The request comes in the wake of criticism from animal rights groups who also have filed federal injunctions to try to stop horse and burro roundups in California and Nevada, as Lake County News has reported.
Earlier this month, the Animal Welfare Institute also called on Congress to take swift and decisive action “to prevent the BLM from 'managing' our nation's wild horses into extinction.”
That call followed a bipartisan letter, signed by 52 members of Congress in late July to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, calling for a National Academy of Sciences study.
The letter cited concerns about animal deaths and pointed out that the BLM was repeating mistakes from previous roundups in which deaths occurred. It also drew attention to the expense of the roundups.
“We are concerned by the inability of your agency to acknowledge these disturbing outcomes, change what seems to be deeply flawed policy, and better manage the gathers so as to prevent the unnecessary suffering and death of these federally protected animals,” the letter stated.
The NAS/NRC has previously reviewed the BLM’s management of the Wild Horse & Burro Program and produced three separate reports, which the BLM reported are now 20 to 30 years old.
In those reports, the NAS/NRC summarized what was known about wild horses and burros and made recommendations to the BLM for the Wild Horse & Burro Program management, population estimation and further research.
In the proposed effort, the BLM said many of the topics discussed in the earlier reports would be included, such as population estimation methods, annual herd growth rates, population control measures, and whether populations will self-limit, as well as other subjects needing new research.
The BLM said it must continue to base its decisions on the best available science and involve the public in its decision-making process in order to “sort through the many diverse and often conflicting opinions about how wild horses and burros should be managed.”
Commissioning the NAS/NRC to review their three earlier reports and the current available information and research about wild horses and burros is a first step, the BLM said. The second step is to ask the NAS/NRC to make recommendations about future Wild Horse & Burro Program management and needed research. A third step is to take the NAS/NRC findings and recommendations and make them available to the public in a variety of ways, perhaps to focus groups or science forums.
Both the BLM and NAS/NRC will negotiate the terms and outline for the research study, the BLM reported.
The proposed study would tentatively begin about Jan. 1, 2011, and would cost the BLM about $1.5 million and take about two years to complete.
Congress created the NAS/NRC to be a non-federal, not-for-profit source of scientific advice. The NAS/NRC enlists the nation’s foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society’s most pressing problems. Each year, thousands of these experts are selected to serve, without pay, on hundreds of study committees.
The letter from the members of Congress to Salazar stated, “We strongly urge you to refrain from any further action until a clear plan is in place to sustainably manage and protect our wild herds. Only then can we move forward with a more informed, open and deliberate process, based on input from all who are concerned with the health, well being, and conservation of this animal which embodies the spirit of our American West.”
Currently, a roundup in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area near Susanville, Calif., is under way, one of the largest the BLM will conduct this year, and the largest in California alone, as Lake County News has reported.
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