I am really struggling with this particular blog.... I am annoyed and conflicted and really REALLY irritated with all of the things in the politics of wild horses.
Today I am staring down the last week left before the beginning of a scheduled roundup and removal of 2500 or more wild horses from the North Lander Complex in Wyoming, and although I have known that this was inevitable as the final EA was published two years ago, it was the action of requesting to be added to the list of observers that really made it very real and very unavoidable - there is no longer any hope of delays or more time with these wild horses in their wild lands.
I am (obviously) not in favor of this roundup, I am especially not a fan of the current EA as it is written with a 10yr plan of continuous removals and various fertility control options, and I wish we could stop, or at least alter, what is about to happen..... but the legal reality of it is that this EA should have been challenged when the final Decision Record was published in 2022.
Decision Record Appeal Requirements & Limits
This roundup and removal could have been avoided if.... there are so many stinking IFs that could be used here - most of all I feel the BLM is to blame for this removal, not because it is unnecessary or because of favoring cattle grazing or Sage grouse habitat or anything else, but because the BLM could and should have taken action years ago in a way that would have prevented a population growth so great that it could no longer be managed except by roundup and removal.
An active PZP fertility control darting program should have been implemented!
Instead in 2012 they ran a typical roundup and removal, with a number of mares returned to the complex with a one-time PZP treatment, and then nothing was done for the following 12 years, except to watch the herds grow in size, and complain about how quickly the herd population was growing.
In an area with a combined allowed low AML of 320 wild horses, a little less than a year ago a detailed infrared flight count was done, and at that time there were 2,593 wild horses found to be living across this complex.
If there had been a PZP fertility program in place this could have been avoided.... it may or may not have stopped all roundup operations, but it certainly could have slowed the herd growth, and it would have seen far fewer horses now about to be rounded up, removed, and sent to holding facilities where a few dozen may be adopted, but most will spend years waiting to be adopted into a good home, before finally (maybe), finding their way to long-term pastures.
The mostly failed BLM adoption process is a subject for another day, but it is a thorn in my side for every roundup and removal, as the majority of these horses will not be adopted into loving forever homes.
Management of wild horses should begin in the field, it should begin with the commitment to keep as many wild horses wild in the wild places rather than continued mass roundup and removals, it should be focused on using proven tools of fertility control that will significantly slow herd growth when done correctly - Congress has taken small measures to make this a priority by allotting a portion of the BLM budget for fertility control, but the reality is the budget given to BLM for PZP - or other fertility control - is a not nearly enough, and the agency itself does not consider having active PZP darting programs in place a priority.
Instead, most BLM offices have gotten really good at putting up roadblocks in the way of achieving a successful PZP darting program.
Excerpt from Decision Record - the approved current plan.
So now here we are with possibly as many as four times the number of wild horses than is even the high AML for the North Lander Complex allows, facing a massive roundup and removal, and the current Wild Horse Specialist is planning on aggressively applying fertility control, using everything except PZP.... over a 10yr period in which a 'gather' otherwise known as a roundup, will be done as often as is deemed necessary by the Lander office Wild Horse & Burro Specialist.
I so desperately wish I could be fully supportive of this plan....
But this plan runs the risk of completely destroying these herds.... Gonacon has not been researched long enough and has too many different possible outcomes - some research shows stallions can be sterilized if accidentally darted and that mares can be sterile if given two doses together in too short a time range, some say mares are not responding to it at all and continuing to foal regularly - it is an unknown risk on either side of the argument it seems.
And because the Gonacon treatment is apparently not enough in this plan (sarcasm intended), IUDs are also going to be used on a number of mares. While that may be something that is viable in the domestic world, it is a huge risk to these mares in the wild, in a big land where you may or may not see those mares for six months at a time, and even if you are able to observe them regularly, it is not possible to provide them with medical care if something goes wrong with the inserted IUD.
And the possibility of sterilizing stallions... some would argue this is the easiest way to limit breeding, but it really is not, it only takes a couple of stallions to take care of mares looking for a boyfriend, and if there are only a handful of stallions able to breed, and only a handful of mares able to foal, the genetic viability of the herd will very quickly disappear, leaving the herd vulnerable to other unhealthy problems.
North Lander Complex
August 2023 Infrared Flight Count
While the EA for the North Lander Complex is much better written than the EA for the McCullough Peaks, it is still missing some key information.... where are the range health assessment reports?
Where is the proof that the wild horses are causing range degradation?
I talked with the Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, he assures me the data was gathered and the reports were done, and he explained it is the riparian areas that are where he is most concerned in protecting.... but there are no reports in the EA showing the horses are causing damage to these, or any other areas, in the complex.
I did not understand two years ago about the requirement that it be proven that wild horses are causing degradation to the land, or I would have started asking questions and requesting to see the reports then.
I could of course be obnoxious now and request those documents, but it would be to no reason, as we are past the legal window to challenge this EA.
Reference to Land Health evaluations in EA - the actual reports were not added to EA
Now here we are.... as I finish this up and post we are 10 days from the scheduled start date of July 1st, and only an act of God or Congress could intervene, so what can we do, if anything!?!
And this is the ugly truth of it.... this is really the worst part of advocacy - there is no grand gesture or action we can make that will stop this thing, protests and billboards will not have an effect, we are past the window of legal action, now we are in the moment where the very best action we can take for the horses, is to be a witness for the them during these roundup and removal operations.
It is an ugly thing to do indeed.... to gather ourselves and to sit under a blazing hot sun for hours, others surrounding us that are often excited to watch these horses be brought in under the helicopter - there is always at least one that will go on and on about how great it is to see it done so well. It is not for the easily rattled to attend these things.... but it is one of the most necessary things to be done - it matters and it can make a difference in the care of these horses as they lose their freedom.
Observation Information: to be added to the list contact Sarah Beckwith at [email protected]
This blog is just bits of things that needed to be said of this impending removal, of the EA, of the land and the horses that know this as their home, the place that is as much theirs as they are of the land and the wild winds.
There are so many things more that could and should be said.... I know!!
And I will write more later..... maybe only one or two blogs but certainly there will be posts on our Facebook and Insta pages - I will be spending as much time as I possibly can before it is too late and the thundering of 2,593 wild horses are taken from this land, I am going to rest in each moment I am allowed with them, finding the joy that is still there, because these wild horses deserve to have these moments of wild joy as they gallop across these high desert sage scattered hills that are their wild home.
Wild Joy of Freedom
Wild horses galloping across Muskrat Basin in the North Lander Complex