February 2011

U.S. Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

Caring for America’s Wild Horses and Burros

Fundamental Reforms—An Overview

BLM
2

Table of Contents

The Secretary’s Initiative ..................................................................................................................... 3 

Strategy Development.............................................................................................3 

The BLM’s Proposed Strategy...................................................................................3 

Background and Current Situation .................................................................................................... 5 

The Budget Challenge .......................................................................................................................... 6 

Projected Program Costs..........................................................................................7 

 Proposed Strategy for Future Management of America’s Wild horses and Burros..................8 

 

 Our Commitment...................................................................................................8 
3

The Secretary’s Initiative

In October 2009, the Secretary of the Interior announced a national initiative to create a cost-efficient 

and sustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program. Over time, implementation of the Secretary’s initiative 

would reduce the number of unadopted wild horses and burros in short-term corrals or long-term 

pastures; reduce the costs to the American taxpayer for their care; and conserve, protect, and manage 

these iconic animals in the West for future generations to enjoy. 

 

The BLM has successfully adopted out more than 

225,000 excess wild horses and burros since 1971.  

Because the demand for burros exceeds the supply, the 

BLM is holding very few burros.  But sustainable 

solutions are still needed for about 41,000 wild horses. 

A New Start

The Secretary’s Initiative provided a starting point for a conversation with the public about the 

management of America’s wild horses and burros. The BLM understands that many Americans are 

passionate about wild horses and burros and have many different, often conflicting, perspectives about 

how they should be managed. In an effort to bridge these differences, the BLM worked with the U.S. 

Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution to engage employees, stakeholders, and potential 

partners in the development of a proposed strategy. 

On June 3, 2010, the BLM released a Wild Horse and Burro Program Strategy Development Document 

for review and comment. The document outlined draft goals, objectives, and possible management 

actions for the wild horse and burro program. In response, the BLM received approximately 9,000 

comment letters and e-mails. 

 

We Listened – And Are Changing

As a result of these public comments, the BLM is proposing fundamental changes for managing wild 

horses and burros to improve on-the-range-management of the animals, strengthen measures to ensure 

the humane treatment and care of wild horses and burros, and provide increased opportunities for publicprivate partnerships in support of the program. Specifically, the BLM proposes to: 

Reduce the number of animals gathered 

• Reduce the annual number of wild horses gathered for at least the next 2 years by 24 percent, 

from 10,000 to 7,600, a level that would essentially maintain the existing number of wild horses 

and burros on the range. During this time, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will review 

the BLM’s current policies and make recommendations on ways to better manage wild horse and 

burro population dynamics and their interrelationship with the BLM’s multiple-use mandate. 

The review would be completed in early 2013. While the BLM is concerned that forage 
4

limitations may require the removal of more than 7,600 animals in case of drought or other 

emergencies, it has decided to adopt this more conservative gather approach pending the findings 

of the NAS. 

Strengthen the handling and care of animals 

• Conduct thorough reviews and add appropriate controls to the agency’s contracts and policies to 

strengthen the humane treatment of animals. This will apply to both gathering contracts and 

short-and long-term holding facility contracts. 

Increase fertility control 

• Significantly increase the number of mares treated with fertility control – from 500 in 2009 to a 

target of 2,000 in each of the next two years during the NAS study, pending sufficient budget 

allocations. Ultimately, as technology and methods improve, the BLM intends to make fertility 

control the principal means by which the agency maintains population levels within the capacity 

of the forage and water resources of the range. The BLM intends to work closely with the 

Humane Society of the United States to implement and monitor this expanded effort. 

Issue procedures that would allow for the long-term care of animals through partnerships 

• Release within the next 30 days specific procedures by which members of the public can apply to 

enter into partnerships with the government to care long-term for wild horses that are removed 

from the public rangeland.

Increase adoptions 

• Increase the number of wild horses adopted by members of the public by 33 percent, from 3,000 

to 4,000 annually. 

