Taken 9/19, the day before. North herd. There was also plenty of water in the north.
BLM “estimates” that there are 679 wild horses (not counting 2026 foals) in Jackson Mountains. BLM makes no distinction between the north herd population and the south herd (these two herds are separate).
BLM says they are going to remove 500 wild horses.
From BLM website:”The southern portion of the Jackson Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) is having water and forage shortages due to a large congregation of horses. The demand to the resources from the current population of horses is more than the resource can provide resulting in body condition of horses declining in the area.”
NOTE: Today… BLM began the operation by flying on the north herd.
Repeatedly BLM uses a lack of forage for the south herd to justify removals for the whole HMA. In June of 2012, we shut down a roundup as BLM tried to use a south herd “emergency” (localized in the southeast) to do a helicopter roundup of the entire HMA outside the prohibited foaling season.
These are two distinct populations. In 2012, BLM had to recognize that in the courtroom. Gene Seidlitz, the district manager at the time, said that these deficits would be fixed when the finally did a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) and that an AML would be set for north and south. In 2021, BLM just did another gather EA calling all of the issues (like what would be appropriate management of Jackson North and Jackson South) outside the scope of a gather plan.
After putting Jackson on the roundup schedule in May, BLM finally finalized an HMAP… that also fails to analyze the herds based on facts and further mismanages the herd by crafting the HMAP to basically comply with the existing gather EA! (It is supposed to be the other way around.) That is simply not how this is supposed to work. This leaves the actually validity of the plan to sterilize 30% of the herd beyond “not analyzed” based on facts. (In addition they approve experimental and even gruesome and non effective methods in the plan like burning, gluing, scarring, oviducts of mares).
On August 6, BLM approved the HMAP. On August 24, Wild Horse Education took the first step in legal action against BLM’s August 6 HMAP decision and sought a stay. BLM has filed its response. The federal land-use court has not yet ruled.
Wild Horse Education, through legal counsel, also sent BLM a letter raising the ongoing issues. As expected, BLM is proceeding with the operation. But fertility control such as sterilization will not be part of this operation. Through counsel BLM stated this would remain a removal only.
WHE will continue addressing the issues at Jackson Mountain in the courts. Both the so-called HMAP and old gather plan need to be “kicked to the curb.” Neither is based in fact nor analyzed to sustain a viable population.
Official cumulative numbers:
Captured (official count): 147 (51 Stallions, 64 Mares, and 32 Foals)
Shipped: 115 (36 Stallions, 47 Mares, and 32 Foals) (Without any observation allowed at temporary corrals. Horses are being caught, sorted and shipped to the facility in a single day.)
Note: Wild horses are being shipped to the off-limits to the public facility in Winnemucca where the Wild Horse & Burro Specialist that wrote the gather plan is the manager,
Deaths: 3. BLM said “20+ y/o, buckskin stallion, chronic, blindness. 20+ y/o, bay, mare, chronic, deformity, knee. 13 y/o, bay mare, chronic, defect, previously fractured fetlock.
The “released” horse listed is a stallion that jumped trap (that could not be seen by observers as trap is over a mile away and behind a hill)
Please be aware, BLM weakened the standards in their CAWP program on June 29th, right before helicopter roundup season began. A veterinarian is no longer required to be onsite.
Taken 9/19, the day before the roundup. North herd.
Newer reports will appear at the top. Please be aware that this page will update frequently as information and clarification come in from the field.
09-20-26
Trapping began in the north. Trapping did not begin where BLM asserted and hardship in the south.
Unofficial count: 147 captured. 3 died.
Observation was about a mile and a half from trap.
Screenshot
BLM has stated that the target numbers in the area is 300. This is based on estimates from a 2-year old census. This target of 300 is the bulk of the north herd. The last actual census in the area showed a drop in population of nearly 7%. Documented growth in prior years was 10%. But modeling added nearly 18%. You do not have to do the math, but it shows that there is a risk mathematically that the two distinct populations (north and south) will be left below any semblance of viability.
Could the roundup “urgency” really be to get the horses out of the way of all the mining claims in the north and not the “lack of water and forage” in the south? Just asking questions. The so-called HMAP BLM just approved does not include mitigation measures for loss of habitat or water. You would think trying to figure out “multiple use” would be included by an agency that really likes to throw those words around.
Rough overlay map of mining and HMA/HA areas. The reddish lines are Herd Areas; areas designated for horse/burro use but “no longer managed for their use.” Those areas were zeroed out.
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Fifty-five years after Congress declared wild free-roaming horses and burros “fast disappearing from the American scene,” federal agencies are still driving their numbers down on the public lands meant to protect them.
Relentless removals are aimed at herd targets roughly one-third below the numbers found when Congress acted in 1971.
And the failures do not end there. After more than five decades, wild horses and burros still lack enforceable federal welfare standards that protect them through capture, confinement, transport, and disposition. Agencies continue to remove them without ensuring they are safeguarded from the slaughter pipeline.
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