INDUSTRY/EMERGING ISSUES–BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT


for animals would significantly increase over cur- rent levels because of the increased reliance on off-range care (requiring additional off-range holding space, primarily in form of increasing off- range pastures).


Option III


This option focuses on achieving national AML in 6 years (2024) by using an aggressive removal opera- tion in conjunction with the permanent sterilization of 3,000 mares and stallions gathered annually and later returned to the range. Short-term fertility control would continue in those HMAs where it is effective. Animals that are gathered and not re- turned to the range would be moved to off-range pastures, thus requiring the continued need to ac- quire additional low-cost contracted pasture space. Off-range corrals would only be used to prepare an- imals before shipping to off-range pastures. In an effort to increase adoptions, the BLM under this option would provide a monetary incentive to the adopter of $1,000 to help defray costs for care of the animal and/or training.


Option IV


This option would achieve national AML by 2030 by using an aggressive effort to gather, sterilize, and return animals to the range while also developing the same adoption incentives described in Option III. The goal under this option would be to gather and sterilize up to 18,000 animals per year for the first 5 years and 8,000 in year 6. All these animals would be eventually returned to the range. Be- cause most animals would be returned to the range as a nonreproducing population, off-range holding costs would begin to decrease through natural mor- tality and expanded efforts to place animals into private care through adoptions, sales, and transfers. This report also listed other considerations for Congress and tools the BLM could use to meet the intent of the WFRHBA. These include proposing amendments to the WFRHBA such as the following:


● Sale-eligible animals are no longer afforded protection under the WFRHBA.


● Allow for nonreproducing herds, in whole or part, through the use of permanent steriliza- tion methods in areas identified for long-term management.


● Lower the sale-eligibility age of animals from 10 years to 5 years old.


● Eliminate the provision that limits an adopter to acquire title to only four animals per year.


● Reduce the time for an adopter to receive title from 1 year to 6 months.


● Provide the authority to transfer wild horses and burros to nonprofit organizations or other countries for humanitarian purposes or to pro- mote economic development and that such transfers causes animals to lose their status under the WFRHBA.


60 2018  Vol. 64  AAEP PROCEEDINGS


● Enable the BLM to redirect receipts from sales of horses and apply to on range activities (such as gathers) instead of using those funds for the adoption program.


● Provide permanent authority to transfer wild horses and burros that have been removed from the range to other federal (Fig. 3), state, and local government agencies for use as work animals.


The BLM is pursuing efforts to simplify our environ- mental compliance by proposing to categorically ex- clude specific on-range activities such as methods the BLM uses to gather and remove wild horses and burros, short-term fertility control, and permanent sterilization of animals from the National Environ- mental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance process. When the BLM proposes on-range activities, such as gathers, or the application of short- or long-term population growth suppressants, it requires a lengthy environmental review to comply with NEPA. The BLM has been preparing these NEPA documents for many years, all with a determination of no significant impact on the quality of the human environment (individually or cumulatively). By us- ing categorical exclusions, the BLM will be able to streamline our NEPA compliance and thus saving staff time and funding.


Next Steps and Moving Forward


With the Report to Congress having been submitted, the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program is moving forward on several fronts for both the on-range and off-range programs. Again, the goals of the on- range management of wild horses and burros are to maintain healthy herds on healthy ecosystems (“thriving natural ecological balance”) while the off- range goal is to place excess wild horses and burros into private care through adoptions, sales, and transfers while reducing holding costs.


On-Range Actions


This fiscal year (October to September), the BLM Director approved a 2018 gather plan to gather and remove up to 10,500 animals. If successful, this will be the most animals removed in the last 5 years (Table 1). Priorities for these gathers are (1) public safety, (2) animals that have moved off their HMAs and are impacting public and private lands (Fig. 4), (3) to achieve and maintain AML, and (4) emergency gathers to respond to deteriorating body condition of wild horses and burros and lack of key horse and burro habitat conditions (lack of water and/or for- age) due to severe drought. Whether this gather level is sustainable in future years will be deter- mined by the adequacy of future funding, reductions in off-range holding costs, and an increase in the number of animals placed into private care through adoptions, sales, or transfers. The second piece to achieving and maintaining AML on the range is the use and expansion of fer-


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