Ranchers and BLM Reach Settlement Over Wyoming Wild Horses

CHEYENNE — A legal settlement between ranchers and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will reduce wild horse numbers by about half in the Red Desert of southwest Wyoming. This decision has sparked significant controversy among wild horseadvocacygroups.

Under the agreement, theBLMwill allow no more than 1,050 wild horses in four herd areas, down from the current population of just under 2,000 horses in those areas north and south of Rock Springs. Many remaining horses will be sterilized or receivefertility controltreatments to prevent reproduction.

Wild horseadvocacygroups that intervened in the case objected, stating that the settlement threatened to "wipe out" wild horses in the area.

TheBLMcontends that the settlement will maintain wild horses in southwest Wyoming while meeting a requirement under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act for the government to remove wild horses from private property when requested.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal in Cheyenne approved the settlement. The settlement requires theBLMto round up horses to meet the new herd target numbers. Roundups will occur through 2015, or 2016 if the population objectives aren't met by then.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in 2011 by the Rock Springs Grazing Association, a group of ranchers who run cattle on a vast area of southwest Wyoming known as the Checkerboard. The area is a mix of public and private land that dates to federal land grants for the Continental Railroad.

Not nearly enough fencing exists to keep wild horses off the Checkerboard's private tracts. Ranchers claim that horses damage the range and compete with cattle for forage, especially at water sources.

The association alleged theBLMallowed wild horse numbers to reach at least 4,700, almost three times the maximum number theBLMpreviously agreed to allow in the early 1980s.

The association's president, John Hay, of Rock Springs, declined to comment.

Wild horseadvocacygroups — the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), The Cloud Foundation, and the International Society for the Preservation of Wild Mustangs and Burros — objected to the settlement.

Wild horse numbers will be reduced in four herd areas as follows:

• The Salt Wells herd area south of Rock Springs, which currently has 686 horses and is supposed to have been managed to sustain between 251 and 365 horses, will be managed for zero horses. Roundups will occur if the population exceeds 200.
• The Divide Basin herd area northeast of Rock Springs, currently home to 527 horses and managed for a population of between 415 and 600 horses, will be managed for zero horses. Roundups will occur if the population exceeds 100.
• The Adobe Town herd area southeast of Rock Springs, which now has 520 horses and is managed for between 619 and 800 horses, will be managed for between 225 and 450 horses under the settlement.
• The White Mountain herd area northwest of Rock Springs, which has 246 horses, will continue to be managed for between 205 and 300 horses but with a goal of keeping the population at the low end of that range.

TheBLMwill consider usingfertility controlmethods, as well as spaying mares and gelding stallions, to limit the size of the White Mountain and Adobe Town herds.

Originally Posted By Associated Press