Advocates for the 1,400 wild horses on federal public lands in Colorado are hopeful a bill approved by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee will provide an alternative to the roundups that have taken place over the last several years.

Senate Bill 275, which would establish the Colorado Wild Horse Project, won a 5-1 vote from the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Thursday. But its ongoing cost may bump up against what’s available for legislation still in the works in the 2023 session.

The bill would create several programs under the control of the Department of Agriculture, including efforts focusing on management, stewardship, and fertility control.

An additional working group convened under the bill is intended to come up with long-term off-range and on-range solutions, although under a short timeline sunsetting in July 2025. 

The stewardship program would be set up to support the management of wild horse herds and rangeland, including in federal “Herd Management Areas” known as HMAs, that are overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. There are four in Colorado, including three in the northwestern part of the state.

That’s where wild horse roundups have been conducted, and where wild horse advocates have complained the federal agency has used contractors who the advocates say panic the horses with helicopters.

The fertility program would manage the herds through “humane, nonlethal and safe fertility control methods,” and would ban the use of lethal population management or surgical sterilization.

Instead, the most popular birth control is the use of a contraceptive known as PZP, or Porcine Zona Pellucida. According to the American Wild Horse Campaign, PZP is a fertility vaccine, administered by a dart injection. It has been used successfully to manage the Spring Creek herd in southwestern Colorado near Dove Creek, the campaign says. 

But BLM notes the vaccine is only good for about a year or two and then requires boosters, and is effective mostly in small herds. The agency indicated for larger herds, the horses must be rounded up in order to be treated.

That became a point of contention during the April 20 hearing for both proponents and opponents of SB 275.

Sponsor Sen. Joann Ginal, D-Fort Collins, said the intent of the legislation is to collaborate on darting programs with BLM, as well as fencing, maintenance, restoration of forage and water supply efforts. 

While SB 275 provides for an initial state startup of $1.5 million in general fund spending, the intention is that it be self-sustaining through federal contracts, gifts, grants and donations.

Sponsor Sen. Perry Will, R-New Castle, explained the approach is collaborative and bipartisan, and will serve the diverse interests of livestock owners, wildlife, wild horses and range health. He said they found common ground among all those groups to keep the herds at a sustainable level, as well as agreeing to solutions to improve the health of the land. 

Nothing changes as far as federal control and authority, Will told the committee. 

Scott Wilson, an award-winning wildlife photographer who is head of strategy for the American Wild Horse Campaign, told the committee fertility control is the “next best solution,” with the PZP vaccine the safe and humane option.

Those fertility programs are already in place in the HMAs, thanks to the work of volunteer groups, Wilson said. But he added: “Resource challenges, as well as larger ranges, means darting teams are unable to consistently deliver the 70 to 80% coverage at which fertility control is demonstrably effective.”

Only about 1% of the BLM wild horse budget is directed to fertility control, Wilson said. Combined with the other programs in the bill, he said this is Colorado’s opportunity “to signal a new standard for wild horse conservation.”

The claim that fertility control doesn’t work in larger herds or on larger ranges, or that the startup money wouldn’t be enough, was disputed by Tracy Wilson, the state director for the American Wild Horse Campaign in Nevada. Wilson said she oversees the world’s largest wild horse fertility control program on a 300,000-acre range in Nevada. Between 2020 and 2022, they saw a 61% drop in birth in darted areas, and a 20% reduction in the herd without removals. Her program has 38 volunteers, is under Nevada’s Department of Agriculture and is entirely funded through private grants and donations.

Adoption is not the best solution for these horses, according to Tessa Archibald, who manages a coalition of hundreds of equine rescues and sanctuaries across the country. She said the number of horses removed from the range exceeds the adoption demand.

“Ultimately, we need a management approach focused on sensible, on-range solutions, such as investing in fertility control to reduce the number of horses born and successful adoptions where necessary, rather than an approach of endless roundups and shifting horses off the range,” Archibald said.

Rick Karcich of Centennial, testifying against the bill, told the committee the problem is not the horses. It’s overgrazing by livestock, citing data from BLM that showed 150 cattle had destroyed 78,000 acres in the Sand Wash HMA.

This bill would bring control of the situation under the wing of Colorado administrators who propose employing the same failed management techniques used by the BLM, Karcich said.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture in testimony cited a lack of volunteers. Jordan Beezley, the department’s lobbyist, told the committee: “At the heart of this issue is a lack of sustainable volunteer recruitment and enough human capital to effectively deploy fertility control and range management tactics.”

He indicated it’s a problem that can be easily solved with a sustained and reliable volunteer or paid labor base, one that SB275 can address.

Jennifer O’Hearon, a county commissioner with Rio Blanco County, suggested the money instead should just go to BLM for fertility control, and that a better working relationship between the state and BLM should be part of the solution.

The BLM also addressed the committee through Doug Vilsack, the state director for BLM. Vilsack is the son of federal Ag Commissioner Tom Vilsack, and until recently the assistant director for parks, wildlife and lands at the state Department of Natural Resources.

Despite his close ties to the state, Vilsack didn’t give an indication of what the federal agency thought of the bill.

He said the agency manages 400,000 acres of public lands in Colorado for the just under 1,400 wild horses, although the appropriate management level is about 800. He did not indicate whether BLM supports the legislation, although he acknowledged that most of the funding for the program goes to taking care of horses removed from the range rather than on fertility treatments.

The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee. But with just two weeks to go in the 2023 session, and general fund dollars dwindling for new programs, its $1.5 million general fund cost may prove prohibitive.