Wild horses at Salt Wells Creek. Photo: Meg Frederick.
As our fight for the future of Southwest Wyoming’s wild horses continues, the Bureau of Land Management today confirmed that it will delay a planned helicopter roundup there until at least next summer.
The roundup is intended to capture and remove all of the wild horses from the Salt Wells Creek and a portion of the adjacent Adobe Town Herd Management Areas had been set for August, then moved to October.
In July, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Return to Freedom and our co-plaintiffs, Front Range Equine Rescue, and photographers Meg Frederick and Angelique Rea, as well as other advocates who sued separately.
The court found that BLM’s Resource Management Plan amendment, which underpins BLM’s planned removals, was arbitrary and capricious for failing to consider the statutory requirement to maintain a “thriving natural ecological balance” under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
The BLM’s amendment removed 2 million acres from wild herds in what’s known as the Checkerboard: 1-mile blocks of private and public land set up in the 1800s.
A District Court judge must now determine an appropriate remedy for the BLM’s violation or the law or whether the plan amendment should be vacated entirely.
A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 7, where further details of the proceedings are expected to be defined.
Sadly, the BLM was still able carry out a roundup in July and August on another portion of the Adobe Town Herd Management Area. A total 1,676 wild horses and one mule were captured and eight horses killed.
The BLM was able to go forward with that roundup because it was based on a different Determination of National Environmental Policy Act Adequacy.
Your continued support is critical to preserving this victory and ensuring future protections for America’s wild horses.