BLM plans to reduce wild horse roundups to help control holding costs

View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The Oregonian/2001The issue of helicopters used to round up wild horses in the West is just one of the controversies surrounding how the BLM manages mustangs. The federal agency has several plans in the works to address the number of wild horses and the costs to take care of them.

BURNS -- More wild mustangs now live in government corrals and holding compounds in the Midwest than roam free in the West's backcountry.

The government's cost to manage wild horses logs in at $75.6 million this year, more than half earmarked to maintain captured mustangs in long- and short-term holding. Next year, it will climb to $79.5 million, a situation the General Accounting Office has ruled unsustainable.   Read MORE...