Several commenters at this week’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting claimed that the rationale for setting AMLs wasn’t clear. These figures are specified in Resource Management Plans, which are usually cited in NEPA projects for wild horse and burro roundups.
If you look at the numbers, the rationale is obvious: Areas designated for wild horses and burros shall be managed primarily for cattle and sheep.
The typical AML works out to about one wild horse or burro per thousand acres, with seventy to ninety percent of the forage allocated to privately owned livestock.
One person—only one—mentioned this on Day 1.
Western Horse Watchers doesn’t see the value in creating Herd Management Area Plans, also mentioned by several commenters, when the RMPs are biased in favor of public-lands ranchers. The government must first be compelled to manage these areas primarily for wild horses and burros and change the RMPs accordingly.
As for contraceptives, the subject of many comments on the first day of the meeting, the PZP zealots won’t look at the data because they’d have to admit they’re wrong. Better to push the overpopulation narrative, it’s good for business.
Once you compute the true AMLs you realize most areas aren’t overpopulated and there’s no justification for fertility control. These people are as much of a threat to America’s wild horses and burros as the public-lands ranchers.
Western Horse Watchers Association 