A Record Population 'Boom' Of Wild Horses Raises Hackles Among Ranchers, Advocates

The Bureau of Land Management is planning to remove more than half of the wild horses living near the Onaqui mountains this summer. The upcoming roundup is part of a broader effort to get a handle on the explosive growth of the animals across the American West in recent years. “I’ll be devastated,” Hammer said, watching the mustangs. “It’ll be so difficult to find the horses and it will just eliminate this area as an ecotourism destination.” For advocates like Hammer, wild horses are a living symbol of the American West. The Onaqui herd, for example, descended from animals that escaped the wagon trains and cavalry regiments that plodded across the western desert more than 150 years ago. But as wild horse populations hit record numbers in the Mountain West, another American icon — the rancher — is left grappling with the population boom. “They do not have any natural predators,” said Mark Wintch, president of the Utah Cattlemen’s Association. “They have no other way to be regulated except by us. To continue to let numbers climb and destroy the natural resource that is there is absolutely foolish.” Wintch contends that the exponential growth of wild horses is a threat to ranchers’ livelihoods. Cattle and sheep often share public lands with the animals, competing for critical food sources like grass. “Ranchers have paid for that grass,” Wintch said. “We use it. We have a right to it.”...MORE