Feds plan to remove all wild horses from 2.1M acres of Wyoming’s ‘checkerboard’ starting in July

(Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)

Wyofile.com - Full Article

Complete removal of nonnative equines from the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek and the northwest portion of the Adobe Town herd management areas still faces a public review process and legal appeal.

by Mike Koshmrl
April 1, 2025

The Bureau of Land Management’s contentious plans to remove all free-roaming horses from vast reaches of southwest Wyoming’s “checkerboard” region could begin as soon as this summer, although a legal appeal to stop roundups remains in limbo.

On Monday, the federal agency released a 47-page environmental assessment outlining plans to gather and permanently remove several thousand wild horses from 2,105 square miles — an area nearly the size of Delaware — managed by BLM’s Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices. Horses would come off an additional 1,124 square miles of private land within the checkerboard. A public review period is underway with comments due by April 30. If the BLM greenlights the round-ups, they could begin within the next three months and continue for a couple of years, possibly longer.

First to go would be the estimated 1,125 free-roaming horses in the Salt Wells Creek herd and 736 animals in the northwestern portion of Adobe Town, according to BLM Rock Springs Field Office Manager Kimberlee Foster. Then in 2026, horse-removal crews would move on to eliminating an estimated 894 horses in the Great Divide Basin herd...

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https://wyofile.com/feds-plan-to-remove-all-wild-horses-from-2-1m-acres-of-wyomings-checkerboard-starting-in-july/

Idaho wildfires burned most food in wild horses’ habitats, prompting emergency roundup

MSN.com - Full Article and Video

Story by Nicole Blanchard

The Bureau of Land Management’s Boise office announced Monday that it will gather nearly 100 mustangs from Southwest Idaho rangeland after wildfires burned the vegetation the wild horses need to survive.

In a news release, officials said the Owyhee and Four Rivers field offices would begin an emergency roundup next week. They plan to gather about 40 mustangs from the Sands Basin Herd Management Area near Marsing and about 50 from the Four Mile area north of Emmett.

BLM officials said there is not enough vegetation in either area to support the current mustang populations.

According to the news release, both herd management areas were “nearly completely burned” by lightning-caused fires. The Jump Fire, which ignited near Jump Creek in Owyhee County on Aug. 5, burned nearly 26,000 acres. That include a large swath of the 11,700-acre Sands Basin mustang habitat, which BLM officials said can support between 33 and 64 horses.

The Paddock Fire, which started during the same thunderstorm, burned nearly 190,000 acres. Some of that included the 18,800-acre Four Mile Herd Management Area, which can support between 37 and 60 horses...

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/idaho-wildfires-burned-most-food-in-wild-horses-habitats-prompting-emergency-roundup/ar-AA1p4Oil?ocid=weather-verthp-feeds&apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

Wild horses' fate is poised for US appeals court showdown

Reuters.com - Full Article

By Jenna Greene
September 16, 2024

Sept 16 (Reuters) - It’s hard not to be moved by the beauty of wild horses galloping across a western plain, hooves pounding and manes flying. Little wonder such images are featured in ads selling everything from beer to homeowner’s insurance. But where some see wild horses as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,” as Congress put it in a 1971 law, opens new tab protecting the animals, others decry them as pests -- voracious grazers that reproduce rapidly and compete with livestock for forage on unfenced tracts of private land.

A showdown over the fate of wild horses in Wyoming and beyond is looming at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Mustang advocates are challenging a recent lower court decision they say will allow, opens new tab the federal government to decimate the free-roaming herds, rounding up nearly 5,000 animals and warehousing those that are not adopted in long-term holding facilities.

The Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, “is trying to pull a fast one” in seeking to remove the horses from vast swaths of public land intermixed with private parcels, said Bruce Wagman, of counsel at 100-lawyer Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila.

Working at a reduced “low bono” rate on behalf of clients including wild horse conservation group Return to Freedom, Wagman told me that given the ever-growing mustang population, “We’re past the point where we can just say ‘Leave them alone...’”

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https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/column-wild-horses-fate-is-poised-us-appeals-court-showdown-2024-09-16/

Wild Horses Find Sanctuary at Skydog Ranch in Oregon

BendSource.com - Full Article

Over 300 wild horses and 50 burros saved after their capture now call 9,000 acres of breathtaking, rugged land in Prineville home

By Tiffany Neptune

Witnessing a wild horse run free is an experience unlike any other, but these sights are more rare as more horses are captured from their lives in the wild. As uncertain fates await those still roaming the American West as well as the mustangs and burros already detained, some, like the hundreds who graze the lands of Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary, are given another chance at life.

