestock grazing can be carried out on federal lands, irresponsible and untrue comments of how horses are being removed to increase cow numbers are fed through media accounts, putting livestock producers in a juxtaposition of being the evil/greedy pillagers and the majestic Wild Horses as the victim’s driven from their homes.
Resource management and any other use of these land areas (wildlife and their habitat being harmed in major ways as a consequence of non-management for Wild Horses) is emotionally dismissed as being manipulated for ill-begotten gain.
Through a constant bombardment of this coordinated scheme of public misinformation and heart-tugging prodding the end of the plank which is being walked comes closer and closer…with the potential grid-lock of doing nothing soon to be realized. Once ground to a halt, fixing the mess will become so impossible and expensive the simple solution will be to just give up.
Mission accomplished for those who don’t want Wild Horses managed and their allies who want livestock grazing forced from the federal lands.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 7/15/2010 10:59 AM 
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Nevada Natural Resource Management Wild Horse Roundups
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Nevada Natural Resource Management Wild Horse Roundups
There is no shortage of stupidity in this world. I wish that I had kept copies of the pictures of the horses on the Tonapah test range. There were dead horses stacked around the water holes. There were too many horses and not enough water. From what I've read it looks like the same situation in the Owhyee desert where BLM is trying to gather.
If someone wanted to stir the pot, they should sue the wild horse advocates for animal cruelty.
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You're right, there is no shortage of stupidity in this world, and BLM's at the top of the heap.
The Tonapah test range horses were killed by high nitrates in the water, not lack of water.
BLM just ran 12 horses to their deaths in the Owhyee, summer heat. Stupid is as Stupid does. BLM should learn animal husbandry if they are to be managing animals, because they are still clueless after all these decades.
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Last summer? the cause of death was nitrates in the water. But I have seen 200 head of horses trying to get a drink out of a spring the size of a cowboy hat. I have seen stacks of dead horses around a spring that didn't flow enough to support the number of horses trying to drink. The reason there were 6000 head of horsed trying to survive on water for 1000 head was that well-meaning wild horse advocates would not allow BLM to gather the wild horses. There is no cattle grazing allowed on the Tonapah test range. That was 20 years ago and it looks like no one has learned anything.
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I have been monitoring wild horses and the BLM's management of them for over 20 years. In nearly every wild horse area I have visited the livestock, be it cattle or sheep, have out numbered the wild horses by over 200 to 1 (comparing AUMs), yet wild horses are removed and the livestock numbers are either increased or left the same. There is never a "thriving natural ecological balance" achieved because it is only wild horses that are held to this standard. When you remove a few wild horses and don't decrease the larger numbers of livestock, that are doing most of the damage, you will never get a "thriving natural ecological balance". I do not advocate no management, but I do advocate lawful, responsible and unbiased management.
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I'm glad the horses are being observed for having fresh water. However, rounding up horses in the heat is killing them. The BLM is being lax in their observation of the horses in their facilities. The Fallon facility had a foal starve to death after letting several other foals go to a woman who raises these young ones by hand. Why was this one held back? BLM officials didn't notice him until pointed out by a humane observer. The Calico Mountain Complex round up has resulted in the death of over 150 horses, not counting the spontaneous abortions suffered by countless mares after the stress of the round up. So...tell me. Are they better off?
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Thank you! I have actually seen rants about how the government wants to deny "us" the privilege of watching wild horses run free on public land. What a careless revelation of selfish motivations. Even when people say they are fighting on behalf of the horses, they still have it wrong and I wonder if they know or just ignore the fact that the BLM arose from, hello, the Grazing Service and the General Land Office. I think it's great that the BLM includes landscape conservation and national monuments in its mission, but I think activists want to change the entire purpose of the agency. I suppose in an ideal world, grazing would take place on private land and there would be more horses on the range, but since the government makes grazing land available, I don't see what the problem is with ranchers acting as responsible caretakers for the land they lease. I mean, poor range management is self-defeating anyway. Come on, people, one horse equals one and a half cows. Arid western land like the Great Basin isn't a good place to graze anything, but it's where we have room and we have to work with what we have. My only qualm is the sheer number of horses currently kept in "storage" because there's no place to send them to. I don't have a solution for that one. But I just can't believe what ignoramuses activists insist on being.
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What is the matter with you people? The wild horses have a history with the old west. The horses of America are what made us what we are today. If not for horses, Native Americans would not be the people they are today, (as unfortunate it is for them). Horses made Native Americans the people they are because horses made Native Americans nomadic. They survived much longer because the horse made them able to follow the bison herds and be able to get away from the troops who wanted to kill them.
