Wrangling the Wild West: An Analysis of the Wild Horse and Burro Program in the United States.

Abstract

As of March 2022, 82,000 federally protected wild horses and burros lived and are managed on Bureau of Land Management land. In recent years, the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program that began in 1971 has cost the United States as much as $139 million in a single fiscal year. Despite the copious amounts of funding, 105 of 177 Herd Management Areas (HMA) are considered overpopulated and there are little signs of the problem of overpopulation resolving better anytime soon. Due to strains on the land from wild horses, burros, livestock, drought, and adverse climate conditions, both the animals and the land are struggling to survive. To remedy this crisis in the west and to try to make a more sustainable and efficient Wild Horse and Burro Program, Congress requested a 2020 report from the BLM, which outlined a 15–18- year plan to establish a sustainable population, also called the Appropriate Management Level, (AML) on each HMA. Since it has been over two years since this program’s implementation, this thesis analyzes the current progress of the 2020 plan according to its established targets and goals. Utilizing expert interviews, case studies of herds under different management authorities, government and non-profit organization’s reports, scientific research, and literature, this thesis found that the 2020 plan is not and will not be enough to reach. Without an evolution within the capture-and-hold methodology, an expansion of research in both fertility and rangeland science, and widespread growth of partnerships to increase adoption and private off-range holding facilities, the BLM will not be able to reach AML; this is especially unlikely without an improbable, substantial funding increase from Congress. The Wild Horse and Burro Program can reach AML and manage a healthier rangeland; it will just take a brave and bold implementation plan, along with patience and community leadership to do so.