Press Release 11/11/25
Protecting Unique California Wild Horse Herds Goes to Federal Court
(Sacramento, CA) Today, Wild Horse Education (WHE), Carter Reservoir Mustangs Inc. (CRMI) and individual members, have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to protect wild horse herds from certain destruction.
Without updating existing management planning to include new data and scientific findings, the BLM California approved a plan to gut the population of wild horses in the Carter Reservoir Herd Management Area (HMA) to a mere 25 individuals creating (literally) genetic bankruptcy. The BLM included two other herds in the plan that lie far to the south of Carter. BLM intends to drop Buckhorn to 59 individuals and Coppersmith to 50, repeating a patter of genetic devastation and making any recovery impossible by adding long-lasting infertility drugs where the efficacy (most often) lasts longer than the natural lifespan of the wild horse that receives it.
The Carter HMA is (genetically) the most unique herd in the state of California. In fact, Carter is one of the most unique herds in the country. The southern part of this HMA is easily accessible and attracts visitors from all over the world to the small town of Cedarville.
“I have taken people from all over the world out to see the Carter mustangs including world renowned photographers,” stated Darice Massey, President of CRMI. “Two photos of the Carter Reservoir Mustangs made it into a book by Oliver Klink whose work has been published in numerous magazines including National Geographic. Visitors are so taken by the Carters they plan repeat trips. It would be devastating to have to tell them It would be a waste of time to take them out to try and find 25 horses in the entire HMA.”
The over 300,000 acre New Years Lake Herd Area (HA) was gutted down to a mere 23,000 acres for Carter almost immediately after the 1971 law to protect wild horses was codified. No existing data-based review can be found that demonstrates anything beyond agreements and conveniences for the acreage loss.
In BLMs own documents there is absolutely no data-based analysis only a statement to give “special consideration for the family owned and operated ranch business and lifestyle” and stated goal to increase livestock Animal Unit Months (AUM or the allotted forage) from 13,662 to 28,662 over the next 15 years as they cut wild horses down to only 420 AUMs and a maximum population level of 35 individuals.
In 1992 BLM finalized a roundup plan for the Surprise Complex that initially included the Carter HMA and later eliminated Carter from the plan. “The Carter Reservoir HMA will not be gathered because wild horses use the area to the north, Crooks Lake, much more than the HMA. Before further action is taken on this herd the following will be decided; whether Carter Reservoir and Crooks Lake are suitable wild horse habitat, if the HMA should be enlarged, reasons for using the area to the north. The boundaries of the HMA may be changed. … An evaluation … will be completed prior to any future gather.”
In meeting with BLM staff Laura Leigh, President of WHE, was repeatedly assured that BLM was scheduling a meeting to begin updating management plans for Carter. However, they expressed concerns over the various opinions and how to manage such a meeting.
“Management decisions created for convenience or a pre-determined outcome fly in contradiction of established law,” stated Laura Leigh. “Wild horses have paid too steep a price again and again for BLM’s lack of ethics and kowtowing to cattle. Instead of putting on their ‘big boy pants’ to address varied public options and new data, creating a real science-based planning update as we were promised, BLM simply repeats a cowardly past and finalizes another roundup plan we have no choice but too litigate.”
In documents filed by the groups, they state that BLM has never actually determined what a science-based management level would actually look like and provide a long history of how underlying documents all rely on agreements.
Plaintiffs in the case have a long list of requests of the court. These requests amount to the court requiring BLM to actually do the analysis they have never done regarding boundary lines and numbers of wild horses to protect and sustain a viable herd as the law intended. The wild horse groups state that the current plan was created for administrative ease, fails to address compliance with APA and NEPA, and the intention of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Over the last several years, wild horses and burros managed by the State of California have been under a relentless assault. Population numbers have been driven to drastically low numbers with long-term fertility control measures applied without any valid science-based justification or modern monitoring and management plans. On the 16 million acres of land BLM manages in California and NW Nevada, a target goal of only 1,081 wild horses has been set for the entire state creating isolated and non-viable pockets of wild horses.
Plaintiffs are represented by Greenfire Law, PC in Berkeley, California.
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