The horses who call Wyoming's White Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) home need your help! 

This area is home to beautiful paints, bays, sorrels, and roans. The wild horses of White Mountain are seen along the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Tour loop, which is an important ecotourism resource for the area.

The White Mountain wild horses live on nearly 400,000 acres of public and private lands and yet the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allows for an Appropriate Management Level (AML) of just 205-300 wild horses. This population level was set in 1997 and has not been changed since. The BLM authorizes extensive summer and winter cattle and sheep grazing in the HMA and its surroundings. 

Now, the agency plans to remove 586 White Mountain horses, bringing the population down to the low AML of 205 horses, leaving behind just one horse per 1,917 acres in the HMA! 

What's worse, the BLM is basing the removal number on a 2022 census, conducted before the extremely harsh winter of 2023 caused heavy mortality for wildlife, including wild horses, across Wyoming. Instead, the BLM is claiming that while the winter severely affected other wildlife species, it did not result in significant mortality in the White Mountain herd. Instead, the BLM is claiming this population has grown by 31 percent over two years.  

Instead of undergoing the proper National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process, including issuing an Environmental Assessment (EA) to analyze the impacts of the proposed roundup on the current population, the BLM has issued a Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) based on an EA released in 2021. This unmerited and unexplained deviation from agency practice does not address the substantial differences from the 2021 EA, necessitating a new EA process. 

Before the BLM undergoes any roundup, it must complete an accurate and scientific population estimate to have an accurate population count as well as undergo a full Environmental Assessment to ensure a thriving natural ecological balance. Further, it must consider the use of humane, reversible fertility control in any further management planning. 

Speak up now for the White Mountain wild horses and add your name to AWHC's comments!