The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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Carol Walker
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The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses By Carol J. Walker

This year while their Department of Tourism runs television ads touting the joys of visiting their wild horse herds, Wyoming's dirty little secret is that the most powerful grazing association in the country has targeted them for elimination.

In the spring, the Bureau of Land Management, the agency charged with the management of wild horses on our public lands, announced their intentions to round up and remove wild horses from two herds in Wyoming - The White Mountain Herd and the Great Divide Basin Herd, both in the Red Desert. This time there was a new option offered in their Decision Records - spaying all the mares and gelding all the stallions to be released back onto the range, creating sterilized herds.

Immediately upon the release of the Environmental Assessment that selected this option for the White Mountain Herd, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign got into action with a lawsuit to stop the BLM from establishing this very dangerous precedent.

But what was behind the BLM's rash decision? The demands of the Rock Springs Grazing Association. Four of the largest wild horse herds in the country, Adobe Town, Salt Wells, White Mountain and Great Divide Basin, with over 3 million acres are the target because of the checkerboard of public and private lands that run through them.
Despite an agreement worked out in the 80s between the grazing association, the BLM and wild horse advocates as to how many wild horses would be allowed to roam in these vast areas, now the Rock Springs Grazing Association has decided that all of the wild horses need to be removed from all public as well as private lands. And when they say "jump!" the BLM asks "how high?" the Rock Springs Grazing Association has brought a lawsuit against the BLM demanding the removal of all the wild horses in these areas, which is more than half of all Wyoming's wild horses.

Fortunately, three organizations fighting to save wild horses have been allowed by the judge to intervene in this lawsuit and represent the interests of the wild horses: The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, The Cloud Foundation and the International Society for the Preservation of Wild Horses and Burros.

This issue has received attention recently from the BBC: "What to Do with Wyoming's Wild Horses?" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15599367

And in a series of articles from Andrew Cohen at The Atlantic: "The Quiet War Against Wyoming's Wild Horses" http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc ... es/243286/


In the past two years it has been proven again and again that nothing is stopping or even slowing the BLM in their campaign to make the wild horses in the West only a memory except litigation. The outcome of this lawsuit will be crucial in determine the fate of Wyoming's wild horses. You can donate here for the legal fees in the Intervention:
The Cloud Foundation: http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index ... wsuit-fund
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Last edited by Carol Walker on Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Carol Walker
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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Wild stallions in a pen after being rounded up from Great Divide Basin in front of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, that they will never see again. They will be transported to a holding facility in Utah.
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Last edited by Carol Walker on Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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This small band is curious about me, and comes close to investigate. The Great Divide Basin Roundup has begun, and I hope they will hide from the helicopters.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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The helicopter drives the horses into the trap at the Great Divide Basin Roundup.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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The vastness of the Red Desert can be appreciated when seeing how small this wild stallion is against the mountains in the Great Divide Basin.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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The pens at the Rock Springs Holding Facility - if the Rock Springs Grazing Association has their way, this will be the only way people will be able to see wild horses near Rock Springs.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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A helicopter drives the horses toward the trap at the Great Divide Basin Roundup in Wyoming.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

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In May before the roundup, this mare and her yearling and foal are unaware of what awaits them in the fall - the probability that they will be removed from their home in the Red Desert forever, and never see each other again.
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Re: The Fight to Save Wyoming's Wild Horses

Post by bevpettit »

Thanks for this great story Carol. Also for the wonderful pictures.
Bev Pettit Fine Art Equine Photography
Bev@BevPettit.com
http://www.BevPettit.com
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