Today’s news release indicates that 44 million acres do not meet BLM’s minimum standards, with livestock being the primary cause, either in whole or in part.
PEER Rocky Mountain Director Chandra Rosenthal noted that an estimated 1.5 million cattle forage BLM lands compared to fewer than 75,000 wild horses.
As reported by Western Horse Watchers on April 22, the agency authorizes livestock equivalent to 1,023,481 wild horses on 145,895,940 public acres in ten western states, or seven wild horses per thousand public acres.
The agency allows 26,785 wild horses and burros on 26,917,766 public acres, according to the 2024 population dataset, or one such animal per thousand public acres.
Which species has the larger footprint and potential for rangeland degradation?
The current wild horse and burro population is equivalent to 66,236 wild horses, or 2.5 wild horses per thousand public acres.
You’d need to increase the wild horse population to 188,424 to have the same resource loading as privately owned livestock.
Western Horse Watchers Association 