BLM Is Taking Public Comments on the North Complex Wild Horse Gather Plan: Our Horses Need Us to Speak Now

This is why public comments should ask BLM to do more than repeat the same cycle: gather, remove, hold, and return again later. The National Academies’ 2013 review of BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program recognized public concerns that AMLs may be too low to maintain genetically healthy herds and that horses experience stress during gathers and in holding facilities. It also found that, at the time of review, many BLM population-monitoring procedures were not rigorous, were inconsistently documented, and did not quantify uncertainty. The current EA uses a 2024 aerial survey and projects the 2026 population using an assumed growth rate, but the public should ask BLM to clearly disclose uncertainty, confidence intervals, foal assumptions, mortality assumptions, and how those estimates translate into removal targets.