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BLM Gives Congress New Wild Horse Plan

The BLM estimates that there are more than 75,000 wild horses on public lands across the West.
James Marvin Phelps
/
Flickr Creative Commons
The BLM estimates that there are more than 75,000 wild horses on public lands across the West.
The BLM estimates that there are more than 75,000 wild horses on public lands across the West.
Credit James Marvin Phelps / Flickr Creative Commons
/
Flickr Creative Commons
The BLM estimates that there are more than 75,000 wild horses on public lands across the West.

The Bureau of Land Management has presented Congress with a controversial new plan to manage wild horses.

The BLM says wild horse populations are much too high. The agency is offering Congress four different management options. One of those plans opens the door for euthanizing some horses to keep numbers down. Another option provides financial incentives for horse adoptions, in addition to birth control for animals on public lands.

  Click 'play' to hear the audio version of this story.

"Fundamentally all four options are highly objectionable because they involve the removal of at least 50,000 wild horses from our public lands," said Suzanne Roy with the American Wild Horse Campaign.Roy pointed to an  independent study by the National Academy of Sciences that shows the BLM has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate horse populations. 

In a statement the BLM says overpopulated herds damage the landscape and are extremely costly to manage. 

 

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter @amandapeacher.

Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.