Public lands ranching has the most widespread and severe impact on horse and burro habitat and long term sustainability.

Wild horses and burros are among the most iconic symbols of America’s western public lands .. legally protected under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. But today they face multiple pressures from competing land uses, including energy extraction (such as drilling and mining) and livestock grazing on public rangelands.

While drilling and mining do affect localized habitat, current data and reporting show that chronic overuse of public rangelands by livestock grazing “public lands ranching” has the most widespread and severe impact on horse and burro habitat and long-term sustainability.

Energy and mineral extraction .. such as oil & gas drilling, hard-rock mining, and renewables infrastructure can fragment habitat and disturb water sources in specific areas. These activities often impact tens to thousands of acres, depending on lease size and infrastructure footprint.

However, compared to the millions of acres managed for grazing, the scale of drilling/mining disturbance is smaller. Even when extraction occurs within Herd Management Areas (HMAs), mitigation plans and reclamation requirements often concentrate impacts near specific sites, rather than across broad landscapes. While still ecologically significant, especially for sensitive springs and migration corridors, drilling and mining do not typically dominate habitat loss for wild horses and burros at the scale that grazing does.

In contrast, livestock grazing on public lands remains the most pervasive land use, heavily influencing rangeland conditions across much of the West including most HMAs.

A recent investigation found that grazing privileges on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands cover hundreds of millions of acres, representing a significant subsidy to ranching interests and accounting for persistent use of land that could otherwise support wildlife and native vegetation.

Heavy livestock grazing affects wild horse and burro habitat by:

• Competing for forage and water resources essential for horses and burros.

• Altering plant communities, often favoring invasive grasses over native shrubs and perennials.

• Accelerating soil erosion and riparian damage that reduces available forage and habitat quality.

• Expanding chronic range degradation well beyond isolated sites into broad landscapes including many HMAs.

Because grazing occurs across millions of acres far more broadly than any drill site its cumulative impact on habitat health is greater and more sustained over time. **Under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, wild horses and burros are legally recognized and protected as part of the public-land ecosystem, and livestock grazing should not undermine their habitat. The law even allows for the removal of unauthorized livestock from areas occupied by wild horses and burros to prevent undue competition.Wild horses are being scapegoated for rangeland damage they did not create. The real, widespread pressure on public lands comes from livestock grazing, which uses far more forage and water across vastly larger areas than wild herds. Yet management actions continue to focus on removing wild horses, reflecting long-standing ranching interests rather than a full accounting of the science on land use impacts.

Read this report from THIS IS RENO: Feds have delivered on Project 2025 at expense of public lands