Judges Debate Wild Horse Protections in California's Modoc County

A legal battle in California's remote Modoc County has captured the attention of one of the nation's top courts, with wild horse protection and property rights at stake. This case could set a precedent for future public-lands conflicts as the new administration takes charge.

Animal advocates are pushing for more land within the Modoc National Forest to be designated for wild horses, while ranchers fear losing rangeland for cattle grazing. The legal dispute might foreshadow other public-lands conflicts as the incoming Trump administration begins to influence agencies like the Forest Service.

“This is one of the most significant wild horse populations left in California,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the Davis, California-based American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign).

Modoc County, located in California's far northeast corner, has fewer than 10,000 residents. Approximately half of the county's land is within the 1.3 million-acre national forest, which enhances federal officials' influence and occasionally causes conflicts with residents. It's a region where political movements like the Sagebrush Rebellion take root.

This case, however, sees ranchers aligning with the Forest Service.

In an oral argument scheduled for next Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will consider claims made by the American Wild Horse Conservation and its allies. The court, located in Washington, is sometimes referred to as the nation's second-highest due to its extensive authority over federal agencies, meaning its decision could have implications beyond Modoc County.

“This action has important implications for how the Forest Service manages the nearly 200 million acres of national forests,” attorneys for the wild horse advocates stated in a legal brief.

The 30-minute oral argument stems from the Forest Service's 2013 management plan for a section of the Modoc National Forest known as the Devil's Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory. Established in 1975, the territory originally consisted of two parcels totaling 236,000 acres.

The Devil's Garden site is one of 37 federal wild horse or burro territories nationwide.

In the 1980s, the Forest Service adjusted the Devil's Garden borders to create a larger, unified territory, some of which included private land previously used for grazing. The agency recognized these new borders in a 1991 forest plan. However, the 2013 management plan reduced the territory back to its original 1975 layout.

The 2013 change cut the expanded wild horse territory by 25,000 acres, reverting it to its original size and setting a maximum wild horse population of 402.

“We’re trying to prevent the Forest Service from reducing the size of their habitat,” Roy explained, noting that “it’s all being driven by the ranching interests in the area.”

The California Cattlemen’s Association, state farm bureau, and others supporting the smaller territory expressed concerns in a legal brief about the “unprecedented wild horse population explosions that have spilled over onto adjacent private lands and into government-funded offsite holding facilities.”

“Over the past decade, the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory population has exploded to reach 1,124 horses,” the farm groups wrote, adding that “wild horses have even been observed on private property far from the wild horse territory.”

In a 2015 ruling, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson upheld the Forest Service’s action as administratively justifiable.

“At the time the Devil’s Garden territory was established, the Forest Service concluded that the disputed territory did not qualify as the territorial habitat of wild free-roaming horses,” Jackson stated in her 50-page opinion.

The challengers appealing Jackson’s decision argue in legal filings that the disputed territory “is, and always has been, prime wild horse habitat.”

Originally posted by The Sacramento Bee