How to help these wyoming herds
There has been a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Checkerboard herds: www.westernwatersheds.org/2024/08/wild-horse-and-environmental-groups-file-notice-of-appeal-to-challenge-court-decision-allowing-largest-ever-eradication-of-wild-horses/nge-court-decision-allowing-largest-ever-eradication-of-wild-horses/ The initial lawsuit was lost in a WY District Courtroom in August 2024, but the groups involved in the lawsuit have filed an appeal in Colorado.
We do hope the lawsuit is successful, HOWEVER, the Bureau of Land Management has rounded up wild horses and burros during a pending lawsuit or appeal many times in the past. "The court order, issued Wednesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, gives the BLM broad discretion to eliminate Herd Management Areas and start rounding up wild horses as early as October 1, directly contradicting the plain language of the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act." That decision means BLM can go and start removing and zeroing out the Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, and Divide Basin Herd Management Areas, and start reducing the Adobe Town Herd Management Area by 60%, as of October 1st this year.
UPDATE: The new FY24/25 roundup schedule came out and the Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town HMAs have been added. The roundup date is currently set for July 15, 2025 and the Bureau of Land Management plans to permanently remove 3,624 wild horses with the goal to zero out the Salt Wells Creek HMA and reduce the Adobe Town HMA by 60%.
We CANNOT and SHOULD NOT wait for the results of the appeal. We need to be proactive, not reactive. If we wait, BLM can and will start permanently removing these herds.
HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO NOW:
This is a postcard and letter writing campaign that includes many ways to make your voices heard:
#1 Order postcards here or create your own (it's important to use the same message on the back for continuity, see below) or write a letter; I have created postcards that have the message pre-printed on the back and the same messaging is below under The Messages
#2 Address the postcards or your letter.
• The Moratorium message should be sent to your federal legislators (US Rep and both US Senators); please mail the postcards to both their local state office address and their Washington, DC address
• For the tourism message, mail only to the Wyoming state legislators (see addresses below)
#3 Take a photo of you mailing your postcards/letters and share it online or send it to me via a PM on www.facebook.com/saveourwildhorses When sharing online, use the hashtag #wildhorsepostcards
#4 Tag your US Representative, both US Senators, and the White House including President Biden & Vice President Harris in your online posts sharing your postcard/letters and on all wild horse & burro posts using the @ symbol and their name(s)
#5 Use this click-n-send created by our friends at CHWHA: (coming soon)
#6 Email the Moratorium message to the White House: President Biden at www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
and Vice President Harris at and www.whitehouse.gov/contact/vicepresident/
#7 Email the Moratorium message to your US Representative and both US Senators (go to each of their websites and use their Contact pages)
#8 A week later, call your US Representative and ask if they received your postcard and email; give them the Moratorium message again and ask if they have any questions. Make sure to get the email address of the staffer who can help you with additional wild horse & public lands requests.
#9 Ask others to get involved - friends and family! Are you a teacher? Get your students to send postcards or letters with drawings or wild horses.
#10 Write a Letter to the Editor and send to your local paper; see example below
The goal is to send postcards/letters now and again in late January.
It is very important that we stick to talking points that will focus on the Wyoming wild horse herds that are being permanently removed. No talk of the SAFE Act please. The SAFE Act is a separate legislative issue and to bring it up will only confuse legislators.
We do hope the lawsuit is successful, HOWEVER, the Bureau of Land Management has rounded up wild horses and burros during a pending lawsuit or appeal many times in the past. "The court order, issued Wednesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, gives the BLM broad discretion to eliminate Herd Management Areas and start rounding up wild horses as early as October 1, directly contradicting the plain language of the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act." That decision means BLM can go and start removing and zeroing out the Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, and Divide Basin Herd Management Areas, and start reducing the Adobe Town Herd Management Area by 60%, as of October 1st this year.
UPDATE: The new FY24/25 roundup schedule came out and the Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town HMAs have been added. The roundup date is currently set for July 15, 2025 and the Bureau of Land Management plans to permanently remove 3,624 wild horses with the goal to zero out the Salt Wells Creek HMA and reduce the Adobe Town HMA by 60%.
We CANNOT and SHOULD NOT wait for the results of the appeal. We need to be proactive, not reactive. If we wait, BLM can and will start permanently removing these herds.
HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO NOW:
This is a postcard and letter writing campaign that includes many ways to make your voices heard:
#1 Order postcards here or create your own (it's important to use the same message on the back for continuity, see below) or write a letter; I have created postcards that have the message pre-printed on the back and the same messaging is below under The Messages
#2 Address the postcards or your letter.
• The Moratorium message should be sent to your federal legislators (US Rep and both US Senators); please mail the postcards to both their local state office address and their Washington, DC address
• For the tourism message, mail only to the Wyoming state legislators (see addresses below)
#3 Take a photo of you mailing your postcards/letters and share it online or send it to me via a PM on www.facebook.com/saveourwildhorses When sharing online, use the hashtag #wildhorsepostcards
#4 Tag your US Representative, both US Senators, and the White House including President Biden & Vice President Harris in your online posts sharing your postcard/letters and on all wild horse & burro posts using the @ symbol and their name(s)
#5 Use this click-n-send created by our friends at CHWHA: (coming soon)
#6 Email the Moratorium message to the White House: President Biden at www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
and Vice President Harris at and www.whitehouse.gov/contact/vicepresident/
#7 Email the Moratorium message to your US Representative and both US Senators (go to each of their websites and use their Contact pages)
#8 A week later, call your US Representative and ask if they received your postcard and email; give them the Moratorium message again and ask if they have any questions. Make sure to get the email address of the staffer who can help you with additional wild horse & public lands requests.
