Palomino Valley Center, 8/18/25

The dictionary defines an emergency as: a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.

But when an event occurs almost annually, occurs under specific circumstances that are both preventable and compounded by other actions knowingly undertaken, is it an emergency or severe and unacceptable neglect and abuse? 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) completed a bait trap operation in the Maverick-Medicine HMA (Triple B Complex) and Wood Hills area outside the Spruce-Pequop HMA (Antelope Complex).

On the “emergency gather” page BLM notes: “This ongoing drought-induced issue recurs annually due to the lack of alternative water sources on public lands.” They recognize this is an expected event and they know actions they have taken for livestock, mining and even wildlife, will make it worse each year.

The BLM  landing page has a lot of gut-wrenching pictures of the finite “emergency” area (the ones we see every year and often used to trap the entire complex system and surrounding area, comprising acreage larger than the state of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined). The waters (available to horses) in this area have been in disrepair for over 25 years.

On our first visit to the landing page for the gather BLM did not even note the causes of the 11 deaths or shipping dates. Our tam had to contact BLM and the page now notes 210 were captured and 11 died: 10 noting poor body score and BLM saying the prognosis for survival is slim and the horses and one that was found dead.

The gather page still does not include which captures occurred on the West side of highway 93 (Maverick-Medicine) and which in the Wood Hills area (east side of highway 93).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In 2024, BLM did an emergency gather here as well and used it to do the larger roundup claiming “horses were dropping dead” in the info provided to the court.

At that roundup BLM focused on:

Removing wild horses in the direct area of the Bald Mountain mine expansion (Juniper Project) that will expand the footprint to impact 30% of the acreage of the Triple B HMA. 

The area of the newly approved Greenlinks transmission line.

The Limo Butte mining exploration.

Not one of these massive impacts to wild horse territory had an cumulative impact analysis nor did any one of them provide any kind of mitigation for the impacts they will cause… not one. 

BLM used every one of these projects to provide “mitigation” for livestock and wildlife. From new fencing to waters (behind those fences that horses cannot get to) BLM either included them within the assessment documents for the projects or created distinct documents and approved those projects fast. BLM left horses in the “yeah, the impacts will be there, be real, but horses can figure it out on their own.” 

Lawsuit update:

For each one of the projects we tried hard to get BLM to do neglected repairs of existing waters and create new ones, remove a few fences so horses can get to water. BLM refused. 

We filed an Appeal for the Juniper Project to try to get water because the pressure on areas (like the ones of the annual “emergency”) would increase if horses have to “figure it out on their own.”

The Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) claimed we have no Standing to address issues in the area. So we are suing the IBLA in Federal Civil Court. We have past and active litigation to speak for wild horses in that area (granted Standing). But when it came to simply trying to get BLM to do some mitigation for a mine, suddenly Standing vanished. This case is moving toward final briefing.

We are also Protesting Greenlinks and Limo Butte mining exploration for lack of mitigation.

We have been advocating for the wild horses in the Triple B and Antelope Complexes for nearly two decades now. This brings a lot of insight. 

• BLM has said that without any underlying planning noting the need for mitigation or seasonal movement patters, foaling grounds, etc. (i.e. “critical habitat”) we will never get mitigation.
• The document that would note those things is the Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP).
• We had to litigate to get HMAPs. The courts found these plans are distinct from “gather plans” and were illegally delayed.
• BLM has now created an HMAP for this area.
• NONE of the things that would be used to actually manage a herd (like denoting critical habitat to allow for mitigation) are in the HMAP. BLM has just created a gather plan with a new name.

So… now we need to litigate the HMAP issue… again. 

Why? Because BLM creates situations that can give them a dramatic public press release to continue to forward mismanagement that prioritizes profit driven uses and their clients (mining) and customers (livestock). 

When is an emergency not an emergency? 

When it is a perpetuated problem used to manipulate a situation to cover up mismanagement, neglect and  sheer disregard for our wild ones. 

This removal was not an emergency. Heck, back in April you could have put it on the calendar.

Did those 11 wild horses have to die in the removal? Did horses have to suffer and die before the removal? Do they need to die out there year-after-year? Do we need another “big roundup” out there?

No. Not if BLM actually did their jobs and mitigated the loss of resources and did a few range improvements for wild horses instead of just keeping their hunting buddies and livestock happy.

Our wild ones really need an educated and active voice. Thank you for being that voice. 

WHE is not a large org with staff, sponsors or government grants. Our handful of dedicated volunteers take on big tasks with as much grit and commitment as we can muster.

None of our work is possible without your support. 

Thank you for keeping WHE running for our wild ones!