The Adobe Town Roundup of 2025 came to an end on August 2, when the last wild horses shipped of to to short term (processing) facilities. Wild horses can spend a few months to a few years at these facilities. No wild horses will be returned. BLM said they will do a press release soon to outline their expectations on when the “zero out” (removal of all horses) in the north of Adobe, the entire Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin will begin.
We were able to secure a commitment during the Adobe Roundup that Wyoming would now authorize contractors to do simple wound treatment (spraying antiseptic) during sorting and providing electrolytes to stressed foals after our team lead assessed the temporary corrals.
You can see team coverage of Adobe by clicking this text, HERE
Many of you are asking about the roundup schedule.
BLM has NOT updated the schedule since July 1. Just like you, we are waiting to see which herds they add to the schedule for helicopter drive-trapping to use the funding they have left for the end of fiscal year. As soon as we know, we will let you know.
BLM is adding to the schedule, even if they are not updating the actual online list. BLM is adding “emergency bait trapping” which does not require the same public notice.
So far:
BLM removed 106 from Pancake, where the horses looked good (we had an observer out there the week before the removal and all BLM would have to do is open gates that are closed because rthey allow hot season, summer, livestock grazing the horses get cut off water). BLM scuttled these horses off the range with zero access to trap, temporary corrals and then transported them out of sight to Broken Arrow on Indian Lakes Rd in Fallon, NV.
BLM just announced they will be removing 215 wild horses from Maverick-Medicine/Wood Hills (part of Triple B). This is an area of annual water issues due to disrepair of existing water and one of the reasons BLM has relentlessly hit this area with so many removals (instead of fixing the water issue). BLM has also approved massive mining expansion impacting more than 30% of the complex, again, without mitigating loss of habitat. We are in the process of litigating the lack of Herd Management Area Plans (HMAP) that would have helped hold them accountable to mitigating the loss of resources for wild horses (this case is in active briefing). these horses won’t look to good because of how BLM has allowed their ranges to be overrun by profit driven interests. These horses you will be able to see at Palomino Valley Center north of Reno (as opposed to the Pancake horses that looked good that were shuffled out of view).
We will update as we know more.
Beautiful blue-eyed, slate colored wild horse at Salt Wells in Wyoming where roundup has been delayed until after Oct. 1, the new fiscal year
We are working on a case-by-case update on some of the active lawsuits. Our team is both in field and working every single day behind the scenes.
A fast run down of just a few points:
Welfare: The “CAWP” case: This case is addressing the lack of review of welfare standards prior to typing the word “permanent” on the Internal Memorandum that was created in 2015 after years of litigation for BLM failures on welfare issues. Year-after-year we document egregious activities that lead to needless death and suffering. This case is coming to a conclusion and we will give you a full run down in an in-depth expose soon.
Nevada: Stone Cabin/ Saulsbury: We are taking the case to protect one of the most historically iconic herds to the Ninth Circuit. The lower court is agreeing with us that BLM has failed to update actual management plans and has failed to even create them. But the lower court is failing to hold BLM accountable to finalized aspects of existing planning (such as even identifying which horses are under BLM jurisdiction and creating a data-based AML). From a land use planning standpoint this is pretty outrageous. Can you imagine if BLM did not comply with aspects of an Allotment Management Plan (AMP) for livestock? BLM would lose before they even got to court. So… we are marching Stone Cabin/Saulsbury and BLM to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
California: Carter/Buckhorn/Coppersmith are making a jump from land use court to Federal Civil Court and we are beginning legal action for Devil’s Garden where it looks like Forest Service is trying to pull a “fast one” off a twelve year old plan even though they are in the final stages of a new plan. Devil’s Garden is within AML and any removal, before the new plan is fully through process and protest, is simply not “ok.”
We have other cases for other herds in various stages of litigation and will include then in the case-by-case reports we are finding time to complete.
Little ones moving to water with their family, Salt Wells
Appropriations
Many of you are following the budget debates (Appropriations) for the 2026 Interior Department fiscal year 2026 BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program.
Many of you are asking “What is this win I hear about?”
The “win” some are talking about is essentially that the budget calls for the status quo, exactly what we have now. The Presidential budget request did not include protection from killing healthy wild horses and burros or selling them without limits (slaughter). Both the Senate and House draft versions of the budget put that language back in. We are not celebrating winning new ground. We are simply exhaling that there is no loss of the limited protections that exist.
We need so much more from Congress. We are still trying to get someone in Congress to add a simple line item to finale concise and enforceable welfare rules. No large lobby group has ever had funding for a formal welfare policy on their agenda, just fyi.
Sometimes we have trouble finding time to do more than the “fast update” when the team is in the field. WHE is not a large organization with staffing.
The obvious things that keep us busy are roundup reports, lawsuits and trying to do outreach with Congress. But there are other things as well. Our team often finds stray animals that we locate existing owners, get to rescues or find new homes for. We also do things like “get the horse on the right side of the fence.”
While visiting Salt Wells Creek we made a “beeline” to the highway to get an update done. Instead of it being a faster route back to town, we found a small family on the wrong side of the fence in danger from fast traffic on curving highways. We have a system. We got this family back ion the right side of the fence and reported the fence that was in disrepair to another advocate so they could relay to BLM while we had bad connection.
Both the family is on the safe side and fence is repaired. Very cool “extreme” curly boy and his family are safe.
We wish we could take you with us 24/7. Apology for the delay in updates. Just know our team is always busy trying to protect and preserve our wild ones with a few minor detours to help other wild and domestic critters.
More updates soon.
Our team needs your support.
None of our work is possible without your support. Thank you!
Categories: Lead, Wild Horse Education
You must be logged in to post a comment.