Salazar wants to move West's wild horses east

Thousands of mustangs that now roam the West would be moved to preserves in the Midwest and East under a new Interior Department plan to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them. The wild horse program, run by the Bureau of Land Management, cost about $50 million this year, officials said, up from $36 million last year. Costs for the current program are expected to rise to at least $85 million by 2012. In a conference call with reporters, Salazar and bureau director Bob Abbey urged Congress to authorize seven wild horse preserves — including two owned and operated by the BLM. The agency would work with private groups on the remaining reserves, which would be located in states in the Midwest and East. Salazar did not identify where the preserves would be located, but said the two federally owned preserves would cost about $92 million to buy and build. The preserves would reduce taxpayer costs for care of wild horses in the long term, Salazar said. The seven preserves would hold about 25,000 horses. Many of the horses remaining on the range would be neutered and reproduction in Western herds would be strictly limited, Salazar said...read more