The Bureau of Land Management is planning to gather and remove over 3,000 wild horses from a checkerboarded region in Wyoming starting in July. This is the first step toward permanently removing two herds and a portion of a third herd in the southwestern part of the state near Rock Springs. Legal battles have delayed the roundups, as the BLM tries to balance conflicting mandates for wild horse management while defending its plan from legal challenges.
The updated plan for the BLM’s Rock Springs and Rawlings Field Offices was announced in a 2023 Record of Decision, spurred by a 2013 settlement with a local grazing group. The plan focuses on four Herd Management Areas within the checkerboard, with two HMAs being eliminated and managed for zero horses going forward. The plan also includes a target population for the remaining HMAs, requiring the removal of an estimated 3,371 horses over several years.
Wild horse advocacy groups have filed lawsuits against the BLM in response to the 2023 Record of Decision, with an appeal still pending in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The BLM’s plan to remove wild horses without demonstrating ecological reasons for the roundups could set a dangerous precedent, according to Suzanne Roy, executive director of American Wild Horse. The checkerboard landscape in Southwest Wyoming presents unique challenges for wild horse management due to conflicting mandates under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act.