AS for cattle ranchers, they should pay for the crop they want to raise. They should not get a cheap write off on their business. If you want to raise cattle you need to pay to feed them. Why does the public need to subsadize them?
When one goes into business you go into it knowing how much it will cost you to do business. Business people should not depend on the government or taxpayer to pay them to do business. It is the cost of having your own business. Quit blaming the horse on your lack of knowing how to make your business successful. Stand up for your busiess and quit depending on others to make your business for you.
As a taxpyer I want wild horses to run free forever!! It is how I invision being an American!! Running wild and running free!!! Get our of my life government!!!
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Welfare ranchers need to be run off our lands, why should we pay taxes for them to sell their cows to the european market. Only 3% of all beef raised on public lands is used in the US.
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And as someone said, "The BLM can't manage the resource, so they micro-manage the resource users."
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The reason the "welfare" ranchers pay so little is because they have to put up with ignorant people who have no clue how living systems work.
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Sorry to inform you that beef raised in the east and mid-west has none of the benefits of cheap grazing that the "welfare ranchers--corporate boys" get with OUR Public Lands. We pay for our land and pay taxes and don't have the added benefits of bank loans given on land that you don't own!
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A 1990-91 Government Accounting Office study found that cattle--NOT WILD HORSES--caused the range and riparian area damage on public lands. All the fences keep wild horses and other wildlife away from water also.
My dad raised cattle here in KY and I have seen the erosion they cause and how they contaminate water with E. coli by defecating in it. Cattle will ruin forests too. I have had horses most of my 71 years now and I know they only over-graze if they are confined in too little of an area and they will not pollute water. The wild horses in the West actually are symbiotic to ecosystems. They belong to all Americans and where supposed to have been protected by the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act. That law is being broken and our wild horses are being pushed to the brink of extinction.The cruel and costly roundups must stop NOW.
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It amazes me that there are 38,0000 wild horses roaming the west and people claim that wild horses are on the brink of extinction. There is no genetic difference between the wild horses roaming the west and the ones in your pasture in Kentucky, Especially if the ones in your pasture are Thoroughbreds. If you are going to claim that wild horses are symbiotic with the ecosystem in the west, it also applies to the cows. They came on the same boat from Spain long ago. People forget that the precious wild horses were domestic 40 years ago.
If the people of the US own the wild horse then they're doing a poor job of manageing. Ownership implies responsibility. Responsibility implies management. Managament means action. the only reason there were any wild horses to "save" in 1971 was that the ranchers on the federal lands had cared for them for a hundred years before "wild horse and burro act".
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Many have been fighting this issue for years. Makes me think no one is listening in the government. We all know why this is happening. I'm just wondering why I can't pay 10 cents on the dollar in taxes for my home and property and let someone else foot the rest of the bill.
Since the country is having a big fiscal crisis, I think it would be wise to let the wild horses go and save millions in keeping them cooped up in pens. I would further suggest that the government raise the cost of rental of the land to the full value, and thereby eventually reduce the number of cows.
Cows are th biggest polluters in the world. It's a fact, no cows, no global warming. (Go check you facts and see how much methane gas these critters give out.)
Greed has caused a lot of big problems in the country. It's time to get a big hit of common sense.
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Nancy S., thank you for bringing up excellent points. People most likely assume that I have some connection with ranching or government when they see my view on this problem and I don't get a chance to mention that I actually agree that decreasing our cattle consumption would reduce (though not eliminate) these problems. (Personally, I follow a flexitarian diet with very little consumption of beef.) Charging ranchers a fairer land rental price would be a good idea as well. To buy time for the disproportionate number of horses in storage right now, I would favor a temporary suspension of roundups until a solution is developed. If this sounds completely contrary to my previous comment, it's because as someone taking an ecological perspective, I just am not naive or ideological enough to go starting a noisy revolution. We have to treat horses as wildlife, regardless of any distracting arguments over their origin, and we have to continue to educate ranchers on how to be good stewards so that BLM land can continue to support multiple uses. I'm not waiting around for sweeping government changes or a sudden overthrowing of beef consumption.
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With no natural predators, wild horses have to be managed. BLM's methods have been crude and brutal. A better way needs to be found. The horses DO have to be managed. A balance between the horses, cattle, and the rest of the wildlife needs to be striven for, and found.
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