BLM wins lawsuits to eliminate two Wyoming wild horse herds

On Aug. 14, a federal judge sided with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an extensive case involving a plan to drastically reduce the number of wild horses across millions of acres of public and private lands in the Southern Wyoming Checkerboard Region.

The court order, issued by Judge Kelly Rankin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, authorized a plan BLM finalized last year to reduce wild horse populations in the region to comply with an April 2013 legal settlement with ranchers who demanded the BLM remove stray animals encroaching on their private property.

The checkerboard region is an unfenced area of alternating one-mile square blocks of public and private land set up in the 1860s. 

The BLM amended its Resource Management Plan (RMP) in 2023 to eliminate the wild horses on the checkerboard, in large part because of an agreement it entered into with a group of local ranchers representing the Rock Springs Grazing Association.

In a separate ruling, issued on the same day, Rankin denied the ranchers’ request to force the BLM to immediately remove all of the checkerboard’s wild horses or conduct a new management plan amendment process.

Roundup

According to BLM’s website, the roundup is necessary to prevent “further deterioration” of the land health due to impacts from the animals.

The BLM conducted the White Mountain roundup between Aug. 15-19 in an area containing several high-profile herds who have been part of the Rock Springs Land Use Plan Amendment.

BLM reports 586 horses, including 219 stallions, 258 mares and 109 foals, were captured, and 575 animals were shipped. Eleven animals, including six foals, were euthanized due to pre-existing disorders. 

The White Mountain herd’s horses are being allowed to persist, but the plan is to maintain around 205 to 300 horses in the region, which reaches from Rock Springs northwest to the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge.

Although this herd and the Adobe Town herd of the Red Desert are being allowed to persist, the neighboring Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin herds are slated for elimination.

BLM states it is unlikely they will immediately remove the entire Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin herds because of the legal battle which is likely to extend and there’s still a requirement to study the action of eliminating a herd under the National Environmental Policy Act.

According to BLM Wyoming, a NEPA study began in June, proposing to remove roughly 5,000 mustangs from three of the four horse management areas in the Rock Springs Field Office, including the two complete herd eliminations.

With the appeal expected, it’s unlikely the required environmental assessment will be completed but there are no guarantees federal contractors will stop rounding up horses in the area.

Alternative measures

However, the Wild American Horse Conservation says BLM used incorrect data to reach this number, improperly including foal counts.

On July 8, Utah Public Radio Reporter Kathleen Shannon reported Suzanne Roy, executive director of the Wild American Horse Conservation, stated, “They are very concerned the BLM is playing with numbers to remove more horses than they’re legally allowed, and if they are allowed to proceed, it will reduce the herd to much lower numbers.”

Roy notes roundups involve gathering horses into holding pens until they’re adopted and adds there are more horses being held than the adoption market can absorb. The difference costs taxpayers about $70 million a year.

Roundups are an alternate population control method to sterilization, but Roy says her group advocates for fertility control instead.

“Basically, it’s called immunocontraception,” she adds. “It’s a vaccine which creates an immune response in the animals and prevents fertilization.”

She further adds the method is also reversible, which is important in case of unexpected population die-offs.

According to the radio station segment, James “Micky” Fisher, lead public affairs specialist with BLM Wyoming states the agency isn’t opposed to fertility treatments but they’re more difficult to implement.

“Unfortunately, with herd management areas of this size and even larger ones and the sheer number of horses we’re required to gather to get down to the appropriate management level, fertility treatments and darting practices are insufficient.”

Melissa Anderson is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.