The BLM Population Statistics Report for 2025 was published this month. Many people believe this is a data-driven report that is used in management decision making. In fact, this report is NOT a driver of management decision making. This report is used annually as a driver for funding requests from the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program and is used by the Secretary of Interior and BLM Chief to finalize the budget request for the following fiscal year. The sole purpose of this document is to present to Congress to gain funding.. and then present to media as some type of justification for the spending and perpetuation of the status quo “roundup machine.”

Each year the Population Statistics Report is generated just before we (finally) see the Presidential Budget Request and the formal request for funding from the agency. For those of you tracking the budget bill debate, this is always a sign that what you are waiting for (the detailed requests) will be made public soon.

The publication of the Population Stats Report is always accompanied by an affirmed Gather Schedule. The affirmed schedule is for the fiscal year 2025 that began in October 2024. This schedule is funded by the 2025 budget that has been passed primarily in Continuing Resolutions that maintain language and funding “status quo.” The first full budget from the new administration will be fiscal 2026, that will begin October 2025. (More on the 2026 budget debate can be found in the second half of this article HERE along with an action item.) The BLM affirmed schedule maintains intentions to begin zeroing out HMAs in the Rock Springs are in Wyoming and hitting Kiger/Riddle in Oregon. However, please be aware that more will be added to the summer/fall target list as the season moves forward.

Important points to note about the FY 2025 Statistics Report:

• Some of the population survey data used to compile BLM FY2025 estimates includes HMAs where the last actual population count was done over a decade ago.
• Several of these areas have experienced removal operations since the last population count.
• Estimates are made using computer modeling that contains serious flaws, is easily influenced by the quality of the data input and uses modeling created for horses on burros (that do not even have the same gestation or breeding cycles of horses).

We did a long form report on the 2022 Population Statistics Report. All but a few minor numeric changes are identical to any review of the 2025 report. We left off  cover page from the 2022 report and it can be utilized right now to help inform yourself, lawmakers, media to issues in the program (download HERE).

The entire basis for the BLM program rests on 3 broken pillars: Appropriate Management Level (AML), forage allocation and acreage “set aside” for use for wild horses and burros. We discuss these 3 broken pillars at length in an article published to address the last day of comments for a management plan at Stone Cabin/Saulsbury (HERE).  Note: WHE is in court, right now, addressing the roundup plan BLM approved in 2023 that fails to comply with an existing Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP). Only after we began to challenge this removal plan in court did BLM open Scoping to amend the HMAP they failed to comply with. We are filing briefs in this case this week and will update you soon. As with most things “BLM,” it often feels like you are caught in a bad episode of Abbot and Costello like “Whose on First?” when you read BLM court briefings.

Breakdown of AML for the HMAs nationwide. Only 3 HMAs in the U.S. have an AML over 500, even though acreage set aside in the HMAs can near a million acres. Only 31 have an AML over 150. These same ranges support thousands of cattle and massive extractive industries. (Click image for report)

When discussing wild horses and burros on public lands, sometimes it is hard to remember that we are only talking about about 12% of all of public lands. The controversy swirling around protecting them would have you believe that every corner of public lands is swarming with them. In fact, on the 12% of public lands wild horses and burros occupy, on average you will find that only about 16% of forage in those areas is actually allocated for the wild ones. If you look at what BLM calls Appropriate Management Level (AML), you will see that to reach an actual consumption of that allocated forage populations would need to exceed “AML” by 4 or 5 times (or 400%).

So if AML was not created using an equation that bases numbers on forage allocation, analysis of the actual full acreage of habitat available for their use, or other data-driven method, what was it based on? Agreements. 

When you read “over AML” what you are reading is that wild horses and/or burros are over the “Agreed to Management Level” with livestock permittees. After the Act passed, BLM had no data. BLM entered into public lands grazing allotment-by-allotment agreements with permittees to either keep horses/burros at the existing number (Congress found fast-disappearing when they passed the 1971 law) or how many would the permittee tolerate now that BLM was mandated to keep them on the range. We see this over and over in roundup plans where some agreement is “affirmed” in a Land Use Plan (LUP) and then magically transformed into “what the land can sustain” and carried forward over and over without any data backed landscape level dissection.

BLM will bend over backwards to hide how AML is/was actually set. (More HERE)

Basically, BLM uses the report to gain funding to achieve the numbers Congress found “fast disappearing” when the 1971 Act passed. They are not trying to reach a number that represents some scientifically defined number that represents a recovery of a managed species, they are simply trying to achieve a number that is basically an “apology” to livestock that the law passed in the first place (or some other political objective to placate one of the most contentious issues on the landscape: the livestock industry.

In fact, this “AML” game goes even further, the game cuts the number of wild horses and burros to 10,000 animals BELOW the number “fast disappearing” in 1971. BLM has changed the game to a “high to low” AML. Now they claim “high AML” is the maximum number that “can be sustained and set a “low number” that drops populations further.

The Population Statistics Report is the kick-off point for BLM funding requests for the next fiscal year.

You should also begin your requests to Congress for the next Appropriations (funding bill). 

After 6 years of increased funding, Gaining a new science-based review should be something no lawmaker should disagree with. Freezing funding for removals until that review is complete might be a lot to ask for, but really the only truly responsible thing to do.

We have included a review in this fast letter you can send to your lawmakers with the click of a button HERE.

You should get a reply letter from your lawmakers. When you do, you can call the number on the letter and ask for an appointment or continue to converse with reply email. It is important to create relationship with your lawmakers. In 2 years there will be a mid-term election where many House reps and Senators could lose their seats. Knowing the position of your legislators on things you care about can come in handy the next time you cast a vote. 

Our team is in the field and working hard on litigation. We will have an update from field and courtroom coming soon.

All of our work is only possible with your support. We thank you for keeping the critical work we do at WHE running for our wild ones.