Comprehensive Roundup Updates Across the West
Summer roundup season is in full swing with four wild horse roundups currently underway across three states. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) has field representatives on the ground at each of these operations to bring you the latest updates.
Bible Springs Complex, Cedar City, UT
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to round up and remove approximately 450 wild horses from BLM-administered and other lands within and near the Blawn Wash Herd Management Area (HMA) and Bible Spring Complex HMA beginning August 7, 2022. The herds are located in Iron and Beaver counties, approximately 45 miles west of Cedar City, Utah, and accessible via the Lund Highway.
The Bible Springs Complex encompasses the Four Mile, Tilly Creek, and Bible Springs Herd Management Areas (HMA). The BLM sets an arbitrary population limit of just 80 to 170 wild horses in total across these three areas:
- Tilly Creek HMA: 37,000 acres, BLM only permits 20-50 horses
- Bible Springs HMA: 62,000 acres, BLM only permits 30-60 horses
- Four Mile HMA: 61,000 acres, BLM only permits 30-60 horses
Meanwhile, the BLM permits 16 grazing allotments within the HMAs:
- 1,674 sheep and 313 cows graze in 100% of the HMAs
- 702 cows graze in 90-94% of the HMAs
- 2,029 additional cows are permitted to graze partially within the HMAs
Since 2014, AWHC has been involved in litigation against the ranchers in this area who sought to eliminate hundreds of federally-protected wild horses from the HMA to reduce competition for grazing domestic livestock.
Twin Peaks HMA
On July 23, 2022, the BLM began its roundup and removal of one of California’s largest wild horse herds from the 800,000-acre Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA) along the California-Nevada border in Lassen County, Calif. and Washoe County, Nev.
The BLM plans to capture approximately 2,000 wild horses and remove approximately 1,800 from the range. The plan also calls for capturing and removing 339 wild burros. The BLM plans to treat only 110 mares with a fertility control vaccine and release them back onto the range.
Blue Wing Complex, Lovelock, Nevada
On August 1, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Humboldt River Field Office began a roundup and removal of the wild horses and burros from the Blue Wing Complex in Nevada. The complex has five Herd Management Areas and four Herd Areas which encompass over 2,283,000 acres, and the BLM has set the Appropriate Management Level (AML) of a mere 333-553 wild horses and 55-90 wild burros!
The BLM plans to remove approximately 200 wild horses and 800 wild burros.
Triple B Complex, Ely, Nevada
On July 17, 2022, the BLM began the roundup and removal of wild horses from the Triple B Complex, an enormous public lands area made up of the Triple B, Maverick Medicine, and Antelope Valley HMAs. The BLM sets an arbitrary population limit, the Appropriate Management Level (AML) of just 482-821 wild horses on 1.2 million acres.
The goal of the roundup is to remove up to 1,800 of these iconic mustangs from their natural habitat in an effort to reduce the wild horse population on rangelands where approximately 7,300 privately-owned cattle or 36,000 sheep are authorized to graze either wholly or partially within the wild horse Complex each year. Powerful ranchers, like the Goicoechea family (State Senator Pete Goicoechea and his son, former Nevada State Veterinarian, JJ Goicoechea) hold permits to graze their livestock on our public lands in the area at vastly below market rates that are subsidized with our tax dollars. The more political clout these federally-subsidized ranchers have, the more likely they are to secure large wild horse roundups on the public lands where their livestock graze.
What You Can Do
Take Action: Ask Your Member of Congress to Co-Sponsor the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act