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The scoping period for the “Gather Plan to Remove Excess Wild Horses from Herd Areas Previously Designated as Herd Management Areas” (DOI-BLM-WY-D040-2024-0101-EA) for Rock Springs.

Scoping is intended for BLM to use to identify issues for evaluation before crafting a draft plan. You will have one more chance to comment when the plan is drafted.

Scroll to red text to skip the preface and go directly to information on how to comment.

In 2021, 4,161 (1603 stallions, 1700 mares and 858 foals) wild horses were captured in the Rock Springs Complex (Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain and Little Colorado Herd Management Areas). 659 were returned to the range after fertility control treatment and 37 died onsite.

In 2023, BLM approved massive changes in the Land Use Plan (LUP) as part of an agreement made in 2013 with the Rock Springs Grazing Association. (You can access the decision record HERE)

The official approved decision:

• The Rock Springs Field Office (RSFO) portion of the Adobe Town HMA will revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses. In the Rawlins Field Office (RFO) portion of the HMA, all checkerboard land and the portion of the HMA north of the existing Corson Springs southern allotment boundary fence (see Map 3) will revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses. The remaining lands (within the RFO) will be retained as an HMA and managed with an AML of 259 – 536.
• The entire Great Divide Basin HMA will revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses.
• The entire Salt Wells Creek HMA will revert to HA status and be managed for zero wild horses.
• The boundary of the White Mountain HMA would remain the same as Alternative A and would include checkerboard land. This HMA would be managed with an AML of 205 – 300. The White Mountain HMA would not be managed as a non-reproducing herd; however, population growth suppression strategies would be implemented to limit population growth rates for this herd.

Appropriate Management Levels (AML) under this plan amendment would be 464 to 836 wild horses, a roughly 60 percent decrease from previous AMLs of 1,481 to 2,065, for all of the HMAs in the checkerboard. 

In response to comments received during the EIS process, BLM dropped the plan to “manage” White Mountain as a non-reproducing herd. (Comments can make a difference. However, in this case, BLM did not listen to pleas that referenced the high public interest in these herds, tourist dollars generated, and moved forward with finalizing the plan to zero out and reduce Wyomings entire wild horse population by roughly half.)

BLM Wyoming manages 18.4 million acres.

The acreage BLM Wyoming manages wild horses on represents about 20% of all acreage managed. by BLM. Wyoming manages 16 Herd Management Areas, HMAs, on approximately 3.6 million acres of BLM lands and 1.1 million joint acres with other jurisdictions and private lands. 

BLM Wyoming manages 3,543 allotments  livestock grazing allotments on 17.4 million acres of BLM Wyoming public land, or 96.6% of all BLM administered public acreage in the state.

The EIS proposes a decease in acreage of over 34% for wild horse management, or to a mere 13% of all BLM acreage in the state of Wyoming.

These HMAs are all located in the “pipeline corridor” that was being negotiated at the same time as the “zero out” of these herds was being “settled” with the grazing association. Click image to learn more.

Comments are due July 8.

BLM is moving forward:

“BLM plans to remove excess wild horses from Herd Areas that were previously designated as the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek, and Adobe Town Herd Management Areas (HMAs).

The BLM estimates that a total of 4,876 wild horses will be removed over a 3 – 4 year period.

Removal operations will commence sometime between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025.”

The Scoping Notice is 4-pages long and can be accessed HERE. This is the document intended to guide your comments.

COMMENTS ARE DUE by 4 PM Mountain Time on July 8. The Scoping notice states “through July 8,” but the press release notes the end of the business day for BLM.

Comments received as part of “sign-on” or “click-and-send” will NOT be counted as unique comments and will be attributed to the origin organization.

If you have something unique you want to say, you need to use the “participate now” button on the BLM website HERE. To get you started, you can copy and paste something you see in our suggested comments or suggested comments by another organization. Then you can start to add your own take, add something. This will make your comment a “unique” comment and count as one.

If you do not have time to do that, you can sign-on to add numbers to the comment letter we have prepared for the public.

Click HERE to sign the joint public comment

Our full comments will not be completed until very near the due date.

You can start by saying you want the “no action” alternative. However, the “no action” will be included in the draft of the Gather-EA. Think of things you want included in a draft plan. Simply saying “do not remove the horses” won’t impact the draft plan.

SAMPLE:

1. The legality of the underlying EIS that sets the AML at zero (DOI-BLM-WY-D040-2013-0001-RMP-EIS) is a question currently before the court. No action should be taken before adjudication including moving forward with a draft Gather-EA.
2. The scoping notice indicates removals of nearly 5,000 wild horses will begin in fiscal 2025 (October 2024) signifies BLM will move swiftly in crafting a Gather-EA to complete the “zero out.” Again, we urge caution until the courts determine the legality of EIS and underlying factors.
3. BLM identifies only 2 alternatives in the scoping notice: remove with helicopters and bait trapping or not remove at all. BLM should add a 3rd alternative that uses small removals, data collection to evaluate an AML that would be manageable and a resetting of AML in the HMAs instead of “zeroing out.”
4. BLM did not complete/update the Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) process for the herds it proposes to zero out. The HMAP should have evaluated mitigation measures such as land swap to address conflicts with livestock and the pipeline. BLM must complete an HMAP before taking action to complete the objectives in the EIS to determine if their are alternatives (such as mitigation through tiered small removals to set a new AML, land swap, etc.)
5. Please address how removal of all of the wild horses in the areas BLM proposes to revert to Herd Area status (zero out) impact fire fuels as this was never addressed in any HMAP in the Gather-EA analysis.
6. Please include the HMAP process in DOI-BLM-WY-D040-2024-0101-EA.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones!