BLM Program Support

ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, AND CLIMATE CHANGE


Ecology, Environment, and Climate Change

Self-sustaining WHB herds rely on natural resources in their environments. Herds Much larger than AML can damage the health, biodiversity, and productivity of public lands (e.g., Crist et al. 2019), and likely reduce landscape resilience to the effects of climate change. The BLM must ensure that ecosystems on the public lands system meet rangeland health standards, including where WHB roam. In doing so, the BLM provides adequate resources and thriving natural rangelands where WHB live.

WHB Effects on the Environment:

This is a link to a literature review includes a summary of WHB effects on the environment, including some discussion about recent studies that suggest beneficial effects (of seed spreading, burro digging, etc.). The text of this review changes over time, to reflect new scientific literature, so check back for new versions every time you prepare new NEPA. If you are aware of other studies that should be included please contact Paul Griffin, so we can add them in for the benefit of the whole WHB program. 

If you use the above literature review in NEPA you should also download the full compiled set of pdfs with the full articles and references that are cited in it. This includes 2 files to download: 

Compiled set of cited WHB-and-the-environment literature, Part 1 (first author names: Anderson to Murchie, ~137 megabytes) 

Compiled set of cited WHB-and-the-environment literature, Part 2 (first author names: Nordquist to Ziegenfuss, ~92 megabytes)

These compiled pdf also change over time. Many of the papers in this compiled set are covered by copyright, and cannot be distributed to the public, because the BLM license for use does not include public distribution. So -- make these papers available for the public to read in your field office reading room during NEPA comment periods, but do not send out the electronic version of these compiled papers. 

 

Natural Resources Council of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS). 2013. Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward.

See Chapter 3: “Population Processes,” which debunks the idea that WHB regulate their population sizes at levels that limit ecological impacts.

And see Chapter 7, “Establishing and adjusting appropriate management levels” for discussions on that topic.

Crist, M., et al. 2019. Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome: Linking the Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3336 to Long-Term Strategic Conservation Actions. Part 2. Management applications. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-389. Fort Collins, CO: U.S Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Beever, E.A. and C.L. Aldridge. 2011. Influences of free-roaming equids on sagebrush ecosystems, with focus on greater sage-grouse. Studies in Avian Biology 38:273-290.

Coates, P.S., S.T. O’Neil, D. Muñoz, and I. Dwight. 2021. Free-Roaming Horses Adversely Impact Greater Sage-Grouse Population Dynamics in Sagebrush Ecosystems. Journal of Wildlife Management 85:1132-1149.

Ransom, J.I., L Lagos, H. Hrabar, H. Mowrazi, D. Ushkhjargal, and N. Spasskaya. 2016. Wild and feral equid population dynamics. Pages 68-86 in J. I. Ransom and P Kaczensky, eds., Wild equids; ecology, management and conservation. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.

Lundgren, E.J., D. Ramp, J.C. Stromberg, J. Wu, N.C. Nieto, M. Sluk, K.T. Moeller, and A.D. Wallach. 2021. Equids engineer desert water availability. Science 372:491-495.

Rubin, E.S., D. Conrad, L.E. Harding, and B.M. Russo. 2024. Associations between a feral equid and the Sonoran desert ecosystem. Wildlife Monographs 2024:215;e1083.

The BLM’s Assessment and Inventory (AIM) program ############