American Wild Hose Campaign, et al. v. Jon Raby, Acting Bureau of Land Management Director, et al.

Cheyenne, Wyoming civil litigation lawyers represented the Plaintiffs seeking protection for wild horses.



The Bureau of Land Management manages several herds of wild horses in

southern Wyoming. Under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16

U.S.C. §§ 1331–40, wild horses and burros—"living symbols of the historic and

pioneer spirit of the West—” are federally protected and managed on public ranges.

§ 1331.



Many of these herds are managed on checkerboard land. Wyoming's

checkerboard is a pattern of land ownership that alternates between public and

private land every square mile. Since 1979, BLM managed wild horses on the

checkerboard with consent from the private landowners. But beginning in 2010,

when the private landowners revoked that consent, BLM found maintaining herds on

the checkerboard increasingly untenable.



Recognizing these changed circumstances, in 2022, BLM amended its

Regional Management Plan (RMP) to change two Herd Management Areas (HMAs)

to Herd Areas (HAs). The new plan reduced the wild horse population goal in two

areas to zero horses, and in another area reduced the goal by as much as 56 percent.

Three groups of petitioners challenge those amendments. They argue that the

amendments: (1) violate the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act by

functionally eliminating wild horse herds on public lands without considering the

statutory goal; (2) violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by

disregarding reasonable alternatives; and (3) violate the Federal Land Policy and

Management Act (FLPMA) by failing to manage the land for multiple uses. The

government responds that this decision does not implicate the Wild Horse Act

because it is a multiple-use management decision under FLPMA and that it is

otherwise compliant with NEPA and FLPMA.



We agree with the Petitioners. While the Wild Horse Act does not require

BLM to manage for wild horses to the detriment of all other uses, it does require that

BLM "manage wild free-roaming horses and burros in a manner that is designed to

achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands.” 16

U.S.C. § 1333(a). Since BLM admitted that it did not consider ecological balance

when amending the RMP, the plan failed to consider an important aspect of the Wild

Horse Act. Although the law does not necessarily require a detailed discussion of

ecological balance, BLM must explain that the decision does not undermine the

statutory goal of achieving and maintaining ecological balance.

For that reason, we REVERSE and REMAND.