KEY FINDINGS OF THE 2013 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES REPORT,

USING SCIENCE TO IMPROVE THE BLM WILD HORSE AND BURRO PROGRAM:
A WAY FORWARD
BLMs Business as Usual Unproductive

Continuation of business as usual practices will be expensive and unproductive

for BLM and the public it serves. p. 14

BLM AMLs Not Transparent, Equitable or Based on Science

The committee could not identify a science-based rationale used by BLM to

allocate forage and habitat resources to various uses within the constraints of
protecting rangeland health and listed species and given the multiple-use
mandate. p. 303

How Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) are established, monitored,

and adjusted is not transparent to stakeholders, supported by scientific
information, or amenable to adaptation with new information and
environmental and social change. Standards for transparency, quality and equity
are needed in establishing these levels, monitoring them and adjusting them. p.
12

AMLs are a focal point of controversy between BLM and the public. It is therefore
necessary to develop and maintain standards for transparency, quality, and
equity in AML establishment, adjustment, and monitoring. p. 12

BLM Roundups Increase Horse Populations

Management practices are facilitating high rates of population

growth.Thus, population growth rate could be increased by removals through
compensatory population growth from decreased competition for forage. As a
result, the number of animals processed through holding facilities is probably
increased by management. p. 5-6

Removals are likely to keep the population at a size that maximizes

population growth rate, which in turn maximizes the number of animals that
must be removed through holding facilities. P. 94

BLM may also need to assess whether the AMLs set for burros can sustain a
genetically healthy total population. p. 303-304

BLM has Tools to Address challenges

Tools [including PZP fertility control] already exist for BLM to address many
challenges. p. 13 (P. 303 confirms that BLM is not using PZP in a manner that
will impact population growth.)

In the short term, more intensive management of free-ranging horses and burros
would be expensive. However, addressing the problem immediately with a
long-term view is probably a more affordable option than continuing to
remove horses to long-term holding facilities. p. 13-14

BLM Under Utilizes Fertility Control

According to BLMs presentation to the committee, the agency treated an

average of 500 mares a year with the porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccine from
2004 to 2010; just over 1,000 were treated in 2011 (Bolstad, 2011).
Contracepting 500-1,000 mares a year with a 2-year vaccine will not
substantially lower the rate of growth of a population of over 30,000 horses.
p. 303 Note: in 2015, BLM vaccinated 469 mares with PZP.

Ovariectomy and Gelding Not Recommended

The possibility that ovariectomy may be followed by prolonged bleeding or

peritoneal infection makes it inadvisable for field application. p. 148149

A potential disadvantage of both surgical and chemical castration is loss of

testosterone and consequent reduction in or complete loss of male-type
behaviors necessary for maintenance of social organization, band integrity,
and expression of a natural behavior repertoire. p. 142