Wyoming RSGA vs. DOI Litigation: A Battle Over Wild Horses

In Wyoming, the fix against wild horses has been in since 2010. That's when former Assistant Interior Secretary Sylvia Baca advised the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) to sue the Interior Department as a strategy to secure funding for wild horseroundups. The strategy worked: On July 27, 2011, the RSGA sued the Interior Department, seeking the removal of all the wild horses in theWyoming Checkerboard, a two million acre swath of alternating parcels of public and private land in the southern part of the state. The move affects four major wild horseHerd Management Areasin Wyoming -- Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin and the White Mountain -- where half of the state's remaining wild horse populations reside.

American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), The Cloud Foundation, the International Society for the Protection ofMustangsand Burros, and wild horse photographer Carol Walker were granted the right to intervene in the case. Nevertheless, as expected, the government settled the case by giving the RSGA what they wanted -- the destruction of the wild herds in this critically-important habitat region. The consent decree was approved by Judge Nancy Freudenthal, wife of former Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, who wasvery anti-wild horseduring his tenure in Cheyenne. In the decree, the Bureau of Land Management agreed to: zero out the Salt Wells Creek and Divide Basin HMAs, cut the allowable population level in Adobe Town by half or more, and sterilize all the horses in the White Mountain HMA. The BLM then mischaracterized thisagreementas acourt orderto remove all the horses in the Checkerboard, and used it as an excuse to violate both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wild Horse Act in yearlyroundupsin this area.

The government's betrayal of Wyomingmustangswas exposed by award-winning journalist Andrew Cohen in a series of articles, includingHow the Department of Interior Sold Out America's Wild Horses.

Press Releases:

• Federal Court Sanctions Gov’t Plans to Eliminate Wild Free-Roaming Horses from Wyoming Checkerboard
• Big Oil & Cattle vs. America's Wild Horses: Showdown in Wyoming Federal Court
• BLM to Begin Massive Wyoming Wild Horse Roundup to Appease Ranchers
• Gov't to Get Rid of Wild Horses on Wyoming Checkerboard
• Federal Court Grants Wild Horse Groups’ Request to Intervene in Grazing Association Lawsuit Aiming to Destroy Nearly Half of Wyoming’s Wild Horse Herds
• BLM Ignores Tens of Thousands of Public Comments; Gallops Ahead with Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout

News:

• On Wyoming's Range, Water is Scarce but Welfare is Plenty
• How the Department of Interior Sold Out America's Wild Horses
• The Quiet War Against Wyoming Wild Horses
• On Wyoming's Wild Horses, the BLM Unambitiously Responds
• Intervenor Status Gives Wildhorse Advocates Voice
• Judge Allows Wild Horse Advocates to Join Wyoming Case
• Wyoming Group Sues BLM Over Mustangs' Grazing Habits
• Wild mustangs spared roundup in Wyoming for now

Legal Documents:

• RSGA Complaint
• Order Granting AWHPC, et. al. Intervenor status
• Response Brief to RSGA Complaint
• Proposed Consent Decree
• Intervenors' Objections to Consent Decree
• Eisenhauer Declaration in Support of Intervenors' Opposition
• Order Approving Final Consent Decree
• Final Consent Decree

Eyewitness Reports:

• Salt Wells, Wyoming Roundup, Nov 22 - Dec 4, 2013