The following remarks were delivered at the October 2019 WHBAB meeting by a representative of the Society for Range Management, an organization that believes rangelands should be used for livestock grazing and not much else.
Although the group accepts wild horses and burros on those lands, they insist that their numbers be limited to those that existed when the WHB Act became law (0:23 to 0:36).
This is where they’re going with the ‘Path Forward.’
We know from President Nixon’s remarks that only 9,500 wild horses and 11,000 wild burros remained on western rangelands in 1971. That’s equivalent to 15,000 wild horses today on 27 million acres, for a stocking rate of 0.6 horses per thousand acres.
A number that low means only one thing: Large amounts of forage diverted to privately owned livestock.
No new laws are required. Just enforce the plans that are already on the books.
RELATED: ‘Path Forward’ Extinction Target.
