Forest Service Plans to Remove 500 More Devil’s Garden Wild Horses

July 20, 2023: During its 2023 Motorized Equipment Hearing held on Monday, July 17th, the US Forest Service announced a helicopter roundup targeting 500 Devil’s Garden horses this fall. This operation marks the removal of 3,500 wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory since 2016. The Territory, covering 258,000 acres, is located in the Modoc National Forest in northeast California.

The roundup is scheduled to begin in early to mid-September and last between 30 and 35 days. The Forest Service has not announced the contractor. The Appropriate Management Level for the Devil’s Garden herd is set between 206 and 402 horses.

Two participants, both AWHC staff members, attended the virtual meeting and submitted comments opposing the roundup and removal of these federally-protected wild horses. They provided the following numbers to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the roundup and removals:

• In 2016, the spring census estimated 2,246 adult horses on the Territory. This year’s spring census estimated 1,339 adult horses. Despite removing 3,001 horses over the past 7 years, the population has only decreased by 907 horses.
• In 2020, the Forest Service estimated 1,663 adult horses, and the 2021 spring census estimated 1,926 adult horses. Despite removing 506 horses in the fall of 2020, the number increased by 263 between 2020 and 2021.
• In 2022, the spring census estimated 1,205 adult horses, and this year’s spring census estimated 1,339 adult horses. Despite removing 389 horses last fall, the number increased by 134 horses between 2022 and 2023.

Importantly, more than one hundred horses and foals have died due to these operations. In contrast, AWHC noted that our PZP fertility control program on the Virginia Range in Nevada is successfully reducing the population of that wild horse herd humanely and sustainably.

This summer, the Forest Service is releasing a Draft EA that includes an analysis of the excluded 23,000-acre Middle Section of the Territory and an unspecified fertility control program.

AWHC staff emphasized that this is an opportune time for the Forest Service to change course. We respectfully requested that the agency:

• Impose a moratorium on all removals of Devil’s Garden wild horses from the Territory;
• Manage the remaining horses in the wild with a PZP fertility control program and reallocate forage resources to balance horses and livestock more equitably;
• Implement rangeland improvements on the Territory;
• If removals are necessary, relocate captured wild horses to other Active Territories or reevaluated Inactive Territories that can support wild herds.