In just a couple of weeks, BLM is set to capture nearly every wild horse from Saylor Creek in Idaho. But did they do the appropriate review?
BLM published a Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) in April for public comment and they have not published the final, formal copy. The DNA ties to the 2019 plan and says there is no reason for them to do another review. The DNA says the estimated population is 129. The roundup schedule targets 150 for capture and 22 to be released with a vague “fertility control.”
New legal precedent disallows BLM to continue to use “gather plans” after AML is reached. In other legal precedent it is worded that BLM cannot remove more horses than contemplated in any gather plan.
We called the BLM. This gather is still moving forward but may be delayed a week (we will keep an eye on the schedule).
A look at the “legal space” this decision occupies
The Bureau of Land Management should not finalize the current Determination of NEPA Adequacy for Saylor Creek or proceed with the scheduled gather on that basis.
The central problem is not simply whether BLM now claims the herd is above AML, but whether the agency can lawfully continue to rely on the 2019 Environmental Assessment after that decision was already implemented to the point of reaching AML in 2020.
In 2019, BLM approved the Saylor Creek gather plan through Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-ID-T010-2019-0006-EA and stated that the decision authorized removal of excess wild horses and, upon reaching Appropriate Management Level, application of fertility control.BLM’s own public materials tied that decision to a management objective of reducing the herd to AML 50.
In 2020, BLM carried out the gather and then publicly stated that 11 horses were released back to the HMA, bringing the population to the Appropriate Management Level of 50.
That statement matters because it shows BLM treated the 2019 decision as fully implemented: the agency removed horses, returned a small number, and declared that AML had been reached.
Once AML was reached under the 2019 decision, the legal basis for continuing to remove horses under that same NEPA document was exhausted. If BLM now believes the herd is again above AML, the agency must make a new excess determination and support a new removal decision with fresh or supplemental NEPA analysis rather than stretching the 2019 EA forward through a DNA.
That is a core area of legal concern at Saylor Creek.
BLM may assert in the current DNA that the herd exceeds AML today, but that does not answer the legal question. A DNA is only appropriate when an existing NEPA document still adequately covers the proposed action. It cannot turn a completed EA into a perpetual authorization for future removals after the original AML target was achieved. “Over AML” is not the same as a determination of excess wild horses or burros.
This matters even more because BLM has placed Saylor Creek on the gather schedule even before the DNA was formally finalized, while proposing to capture nearly every wild horse, reaching under AML and release only a small number to reach AML after fertility control. This is exactly what they did in 2019 and BLM must, according to current caselaw, do a new EA that fully reviews the range, the herd and establishes new goals after appropriate analysis.
The court is very clear about this issue. The D.C. Circuit Court ruled the BLM cannot rely on the same Environmental Assessment (EA) to continually round up horses once an Appropriate Management Level (AML) has been achieved. The court held that BLM’s 10-year plans authorizing repeated removals are unlawful.
The public should not be forced to file repetitive and expensive litigation over the same issues again and again. Once a court ruling is clear, BLM should be doing all they can to comply with the law and not taking shortcuts.
Click HERE and join us in sending a letter to BLM. Deadline to sign is June 25th.
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!