#9 Ask others to get involved - friends and family! Are you a teacher? Get your students to send postcards or letters with drawings or wild horses.
#10 Write a Letter to the Editor and send to your local paper; see example below
The goal is to send postcards/letters now and again in late January.
It is very important that we stick to talking points that will focus on the Wyoming wild horse herds that are being permanently removed. No talk of the SAFE Act please. The SAFE Act is a separate legislative issue and to bring it up will only confuse legislators.
The Messages:
The Moratorium message:
The Bureau of Land Management plans to eradicate the wild horses who live in the Salt Wells Creek, Divide Basin and White Mountain Herd Management Areas (HMA) of southern Wyoming.
Action by Congress and the White House is urgent & critically important to stop this!
An immediate moratorium on all roundups needs to occur until questions can be answered as to the mismanagement of BLM's Wild Horse & Burro Program.
The BLM wants to remove every single horse from these three herd areas in Wyoming starting very soon. Eliminating these herds, while still allowing livestock grazing, is not managing our wild horses.
The Tourism message:
People travel from all over the US and from around the world to see and spend time with Wyoming's wild horses. The Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, and Divide Basin herds are loved by thousands of people who spend money in the town of Rock Springs to see the wild horses. To allow the RSGA to dictate what happens with these herds while ignoring the tourism impacts, ...(more to come)
Addresses:
Find out who your US Representative and US Senators are here: www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member then go to each of their websites and scroll down to the bottom of the Home page. The local state address and DC office address will be listed. If your legislator has more than on local state address, pick the one that is in the biggest city available. Make note of the phone number to their DC office.
The Moratorium message:
The Bureau of Land Management plans to eradicate the wild horses who live in the Salt Wells Creek, Divide Basin and White Mountain Herd Management Areas (HMA) of southern Wyoming.
Action by Congress and the White House is urgent & critically important to stop this!
An immediate moratorium on all roundups needs to occur until questions can be answered as to the mismanagement of BLM's Wild Horse & Burro Program.
The BLM wants to remove every single horse from these three herd areas in Wyoming starting very soon. Eliminating these herds, while still allowing livestock grazing, is not managing our wild horses.
The Tourism message:
People travel from all over the US and from around the world to see and spend time with Wyoming's wild horses. The Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, and Divide Basin herds are loved by thousands of people who spend money in the town of Rock Springs to see the wild horses. To allow the RSGA to dictate what happens with these herds while ignoring the tourism impacts, ...(more to come)
Addresses:
Find out who your US Representative and US Senators are here: www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member then go to each of their websites and scroll down to the bottom of the Home page. The local state address and DC office address will be listed. If your legislator has more than on local state address, pick the one that is in the biggest city available. Make note of the phone number to their DC office.
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For the Wyoming postcards with the Tourism message, mail the cards to:
JT Larson PO Box 8 Rock Springs, WY 82902 Cody Wylie 510 Archers Trail Rock Springs WY 82901 Clark Stith 212 College Ct Rock Springs, WY 82901 Cyrus Western PO Box 175 Big Horn, WY 82833 Scott Heiner PO Box 505 Green River, WY 82935 Tony Mieniec 505 Wind River Dr #A Green River, WY 82935 |
Mike Yin PO Box 13469 Jackson WY 83002 Karlee Provenze PO Box 1715 Laramie WY 82073 Trey D Sherwood 49 North St Laramie WY 82072 Tourism Boards: Wyoming Office of Tourism 5611 High Plains Road Cheyenne, WY 82007 Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce 1641 Elk Street Rock Springs, WY 82901 |
Letter to the Editor sample:
(you may need to adjust the number of words/characters depending on how many your newspaper allows):
The truth is, America's public lands and wild horses belong to all of us no matter what state we live in. And every time a wild horse herd is rounded up, we all pay the price. Millions of dollars have been paid to just four ranching contractors to chase wild horses with helicopters into corrals. Millions more are spent to ranchers to house the wild horses in pastures and pens.
Public lands ranchers pay just $1.35 per cow/calf pair and the grazing program is highly taxpayer subsidized; these small fees are woefully inadequate compared with costs to remove and keep wild horses in pens. Wild horses are legally mandated to be on our public lands. Multiple scientific reports and the BLM's own website state non-native cattle are the cause of public land degradation, not wild horses.
Wild horse advocates across the country are asking Congress to investigate the Bureau of Land Management's wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on roundups, lack of transparency with the American public, violations of the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program, and mismanagement of the Wild Horse & Burro Program. It's time to protect wild horses and stop scapegoating them so millions more livestock can damage our public lands.
(you may need to adjust the number of words/characters depending on how many your newspaper allows):
The truth is, America's public lands and wild horses belong to all of us no matter what state we live in. And every time a wild horse herd is rounded up, we all pay the price. Millions of dollars have been paid to just four ranching contractors to chase wild horses with helicopters into corrals. Millions more are spent to ranchers to house the wild horses in pastures and pens.
Public lands ranchers pay just $1.35 per cow/calf pair and the grazing program is highly taxpayer subsidized; these small fees are woefully inadequate compared with costs to remove and keep wild horses in pens. Wild horses are legally mandated to be on our public lands. Multiple scientific reports and the BLM's own website state non-native cattle are the cause of public land degradation, not wild horses.
Wild horse advocates across the country are asking Congress to investigate the Bureau of Land Management's wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on roundups, lack of transparency with the American public, violations of the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program, and mismanagement of the Wild Horse & Burro Program. It's time to protect wild horses and stop scapegoating them so millions more livestock can damage our public lands.