The USDA Forest Service began gathering 350 wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory on September 2, 2025.

The Modoc National Forest remains committed to managing wild free-roaming horses in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use condition on public lands.

The Modoc National Forest has contracted CD Warner Livestock, LLC. to conduct the gather. Gather contractors will utilize mechanized equipment and bait traps to gather horses. If you come across a livestock corral in the forest, please avoid the area.

At Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sales and adoption events, wild Mustangs and burros continue to surface in kill pens—despite explicit federal rules prohibiting this outcome.

Public Comment DUE

The BLM is proposing to manage wild horse populations in the Callaghan Wild Horse Complex through gathers to maintain Appropriate Management Levels (AML) and address resource concerns like overgrazing, water scarcity, and rangeland health. ​ However, the report highlights the importance of balancing wild horse management with other factors like livestock grazing, drought, and invasive species, while considering humane and sustainable alternatives such as fertility control and improved water infrastructure.

BLM Cancels Plan to Expand East Pershing Complex

One of the goals was to sterilize approximately 30 percent of the low-AML population of each herd, even though it was not approved in the 2018 decision.

FERAL VS WILD

Why is it important to distinguish the two? 

We need to start standing for the term wild. If you see it in an article or headline, write a respectful letter or comment:

“Per the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, these horses are legally considered wild—not feral. Please correct the terminology.”

The word feral is used to downplay the significance of Wild Horses and their value to the American People.

Clarifying the Wild Horse Protection Issue:

There’s been a lot of confusion circulating online about the safety of the 65,000 wild horses currently in holding. Many posts are mistakenly claiming that "protective wording was left out of the federal budget." In truth, this is not a budget issue.

The Army announced Tuesday that it's moving toward a future without ceremonial horses and will put most of them up for adoption.

BLM to conduct Muddy Creek wild horse gather in Emery County

Continued drought conditions including a lack of forage, available water, and an overpopulation of wild horses is prompting the Bureau of Land Management to initiate an emergency removal of excess horses.

BLM is offering a public tour of the closed to the public off-range wild horse corrals and wild burro pastures July 7, 9am to noon. Attendees will have the chance to tour the facility and ask questions about the animals being held there and about the Wild Horse and Burro program.

Inconsistencies in decision-making and documentation, particularly concerning wild horse Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs), and notes that reductions in wild horse populations are often actual, while livestock reductions are frequently "paper" adjustments from permit preferences.

Despite growing public outcry, Congress is taking no meaningful action to protect America’s wild horses and burros

The BLM plans to take emergency actions to gather wild horses impacted by drought-stricken areas located within the Muddy Creek Herd Management Area on or around Jun. 24.  Gather operations will utilize temporary bait and water traps consisting of a series of corral panels enticed with water and/or forage; no helicopter will be used.   

The gather will help balance the number of horses to what the rangeland can sustainably support, due to severe drought conditions. The Muddy Creek HMA is located in Emery County, approximately 20 miles south of Ferron, Utah, in the San Rafael Swell region.  It consists of approximately 283,400 acres of public and state lands.

What does this mean for the Wild Horses on these HMA’s?

The Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act, would create a land health management program on federal lands in Malheur County, Oregon.

Herd Management Area Plans (HMAPs) do not constitute instruments of resource allocation.

They do not possess the legal authority to alter existing allocations of resources, including but not limited to authorized livestock grazing levels.

Rather, HMAPs function to ratify, endorse, or give administrative sanction to resource allocations already established through prior land use planning decisions or permits.

Accordingly, modifications to livestock grazing authorizations cannot be effectuated through a decision related to a wild horse or burro gather.

The horse-drawn caissons of the 3rd Infantry Regiment that have carried the caskets of deceased service members to gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery since 1948 are scheduled to formally resume service on June 2 after a two-year suspension over concerns for the herd's health and welfare

The proposed 2026 budget for the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program is significantly reduced, potentially impacting the program's ability to provide care and management for the horses and burros in its custody.

Even more alarming is the possibility that the budget proposal removes long-standing appropriations language that prohibits the destruction or sale of healthy wild horses and burros for slaughter. If this protection is stripped away, it could pave the way for the mass killing or export of captive wild horses for slaughter, in direct contradiction to the intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which recognizes these animals as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West.”

The Environmental Assessment (EA) cites 16 U.S.C. § 1333(b)(1) of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA) on page 169 as direct authorization for using PZP and GonaCon-Equine for contraception. This interpretation is flawed because the cited statute solely permits sterilization for management purposes. The EA lacks explicit legal support for employing these substances merely to decelerate population growth, which is the primary goal stated for most PZP and GonaCon applications.

The Silver King HMA, covering 575,460 acres, allocates an estimated 30,356 Animal Unit Months (AUMs) annually to livestock across its grazing allotments, significantly outpacing resources for wild horses.

30 DAY PUBLIC COMMENT STARTED MAY 23,2025