The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it has made selections for three positions on the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. The BLM has selected Robert Bray, Ph.D., as a new appointee for the category of Wild Horse and Burro Research, James Stephenson as a new appointee for the category of Natural Resource Management, and Julie Gleason as a new appointee for the category of Public Interest (with knowledge of equine behavior). These individuals will each serve three-year terms as members of the Advisory Board.
The nine-member National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board advises the BLM and the USDA Forest Service on the management, protection, and control of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands and national forests administered by those agencies, as mandated by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Members of the board, who represent various categories of interests, must have a demonstrated ability to analyze information, evaluate programs, identify problems, work collaboratively, and develop corrective actions.
Wild horse advocates are disappointed that the three new appointees appear to have the mindset of maintaining the status quo of the BLM and fear that they are friendly to business interests including mining, fracking, grazing animals and other interests that do not include bettering the lives of wild horses and burros or protecting national parks and public land.,