How to manage the feral
horses and burros of the western United States has been the subject
of heated debate for some time.
A recent scientific
review found that the current practice of removing free-ranging
horses is counter-productive. The review concluded that the current
approach promotes a high population growth rate, and that maintaining
horses in long-term holding facilities is both economically
unsustainable and contrary to public expectations.
Most free-ranging horse
populations are growing at 15 percent to 20 percent a year, meaning
these populations could double in four years and triple in six years.
“With no intervention
by BLM (the U.S. Bureau of Land Management), the horse population
will increase to the point of self-limitation, where both degradation
of the land and high rates of horse mortality will occur due to
inadequate forage and water. In addition, periodic droughts, many of
them severe, in the western public lands cause immediate and often
unpredicted impacts.”
The report noted that
there is little, if any, public support for allowing such harm to
come to either the horse population or the land itself. However, the
current removal strategy used by BLM actually perpetuates the
overpopulation problem by maintaining the number of animals at levels
below the carrying capacity of the land. Although this protects the
rangeland and the horse population in the short term, it results in
continually high population growth and exacerbates the long-term
problem.
To manage horse
populations without periodic removals, the committee concluded that
widespread and consistent application of fertility control would be
required.
Here's a video in which
Committee chair Dr. Guy Palmer of Washington State University shares
key findings about using science to improve the BLM wild horse and
burro program.
The full report is
available online.
No comments:
Post a Comment