Burro numbers remain issue needing attention

The summer 1959 issue of the Arizona Game and Fish Department magazine Wildlife News posed an interesting question: “Burros or Bighorns?” It’s a question that still resonates strongly 56 years later — only today, there’s no longer any question that our native wildlife (and the habitat they rely on) are being severely impacted.

Throughout western Arizona, non-native burro populations have gone unchecked for so long they now outnumber our native iconic bighorn sheep in some areas. As their populations continue to grow by up to 20 percent per year, they continue to cause damage to wildlife habitat, crowd existing native species, foul waterholes relied upon by other animals and are costing state and federal taxpayers millions.

Under the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, the state should have no more than 1,316 burros within its borders. Yet surveys estimate the population at 4,411 — more than 235 percent above appropriate management levels (AML) established by Congress and administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The figures only get worse throughout western Arizona. The Big Sandy Habitat Management Area (HMA) south of Wickieup currently holds 1,253 burros, more than 800 percent above the appropriate management level of 139 burros. The Alamo HMA currently has an estimated 653 burros — a 308-percent departure from appropriate limits, while the Cibola/Trigo HMA north of Yuma has 1,044 burros, more than 532 percent above AML.

We are now in a position where an overabundance of a single, nonnative, feral species outnumbers our native iconic bighorn sheep in the Black Mountains near Kingman. Statewide, burros continue to devastate fragile desert ecosystems and, compete with sensitive wildlife species for forage and water.

When we go into our next drought cycle, and in Arizona there is always a drought on the horizon, the current population levels of burros would likely cause an ecological disaster. They negatively affect habitat relied on by bighorn sheep, mule deer, Gambel’s quail, sensitive migratory songbirds and other wildlife species that have evolved to live in the desert.

Desert wildlife species typically consume only parts of plants that easily grow back, but burros eat the bark and remove entire limbs from trees. They consume native grasses down to the roots preventing them from returning, foul waterholes used by other wildlife and disturb sensitive nesting grounds. In some cases, habitat damage is so severe that wildlife is displaced from their home territories.

As the agency responsible for conserving Arizona’s wildlife, these symptoms are concerning and indicative of a larger problem that must be addressed. Unfortunately, state agencies such as the Game and Fish Department are federally prohibited from managing burro populations. The BLM is required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to maintain appropriate numbers of burros, but local/regional burro management efforts have been hampered by a lack of funding and support from Congress and senior federal leaders.

We remain eager to engage stakeholders and other partners to identify effective burro management approaches, while seeking congressional support to require federal agencies to maintain appropriate management levels.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission believes that if burro numbers are kept at appropriate management levels, they can co-exist in ecological balance with native wildlife. Unless burro populations are brought in line, future generations will wonder why we were so careless about protecting our native wildlife species.

Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner James Ammons is a resident of Yuma.