Mustang Mythology

Why do people get all misty-eyed over wild horses? I'm no exception. The times I've witnessed them galloping through Utah's canyon country I immediately forgot that they are an exotic, habitat-killing species. Several years back, Ted Williams in Audubon magazine wrote about the "ecological havoc" caused by the estimated 30,000 hoofed beasties that roam the West. Now that's an "inconvenient truth." It's also an issue so politically and emotionally charged that for years the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has effectively been hamstrung in its efforts to reduce the feral horse population (and the damage to native ecosystems) on public lands. Williams nicely captures all these swirling currents in his piece. Everyone with a stake in the debate acknowledges that the current BLM policy--which consists of sheltering captive horses at enormous cost and trying to adopt them out--is not working. To ease the burden, late last year the BLM floated ...