The Devil’s Garden wild horses need your help!

Hello and Happy Thursday!

We mentioned earlier this week that we would have a NEW Action item for you. The Devil’s Garden wild horses need your help! Please read our friend Mary’s words below and take a moment to take our one click action and send emails to California Governor Gavin Newsom and California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff. You can take this one click action here: https://secure.everyaction.com/5tOPVX-GMU-Fw_aFyQo_Cw2

Thank you for your support and have a great day!

Despite a questionable population census and no legal authority, the US Forest Service (USFS) is moving ahead with another roundup of the Devil’s Garden wild horses that could spell the end of what was once California’s largest wild horse herd.

In the past seven years, largely to placate local ranchers, the USFS has removed over 3,000 horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory (DGWHT) on the Modoc National Forest (MNF). Deaths and injuries are common, and each roundup costs American taxpayers at least $1 million.

While the Appropriate Management Level (AML) is just 206-402 horses on the 258,000-acre DGWHT, the USFS authorizes up to 3,700 cows and 2,900 sheep – all privately owned – to graze there.

This September, the USFS is targeting 350 more horses for removal in order to reach low AML. CD Warner Livestock LLC was awarded a $617, 508 contract for the helicopter and bait-trapping operation.

The USFS’s management of the Devil’s Garden wild horses has always been dubious at best, but this roundup is beyond egregious. Here’s why:

Ironically, although the USFS has money to round up the horses, it did not have funding to do an aerial census this spring. Instead, it conducted “ground counts to get the best guess estimate of the Devil’s Garden wild horse population for this year.”

However, as stated in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, to remove horses, the USFS must first determine that the wild horse population exceeds the AML and threatens the Thriving Natural Ecological Balance on the range. “Ground counts” are archaic and inaccurate and therefore not sufficient to make this excess determination of horses and proceed with the roundup.

The USFS’s estimate of the Devil’s Garden wild horse population doesn’t add up! According to the “ground counts,” there are between 500 and 600 horses on the DGWHT. But…the Spring 2024 census estimated there were 723. In Fall 2024, the USFS removed 407 horses. If these 407 horses are subtracted from the 723 horses estimated in the Spring 2024 census, that leaves about 320 horses or so on the DGWHT. Even with a 15% population birth rate this year, the current number of horses should still be well within the AML, especially given that 30 mares have already been vaccinated with GonaCon and are not reproducing, and predation by mountain lions and wolves is prevalent on the MNF.
The USFS will conduct an aerial census sometime after the roundup. If that census shows that the number of horses has fallen below low AML, the agency will release captured Devil’s Garden horses held at the agency’s Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals for months to reach it. Although stallions will be released, the mares will be treated with fertility control. This plan makes no sense. It is inhumane for the horses and costly for American taxpayers because horses will surely need to be returned to reach low AML.

Time is running out for the Devil’s Garden wild horse herd. This roundup represents yet another example of the USFS abandoning its responsibility under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Instead of managing the Devil’s Garden wild horses “as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands,” it is managing them to extinction.

But a few minutes of your time can help save them! Remember this herd belongs to you and the American public.

Demand that the USFS abandon its plan for the roundup until it conducts an aerial census and makes a valid determination. And, in place of further removals, the USFS must implement cost-effective, scientifically proven, and humane management tools that include a PZP fertility control program, rangeland improvements, and reduction of private livestock grazing.

Please take a moment to take this one click action to send your email to Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Alex Padilla and Senator Adam Schiff. You can take action here: https://secure.everyaction.com/5tOPVX-GMU-Fw_aFyQo_Cw2