Page 2 of 4 "The reason we gathered was there were more horses
than the range could support," says Mary Apple, a BLM
spokesperson in Billings. "We've done quite a bit of
monitoring...and it showed the range was in a degraded condition
in many areas. The only way to help it recover is to remove some
of the horses." The BLM wants to further reduce the herd to 120,
a number they say is the upper limit for that range. "This will
always be an issue because the advocates don't want horses
removed and we feel we have to remove horses so the range can
improve," Apple says. "Our goal is to manage for healthy horses
on a healthy range." Writer and wild horse advocate Deanne
Stillman says she is not against the management of wild horses.
Stillman, who contributes to, among other publications, Slate,
the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Rolling Stone, agrees
that wild horses populate fast due to lack of predation. But she
claims in her book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the
American West, that the BLM does