Upon learning more about the branded neck of her second horse, a mustang named Buddy, Clare Staples mounted a personal campaign to educate herself about mustangs in the West to understand exactly why the wild horse (mustang), population continues to diminish and what is ultimately happening to them. That led her to found Skydog, creating a wild haven for horses and donkeys (burros), to escape neglect, starvation, abuse and death.

As a child, "I would run away to the stables and take care of these horses and muck all day just to be able to be around them. I would breathe them in and bury my face in a horse's neck and everything would be OK," Staples said, recounting her less-than-happy childhood.

Taking stock of her life at 50, Staples realized she sought more than material grandeur, sharing, "I really felt like being of service and having a purpose were the keys to a happy life and a joy that was more sustainable." She effectively turned away from a glamorous Malibu, California, existence, dedicating everything to reunite wild horse families and save equines in need...

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https://www.bendsource.com/news/wild-horses-find-sanctuary-at-skydog-ranch-21079421

Permanent Sterilization of America’s Wild Horses Proposed

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Leading conservation organization American Wild Horse Conservation has raised alarms about the latest federal budget proposal.

By: American Wild Horse Campaign | March 15, 2024

American Wild Horse Conservation is sounding the alarm over the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Fiscal Year 2025 budget request seeking $170,917,000 to fund its Wild Horse and Burro Program. This marks a $29 million increase over FY 24 appropriated levels, with $15 million allocated toward a mass permanent sterilization program, including 20 new full-time employees for its implementation.

The proposal, outlined in the BLM’s Budget Justification for FY 25, was released days after Congress cut the BLM’s FY 2024 budget by $5.9 million while preserving $11 million in 2024 funding for reversible, humane fertility control implementation.

“Permanent sterilization contradicts the BLM’s legal mandate to protect America’s wild horses in self-sustaining, free-roaming herds. It also disregards Congressional directives to implement a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines,“ said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of AWHC. “The BLM should deliver on existing commitments to expand humane fertility control, rather than waste Congress’ time and taxpayer resources on a far-fetched scheme to destroy the nation’s wild horse and burro populations by mass sterilization...”

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https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/permanent-sterilization-americas-wild-horses-proposed/

BLM Announces More Than 8,000 Wild Horses and Burros Found New Homes in Fiscal Year 2023

GoldRushCam.com - Full Article

Published: Saturday, 25 November 2023

November 25, 2023 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to manage and protect wild horses and burros on public lands, the agency and its partners helped place 8,045 wild horses and burros into new homes in Fiscal Year 2023, saving approximately $181 million in taxpayer money.

“Giving a good forever home to a wild horse or burro is not only a rewarding experience, but it helps support our efforts to keep the wild herds and their habitat healthy on public lands,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “I am incredibly grateful and humbled by those who choose to adopt a wild horse or burro.”

Of the wild horses and burros placed into new homes, 6,220 animals were adopted, 1,798 were sold and 27 were transferred to other government agencies. This is the second-highest number of animals placed into new homes in over 25 years...

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https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/51755-blm-announces-more-than-8-000-wild-horses-and-burros-found-new-homes-in-fiscal-year-2023

Ranchers sue BLM over lack of wild horse gathers in central Nevada

TheNevadaIndepentent - Full Article

The BLM did not roundup horses in parts of central Nevada this year, citing “funding limitations and competing national priorities” and lack of corral space.

Amy Alonzo
October 20th, 2023

Claiming the federal government violated its own provisions on how to manage wild horses and burros, two Nevada ranches are suing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over its failure to remove an excess of wild horses from central Nevada.

Colvin & Son LLC and Stone Cabin Ranch LLC are suing the Bureau of Land Management in federal court for what they allege is the agency’s failure to comply with the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971. The act requires the BLM to manage, protect and control wild horse and burro populations on public land where they existed when the law was passed while maintaining ecological balance between the horses, burros and other wildlife.

The ranches are seeking removal of hundreds of horses from the Stone Cabin and Saulsbury herd management areas outside Tonopah. Excessive wild horses in the area negatively affect wildlife and grazing, according to the suit...

Read more here:
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/ranchers-sue-blm-over-lack-of-wild-horses-gathers-in-central-nevada