Why Are these wyoming herds being removed?
The Rock Springs Grazing Association
The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), located in Rock Springs, WY, and consisting of just 25 ranching families, has demanded the removal of wild horses from the Wyoming Checkerboard in the southwestern part of the state that contains the Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, Divide Basin, and Adobe Town wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMA).
The RSGA views wild horses as competition for forage on public lands that are used for grazing private livestock. The RSGA has been fighting for decades and decades to have the wild horses removed in southern Wyoming. In 2010, the RSGA removed their prior consent allowing 500 wild horses to roam on the private land sections of the Checkboard. The Bureau of Land Management should not be allowing the RSGA to dictate whether federally protected wild horses can remain on land set aside for them in the Wild and Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act of 1971.
What is the Checkerboard?
The checkerboard in Wyoming refers to alternating 1 mile square sections (640 acres each) of public and private land that stretch along the Union Pacific Railroad in southern Wyoming. The checkerboard pattern is the result of a 19th-century law that granted land to railroads in exchange for concessions. In order to encourage westward expansion, the government would give railroads every other section of land, usually 20 miles to the north and south of the railroad. The rail line in this case runs along Interstate 80. The White Mountain and Divide Basin HMAs are to the north of I-80, and the Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town HMAs are to the south of I-80.
The checkerboard pattern means that wildlife and wild horses, and people walking or driving on public lands, are crossing from public to private lands every one mile they travel. The Rock Springs Grazing Association have stated that it is too difficult to manage and that it doesn't 'make sense' to fence their private acres. Then they complain when wild horses travel across the private lands, located every one mile, to reach waterholes and forage. Yet, these same people want ALL of the private and public land sections for their hundreds of thousands of livestock, i.e. cattle and sheep.
Members of the Rock Springs Grazing Association control the private 1 mile squares of land in the Checkerboard by leasing the land or owning it. For the leases, they pay just $1.35/month for a cow/calf pair or 5 sheep. The reason the RSGA wants to hold onto their grazing allotments? Because they sublease the same land for $13-$30/month to private ranchers who do not own enough land to graze their livestock. A money-making scheme that is destroying the land, the habitat for wildlife, and federally protected wild horses.
The public land sections within the Herd Management Areas are federally designated as wild horse habitat.
In 2022, Erik Molvar, Executive Director of the Western Watersheds Project, said removing the horses is not the answer. “The obvious solution to all of this is to have a consolidation of the checkerboard so that the private lands are consolidated, and the public lands are consolidated,” he said.
Molvar said this could be done through eminent domain. However, in the four alternatives proposed by the BLM in 2013, this was not an option for herd management.
The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), located in Rock Springs, WY, and consisting of just 25 ranching families, has demanded the removal of wild horses from the Wyoming Checkerboard in the southwestern part of the state that contains the Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, Divide Basin, and Adobe Town wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMA).
The RSGA views wild horses as competition for forage on public lands that are used for grazing private livestock. The RSGA has been fighting for decades and decades to have the wild horses removed in southern Wyoming. In 2010, the RSGA removed their prior consent allowing 500 wild horses to roam on the private land sections of the Checkboard. The Bureau of Land Management should not be allowing the RSGA to dictate whether federally protected wild horses can remain on land set aside for them in the Wild and Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act of 1971.
What is the Checkerboard?
The checkerboard in Wyoming refers to alternating 1 mile square sections (640 acres each) of public and private land that stretch along the Union Pacific Railroad in southern Wyoming. The checkerboard pattern is the result of a 19th-century law that granted land to railroads in exchange for concessions. In order to encourage westward expansion, the government would give railroads every other section of land, usually 20 miles to the north and south of the railroad. The rail line in this case runs along Interstate 80. The White Mountain and Divide Basin HMAs are to the north of I-80, and the Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town HMAs are to the south of I-80.
