A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in a feral horse roundup battle in southern Wyoming that has lasted more than a decade.
Judge Kelly Rankin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming ruled on Aug. 14 to authorize BLM’s plan to reduce feral horse populations across millions of “checkerboard” (public-private) lands in the state.
Background
Last spring, the BLM released its final management plan for the Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices in Wyoming, which called for removing horses in two herds and eliminating two herds entirely. The plan was finalized to comply with an April 2013 legal settlement with the Rock Springs Grazing Association, whose members pushed the agency to remove the free-roaming horses from their private property.
Shortly after the plan’s release, a coalition of horse advocacy groups filed suit.
“This case represents yet another in a line of BLM decisions determined to stamp out wild horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard, an area where federal and non-federal lands are interspersed with one another,” the groups wrote in their May 2023 lawsuit.
The plan would change the status of the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin herd management areas (HMA) to allow zero horses, and reduce the number of horses in the White Mountain Herd and Adobe Town Herd.
BLM estimated a total of 4,876 horses would be removed over a three- to four-year-long period from the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town HMAs. Roundups were set to occur between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30.
In July, the agency announced it would begin a gather in mid-August in the White Mountain HMA to prevent further deterioration of land health due to overpopulation.
BLM’s win
“The court concludes that this (record of decision) was neither arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, otherwise not in accordance with law, nor without observance of procedure required by law,” Rankin wrote in her Aug. 14 decision.
She also ruled that the Rock Springs Grazing Association lacked standing to demand BLM immediately remove horses from the group’s lands or immediately conduct another amendment process.
“Neither BLM’s delay in removing wild horses nor amending the HMAs through another plan amendment process is unreasonable or unlawfully withheld,” Rankin wrote.
Two days after Rankin’s decision, horse advocacy groups filed a notice of appeal with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Plaintiffs include the American Wild Horse Conservation, the Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project, author Chad Hanson and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl.
“If allowed to stand, this flawed decision would give the BLM a new way to eradicate federally protected wild horses and burros from our public lands,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of American Wild Horse Conservation.
Moving forward
BLM conducted a horse gather in the White Mountain HMA from Aug. 15-19. The HMA consists of 240,000 acres of BLM land and has an appropriate management level of 205-300 horses. The estimated population of the HMA was 791 horses before the gather. A total of 586 animals were gathered using the helicopter-assisted method and transported to the Wheatland Off-Range Corral or Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility.
“Because of the protracted legal battle that’s likely to be extended further yet, it’s unlikely that BLM will immediately remove the entire Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin herds, said Brad Purdy, the agency’s deputy state director for communications,” WyoFile reported on Aug. 16.
“Although the agency completed a revision to its Resource Management Plan for wild horses—and Rankin upheld that plan—there’s still a requirement to study the action of eliminating a herd under the National Environmental Policy Act,” the outlet reported.
BLM plans to remove about 20,000 head of horses from public lands in 2024. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
