A wild horse grazes near Glacier National Park in Montana. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal land managers are required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 to protect wild equines. The BLM instead routinely rounds up and displaces wild horses from traditional rangelands in order to appease private ranching interests. Last year, in response to questions raised by AWI and others over BLM’s management priorities, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) initiated an independent evaluation of the science, methodology, and technical decision-making approaches of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. On January 27, at a meeting held in Spokane, Washington, AWI wildlife biologist D.J. Schubert provided testimony to the NAS committee tasked with reviewing the program.
Photo by Todd Klassy