Promote volunteerism in support of the program 

• Promote the BLM’s engagement of the public by enhancing public outreach, recruiting local 

volunteers to assist in monitoring the health of the rangelands where animals roam, and 

encourage partnerships to increase herd-related ecotourism. 

Improve transparency and openness 

• Reaffirm throughout the agency the BLM’s fundamental commitment to transparency in all 

facets of the wild horse and burro program. This includes providing increased public viewing 

opportunities during gathers and at short-term corrals and long–term care facilities to the highest 

extent possible without compromising the safety of staff, members of the public, or the animals. 

The BLM is also committed to the accurate, prompt, and public release of information related to 

the program. 

Background and Current Situation
5

                                                           

With the passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the BLM was given 

responsibility for managing America’s wild horses and burros, much-loved symbols of the Western 

spirit. As a result of this increased protection, the populations of free-roaming horses and burros in 

some areas began to exceed the land’s capacity to sustain them. In some places, water and year-round 

vegetation was too scarce or the public land was too scattered, setting the stage for conflicts among 

private landowners and other users of the public lands. In 1976 and again in 1978, amidst fears of 

overgrazing and damage to rangelands by increasing numbers of wild horses and burros, Congress 

amended the Act to authorize the BLM to use helicopters to gather excess animals to prevent damage to 

the range. 

Today, the BLM estimates approximately 35,5001

 wild horses and burros roam on nearly 33.7 million 

acres (26.9 million acres of public land administered by the BLM and 6.8 million acres of non-BLM 

managed land) in 179 Herd Management Areas (HMAs) across 10 Western states. The BLM conducts 

gathers to remove excess animals when population size exceeds the Appropriate Management Level 

(AML). The AML is the number of wild horses and burros that can be sustained in a thriving natural 

ecological balance with other multiple-uses on the public lands. The AML is determined through a 

land use planning process that includes public involvement and considers the land’s ability to sustain 

adequate year-round forage and water for animals and healthy rangelands over the long-term. 

Wild horses and burros have no natural predators. As a result, herd sizes can double every four years, 

potentially devastating to both animals and the land. Thus, the Act requires BLM to remove enough 

wild horses and burros from the range each year to prevent deterioration of the range and animals. The 

BLM implements various population suppression methods, including administering contraception, to 

slow herd growth rates. As a result, fewer animals need to be removed reducing costs associated with 

caring for unadopted animals. When animals are removed from public lands, they are made available 

for adoption or sale with provisions to ensure their humane care. However, changing demographics, 

economic conditions, and other factors have reduced the number of animals adopted by the public in 

recent years. 

Because the adoption rate has not kept pace with the number of animals gathered from the range each 

year, about 41,000 unadopted horses are currently in short-term or long-term holding pastures. This 

has dramatically increased costs. The care of unadopted animals accounted for nearly $40 million in 

fiscal year 2010 Wild Horse and Burro management appropriations – almost 60 percent of the total 

wild horse and burro budget. 

In addition, over the last 2 years, some members of the public have expressed increasing opposition to 

the BLM’s use of helicopters to gather horses and burros and the practice of holding unadopted animals 

in long-term pastures. Some advocacy groups contend that the BLM’s treatment of these animals is 

inhumane and want more wild horses and burros left to roam on a greater percentage of the BLMmanaged lands in the West. Many individuals recognize that the current management approach is not 

sustainable and have expressed concern that the BLM will use its authority under provisions in the Act 

1

 The BLM estimates wild horse and burro population sizes at a given point in time. The current estimate of current 

population size reflects projected population growth since February 2010, as well as the animals removed during summer 

2010, and the number proposed for removal during winter 2010. However, this number does not reflect the results of aerial 

population inventories conducted during this timeframe. The BLM will update the 2011 estimate of wild horse and burro 

population size in about May or June 2011. 
6

that require the BLM to euthanize or sell, “without limitation,” certain categories of unadopted animals. 

This option is not under consideration. The BLM placed a voluntary moratorium on the destruction of 

healthy animals in 1982, and Congress prohibited the implementation of these provisions through the 

Interior appropriations bills between 1988 and 2004 and again in 2010. 

