A wild horse on the Salt Wells Herd Area in Wyoming. Photo by Meg Frederick.
Return to Freedom is now awaiting a ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case crucial to the future of wild horses in southwest Wyoming.
RTF is fighting the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to strip 2 million acres from wild horse use for the benefit of private ranchers in the Checkerboard, an unfenced area of alternating blocks of public and private land set up in the 1860s.
On Tuesday, we took part in a hearing before a three-judge panel in Denver. Our attorney (who represents RTF, Front Range Equine Rescue and photographers Meg Frederick and Angelique Rea) and those representing other wild horse advocacy groups collectively argued that the BLM had violated the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act and National Environmental Policy Act.
In August, a federal district court judge ruled that the BLM did not violate federal laws when it decided in 2023 to amend its Resource Management Plan.
The BLM’s primary stated reason for taking land out of wild horse use: it is difficult to create a barrier between public and private lands there.
The judge ruled against RTF, Front Range Equine Rescue and photographers Meg Frederick and Angelique Rea in a lawsuit that we brought against the BLM.
In a separate ruling, the district court 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.
We entered that case along with Front Range, Frederick and Rea to oppose the grazing association’s demands, and successfully defeated the ranchers’ lawsuit.