The checkerboard pattern means that wildlife and wild horses, and people walking or driving on public lands, are crossing from public to private lands every one mile they travel. The Rock Springs Grazing Association have stated that it is too difficult to manage and that it doesn't 'make sense' to fence their private acres. Then they complain when wild horses travel across the private lands, located every one mile, to reach waterholes and forage. Yet, these same people want ALL of the private and public land sections for their hundreds of thousands of livestock, i.e. cattle and sheep.
Members of the Rock Springs Grazing Association control the private 1 mile squares of land in the Checkerboard by leasing the land or owning it. For the leases, they pay just $1.35/month for a cow/calf pair or 5 sheep. The reason the RSGA wants to hold onto their grazing allotments? Because they sublease the same land for $13-$30/month to private ranchers who do not own enough land to graze their livestock. A money-making scheme that is destroying the land, the habitat for wildlife, and federally protected wild horses.
The public land sections within the Herd Management Areas are federally designated as wild horse habitat.
In 2022, Erik Molvar, Executive Director of the Western Watersheds Project, said removing the horses is not the answer. “The obvious solution to all of this is to have a consolidation of the checkerboard so that the private lands are consolidated, and the public lands are consolidated,” he said.
Molvar said this could be done through eminent domain. However, in the four alternatives proposed by the BLM in 2013, this was not an option for herd management.
In the above graphic (photo from blm.gov) you will see inside the blue box, the white and yellow checkerboard. And what you can also see is that the checkerboard does NOT encompass the entire herd management areas of White Mountain, Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek, and Adobe Town, yet the Bureau of Land Management at the behest of the Rock Springs Grazing Association, will not just move the wild horses to areas that are not in the checkboard, but are rather choosing to eliminate the entire wild horse herds of three of the HMAs, and reduce the 4th by 60%. The checkerboard does not even cover 60% of the Adobe Town HMA as you can see in the map, yet BLM and the RSGA are working together to reduce way too much of the acreage and number of wild horses in that one area.
Livestock Grazing Within the Four Herd Management Areas
Below are maps provided by Western Watersheds Project (www.westernwatersheds.org/hma-domestic-grazing/) that show the grazing allotments and number of livestock allowed in the Salt Wells Creek, White Mountain, Divide Basin, and Adobe Town Herd Management Areas. As you can see, the number of livestock allowed within the herd management areas is 358,622.
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Side note: the pink areas on the maps indicate wild horse herds that have already been zeroed out by the Bureau of Land Management.
Below are the four Herd Management Areas and the number of wild horses allowed in each one presently:
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The Bureau of Land Management created made-up 'Appropriate Management Levels' (AML) that are not based on any scientific information, for wild horse and burro herds in the American west. For these four wild horse herds, the BLM states that a low AML of 1480 wild horses and a high AML of 2065 wild horses is an appropriate number across 2,825,971 acres. And the BLM's management plan is to keep herds at the low 'AML' level.
Current situation:
1,480 wild horses allowed versus 358,622 cows and sheep.
Even worse, because the BLM is allowing the Rock Springs Grazing Association to have their way, once the Salt Wells Creek, Divide Basin, and White Mountain HMA's are zeroed out, and the Adobe Town HMA is reduced by 60%, the number will be 259 at low AML to 536 at high AML.
Proposed situation:
259 wild horses allowed versus 358,622 cows and sheep.
That's right, the number of cattle and sheep will not be reduced, only the wild horses.
Current situation:
1,480 wild horses allowed versus 358,622 cows and sheep.
Even worse, because the BLM is allowing the Rock Springs Grazing Association to have their way, once the Salt Wells Creek, Divide Basin, and White Mountain HMA's are zeroed out, and the Adobe Town HMA is reduced by 60%, the number will be 259 at low AML to 536 at high AML.
Proposed situation:
259 wild horses allowed versus 358,622 cows and sheep.
That's right, the number of cattle and sheep will not be reduced, only the wild horses.