Other members of the public urge the BLM to continue or expand its current management actions, 

asserting that the Act and the BLM’s multiple-use mandate and decisions in current land use plans 

require the agency to remove wild horses and burros when their numbers exceed the established AML. 

These members of the public encourage the BLM to continue gathers and apply a variety of 

management tools, including application of fertility control, to keep wild horse and burro populations in 

balance with the land’s productive capacity and other resources and uses. 

In FY 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the budget increases necessary to 

pay for caring for so many unadopted horses were not sustainable and recommended that the BLM find 

effective long-term options (GAO-09-77). The FY 2010 Department of the Interior, Environment, and 

Related Agencies Appropriations Act (P.L. 111-88) directed the BLM to prepare a comprehensive, longterm plan and policy for wild horse and burro management. 

In December 2010, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the BLM’s gathers to remove 

excess wild horses and burros were necessary and humane. The OIG made three recommendations: 1. 

To move forward with the Secretary’s initiative; 2. Develop improvements that focus on science and 

research to slow population growth rates; and 3. Minimize and reduce the need for short- and long-term 

holding. The OIG encouraged the BLM to implement best science practices and to pursue new research 

for wild horse and burro management, as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. 

 

The Budget Challenge

During FY 2009, the BLM spent more than $50 million for the Wild Horse and Burro Program ―

nearly $10 million more than Congress appropriated. The remaining funds had to be shifted from other 

BLM programs, such as wildlife, recreation, and range management. Fifty-four percent of these funds 

(about $29 million or 70 percent of those appropriated by Congress) were dedicated to humanely caring 

for unadopted wild horses in short-term corrals and long-term pastures. Costs to care for excess, 

unadopted wild horses in short- and long-term holding increased by another $8 million in FY 2010, as 

the total cost for the Wild Horse and Burro Program grew to nearly $65 million. In FY 2011, the 

The BLM envisions healthy wild horses and burros 

on healthy rangelands in the West forever ⎯ but to 

achieve this goal, cost‐effective, sustainable 

solutions are needed.  
7

President’s Budget requests appropriations of nearly $76 million for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro 

Program. Of this, about $48 million (61 percent) is proposed for the humane care of unadopted and 

unsold excess animals in short- and long-term holding (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: Projected BLM (FY 2011) Wild Horse and Burro Budget2 

Projected Program Costs

                                                           

The BLM’s Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Program Strategy 

The Proposed Strategy assumes appropriations of about $76 million over the next four years (equivalent 

to the President’s FY 2011 funding request). The Proposed Strategy calls for a temporary reduction in 

planned removals of excess wild horses and burros from Western public rangelands that allows the BLM 

to shift Wild Horse and Burro Program funding to immediate priorities such as increasing fertility 

control, boosting adoptions, and funding the study by the National Academy of Sciences. The 

accomplishment of the goals outlined in this strategy is dependent on the level of funding received 

during FY 2011 through FY 2014. 

2

 The BLM is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) which limits spending to the FY 2010 enacted level 

of $63.986 million. Under these funding restrictions, actual program accomplishments are expected to substantially differ 

from those outlined in the FY 2011 President’s Budget request. 
8

Proposed Strategy for Future Management of

America’s Wild horses and Burros

A thorough analysis of the public’s comments and a detailed proposed implementation strategy will be 

posted online at www.blm.gov February 28, 2011. It will also be reviewed and discussed at the National 

Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Committee March 10 -11, 2011, in Phoenix, Arizona. The public is 

invited to review and provide comments to the BLM on this strategy through March 30, 2011. These 

comments should be submitted by email to wildhorse@blm.gov with “Comments on Strategy,” in the 

subject line. 

Our Commitment

The BLM remains committed to working toward a common goal with all stakeholders to ensure that 

healthy, viable herds of wild horses and burros remain on the public lands for generations to come and 

that it does so in a manner that protects the ecological integrity of the Western rangelands.