The Bureau of Land Management estimates that there are 85,466 wild horses and burros roaming the public lands that it oversees. That’s up 15.6% from a year ago.
It brings the agency’s annual population estimate back to within 723 animals of where it stood five years ago, despite removing more than 63,000 wild horses and burros from the range since then.
The new figures underscore the futility of business as usual.
The BLM has for decades tried and failed to reach its own population target of 25,592 wild horses and burros. The agency does so under a legal mandate to manage public lands for multiple uses, including the grazing of privately owned livestock that far outnumber horses and burros.
The ceaseless cycle of removing wild horses and burros from the range continues because the BLM has chosen not to address reproduction.
The agency has only treated and released about 5,500 wild mares with fertility control since 2021, despite Congress providing more funding and calling for its use.
We have long advocated for the use of fertility control as a proven, safe and humane tool that can replace capture removals as the BLM’s primary management method. Divergent public lands stakeholders now support fertility control use, too.
The result of the BLM putting off its use?
Nearly 63,000 captured wild horses and burros are warehoused in off-range holding facilities. That costs taxpayers more than $101 million annually.
Meanwhile, removals continue: The BLM plans to remove about 14,378 wild horses and burros from the range this year while treating just 1,064 with fertility control.
The U.S. Forest Service oversees about 8,000 wild horses and burros. Sadly, it too has focused its funding on removals over fertility control.