Dear Congressman Rahall:  The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) respectfully disagrees with the content and provisions found in your recently introduced bill H.R. 1018.  PLF is a national non-profit, all volunteer membership, conservation organization dedicated to the ecological stability of the public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Our mission is to advocate and work for the retention of America's Public Lands in public hands, professionally and sustainably managed for responsible common use and enjoyment.  The intent of your bill is to amend the Wild Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.  We object to the amendment, especially at a time when BLM faces a major crisis for the funding and continued management of the program. This crisis is best described in GAO’s October 9, 2008 report to you entitled, “Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses.”  As you are undoubtedly aware, GAO states that the long-term sustainability of BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program depends on the resolution of two significant challenges:

1.   If not controlled, off-the-range holding costs will continue to overwhelm the program.  The percentage of the program’s direct costs for holding animals off the range increased from $7 million in 2000 (46%) to $21 million in 2007 (67%).  In 2008, these costs could account for 74 percent of the program’s budget.

2.   BLM has limited options for dealing with unadoptable animals.  The Act provides that unadopted excess animals shall be humanely destroyed or, under certain circumstances, sold without limitation.  However, BLM only manages these animals through sales with limitations.  BLM is concerned about the public’s reaction to the destruction of healthy animals.

Coupled with the above concerns, some of the provisions in H.R. 1018 would virtually bring the entire program to a halt.  Examples are:  Section 4–Inventory and Determinations, which amends:  Sec. 3 (c)(7) “Identify new, appropriate rangelands for wild free-roaming horses and burros....” PLF would argue that 199 Herd Management Areas encompassing 34,340,678 acres in 10 western states are more than sufficient.  Management emphasis should be focused on the Herd Management Areas BLM now administers, and not on finding or acquiring additional rangelands for horses and burros.  Sec. 3 (d) Only allowing the adoption of excess horses and burros, “...so long as the Secretary has determined an adoption demand exists....” disregards the health of the rangelands BLM is mandated to manage and the significant reproductive capacity of wild horses and burros.  In these times of economic hardship, private horse owners are releasing unwanted horses to open rangelands and adoption rates are low.  The wild horse and burro population should not be allowed to continue to multiply just because adoption demand is low or non-existent.  Sec. 3 (d) (3) “[M]ethods for removing wild horses and burros shall not include the use of helicopters or any other airborne devices.”  This provision alone will virtually shut down the most humane and efficient method of capturing wild horses and burros. Before the 1971 Act, and prior to the use of helicopters, it was proven that wranglers on horseback were no match for effectively gathering wild horses or burros.  Wranglers and their horses were put at risk in early roundups that ruined many good horses and threatened the safety of the riders. This provision puts BLM employees at greater risk, reduces efficiencies, and prolongs stress on horses and burros being captured.  Sec. 3 (d) (4) “[W]ild horses and burros shall not be contained in corrals or other holding facilities for more than 6 months, while waiting disposition.”  This is unrealistic and needs clarification.   What is to be done with them after 6 months?  Sec. 3 (g) (1) “The Secretary may not destroy or authorize the destruction of wild free-roaming horses or burros unless the Secretary---(1) determines that the wild free-roaming horse or burro is terminally ill….” This eliminates one of very few options given to BLM by Congress to reduce the number of animals in holding facilities.  It means that tens of thousands of excess, unadoptable horses must be maintained at great expense by BLM until they die of natural causes, which could be 20 years or more.  The intent of this letter is not to go through H.R. 1018 line by line citing examples, but to let you know that PLF considers the Wild Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as amended, adequate to manage the existing population of animals to their Appropriate Management Levels (AML’s) and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance.  Instead of new legislation, PLF strongly recommends focusing on solutions to the immediate problem of 30,000 wild horses now being held in short- and long-term holding facilities.  The cost of maintaining these animals is spiraling out of control and accounts for three-fourths of BLM’s $37 million budget for the program.  As the GAO report correctly states, BLM finds itself in a difficult position and has limited options for dealing with unadopted and unsold animals within its finite budget.  One option is to humanely put down animals for which no adoption demand exists as directed by the 1978 amendments to the 1971 Act.  Another option is to sell “without limitation” horses more than 10 years old and those younger that have been passed over for adoption at least three times as directed by a December 2004 amendment to the 1971 Act.  There is no doubt, that instead of new legislation (GAO is right and BLM agrees) that the Bureau should initiate discussions with Congress to address BLM’s non-compliance with these directives in the 1971 Act and seek a solution to this crisis. 

Sincerely, s/ George Lea

Cc:       Congressman Grijalva