BLM reveals its plan for managing wild horses

In October we reported that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar planned to announce a broad plan to relocate and sterilize Western wild horses. Last week his Bureau of Land Management unveiled the formal proposal for the program, opening the proposal for a 60-day public comment period, Phil Taylor of Environment & Energy Daily reports. BLM "manages 38,000 free-roaming horses across 10 Western states and another 35,000 horses in short-term corrals and long-term pastures, warned that herd numbers could grow to nearly 325,000 by 2021 without enhanced use of fertility control," Taylor writes.

"We need a fresh look at the Wild Horse and Burro Program," BLM Director Bob Abbey said in a statement. "As part of this effort, we want all those with an interest in wild horses and burros and their public lands to consider our initial ideas and offer their own." Among the proposals are "a regime that contemplates the increased use of an infertility drug, the adjustment of male-to-female ratios in herds and introducing or retaining biologically sterile male mules to reduce the number of mares foaling on the range," Taylor writes.

"The BLM proposal also includes a controversial plan to establish both federal and private preserves in the grasslands and plains of the Midwest, where operating costs are considerably less than in the arid West, according to the agency," Taylor writes. Deniz Bolbol of the California-based group In Defense of Animals, objected to the plan, saying, "This appears to be a continuation of the ill-conceived Salazar proposal from last October. It makes no fiscal sense whatsoever to remove wild horses from the public lands where they originate." (Read more, subscription required)