A followup article on the USFS Motorized Vehicle Hearing by WHE welfare team assistant director Colette Kaluza addressing the lack of accountability by both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and United States Forest Service (USFS).
On June 8, people cleared their schedules for what was supposed to be a rare chance to speak directly about the proposed use of helicopters and other motorized vehicles to round up and remove 300-500 wild horses from the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory on the CA/NV line—and about the impacts on the horses themselves. With roundups beginning in early July, many saw this as one of the last chances to be heard before helicopters return to wild horse country.
The hearing was capped at just one hour, and technical glitches quickly ate into that already narrow window. People were dropped, could not connect, or never got a turn to speak at all. When attendees asked for a “do-over,” simply to be fully heard, those requests went unanswered.
Local coverage has already reflected that experience. In The Sheet’s “Digging in Their Hooves,” Wild Horse Education representative Marie Milliman is quoted calling out the lack of meaningful response to public comments and urging the Forest Service to provide a formal written response, as in NEPA reviews.
Although this article begins with the June 8 US Forest Service hearing, the core problem is not unique to the Forest Service. The same lack of accountability for harms caused, and the same failure to reform, also apply to Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
What these hearings are supposed to be
In 1976, when Congress amended the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), it carved out a narrow allowance: helicopters and motor vehicles could be used to round up and transport captured wild horses and burros—but only if federal agencies held an annual public hearing and considered public concerns.
That requirement was the condition that came with authorizing the use of machinery that can terrorize, injure, and kill. Low-flying aircraft driving horses over rough terrain, foals struggling to keep up, and burros pushed beyond their limits were not meant to become routine, unquestioned practices. Congress understood the stakes enough to insist that the public have a formal opportunity to present evidence, raise welfare concerns, and demand change.
These hearings should be one of the strongest accountability moments available. They are supposed to force agencies to confront evidence of harm and respond in writing with a clear analysis of the issues raised and the actions needed to improve the safety and use of motorized vehicles during wild horse and burro roundups.
Instead, they have become something very different: a performance of participation with none of the substance.
USFS is required to hold these hearings, yet still refuses to respond to public comments. At the October 2024 hearing, it stated: “An annual public hearing is required to comply with Section 404 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) when using a helicopter, fixed wing aircraft and other mechanized equipment to conduct population surveys or gathers on wild horse territories.”
For the June 8 hearing, USFS added: “The Forest Service does not respond to public comments from the hearing in the same way that it does to public comments that are part of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses of particular wild horse management alternatives.”
Dangerous air quality and excessive roping during heat waves. This is wildfire smoke blowing in from hundreds of miles away. Instead of pausing, BLM orders the contractor to push hard.
What actually happens
What the public does not see is what Congress intended when it required these hearings: no written analysis of what was raised, no visible changes to on-the-ground practices, and no updated welfare protections that reflect what is now known about heat stress, air quality, foaling risk, or the longterm toll of repeated helicopter pressure on herds.
Meanwhile, every gather Environmental Assessment points back to these hearings as if they satisfied NEPA’s requirement to analyze the physical impacts of helicopter gathers on the horses and burros themselves. The result is a vicious circle: a hearing that does not function as a hearing is used to justify a gatherEA that does not function as a real analysis.
The human and animal cost
With roundups set to begin again in early July, the stakes are high. The public’s frustration is not simply about process; it is about animal suffering and its impact on the American conscience. Watching national symbols of freedom terrorized, injured, or killed leaves a deep mark on the American psyche and clashes with the basic decency people expect from government.
People who testify at these hearings have watched, or know of, wild horses run to exhaustion, slam into fencing, collapse or die in trailers after being chased too far, be pursued or even dragged by ATVs, and suffer injuries that never had to happen. Documentation also shows newborn foals left behind, heavily pregnant mares pushed too hard, burros driven in ways that spike panic and injury, and repeated exposure to dangerous heat index, smoke, and degraded air quality, and the cumulative stress of repeated helicopter pressure on herds.
Year after year, advocates bring practical requests: use current veterinary guidance for Heat Index and AQI limits; protect foaling season; prohibit ATVs from chasing wild horses and burros; set minimum helicopter altitudes and distances; ban helicopter trapping for wild burros; set clear limits on trailer speeds and road conditions; and impose real consequences when standards are violated.
Year after year, they are met with silence.
below: ATV used to rope a horse
CAWP, borrowed standards, and the enforcement gap
As long as motorized vehicle hearings are held in ways that limit participation and avoid meaningful response, they cannot serve their intended purpose. As long as gather-EAs ignore the most obvious, direct impact of a helicopter gather—the intense physical and psychological stress on the animals themselves—they fail as environmental analysis.
That silence sends a message: the agencies will proceed as they always have, and the “hearing” exists to protect the program, not the animals—or the public’s right to influence how they are treated.
BLM maintains a centralized public archive page for motorized vehicle hearings, but it does not include written public comments and shows zero agency responses. USFS does not maintain a similar page.
The U.S. Forest Service has not developed its own animal welfare program*. Instead, it has simply borrowed BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP)—a program that itself has never been formalized through rulemaking. BLM drafted CAWP under litigation pressure in 2015 and promised to review and revise the standards with veterinary science, release them for public comment, and finalize them as enforceable rules. That promise has not been fulfilled.
*USFS attached Appendix 3, EA DOI-BLM-CA-C070-2024-0001-EA_MontgomeryPass, are the CAWP standards with minor modifications including Transportation and Euthanasia to include USFS citations.
CAWP governs every stage of contact with the system
Beyond motorized vehicles, CAWP is supposed to govern all phases of handling and management of wild horses and burros—from life on the range, through roundup, transport, holding, adoption, and sale. When CAWP is vague, optional, or unenforced, it leaves animals exposed at every stage of contact with the system, not just when the helicopters fly.
CAWP must include transparent, science-based standards subject to regular review and revision. They should be grounded in accepted equine welfare practices, informed by independent veterinary expertise, open to public participation, and enforceable in the field. They must be clear, concise, enforceable, and not subject to agency interpretation or convenience. They must also address worsening threats such as elevated Heat Index, degraded air quality (AQI), and wildfire smoke.
Note: UC Davis was a paid contractor BLM engaged to help create the draft CAWP standards. Yet basic UC Davis guidance on cold and heat indexes and air quality for equines did not make it into the version of the CAWP standards BLM published. The amount BLM paid UC Davis is unknown.
The current, non-formalized gather standards allow contractors and agency personnel to engage in conduct that most Americans would find intolerable. Contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, regardless of a documented history of inhumane handling.
Below: ATV used to push wild horse and “assist” in roping
Where power lies
CAWP must become what it was always supposed to be: formal, enforceable welfare standards grounded in veterinary science and realized in the field. Congress holds both the purse strings and the authority to direct agencies to formalize CAWP through rulemaking and tie funding to compliance. Through appropriations and specific directives, lawmakers can require science-based standards, public comment, and accountability.
Our voices still matter
With roundups set to begin again in early July, we will keep writing about this, documenting it, and talking about it. The next step is to take this directly to the people in Congress who have the power to change the law—and to require formal, enforceable CAWP standards that actually protect wild horses and burros at every stage of handling.
Be persistent. Tell your members of Congress: formalize CAWP now. Click HERE.
Every court case we bring, every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support. Thank you!
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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