Please Take Action Today!
Despite receiving over 4,000 public comments urging an alternative action, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving ahead with a plan for a helicopter roundup and removal of 140 wild horses living in Idaho's Challis Herd Management Area. The BLM allows just 185 wild horses to live in this 160,000-acre public land area, and estimates the current population to be 322. The roundup will take place sometime between September 15 and November 15, 2012 -- just over three years after the last BLM roundup at Challis killed at least 11 horses, orphaned several foals, and permanently removed 225 horses from their remote mountain home.
The BLM is now seeking public comments on a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the roundup plan. Please take just one moment to voice your opposition to the BLM's removal of more wild horses from the Challis HMA, where the agency allocates five times more forage to private livestock than to federally-protected mustangs. With nearly 50,000 wild horses incarcerated in holding facilities and fewer than 33,000 free in the wild, the BLM -- and American taxpayers -- cannot afford to continue these costly and cruel wild horse roundups!
Please speak up for Idaho mustangs by personalizing the sample letter below and then press the "Send Message" button to send your email to the BLM in Idaho. Thank you very much!
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If you prefer to send your comments directly to the BLM, they can be emailed with the subject line containing “Comments on Challis Wild Horse Gather Plan PEA" to BLM_ID_IFDO_WildHorse@blm.gov.
Comments can be submitted by mail to: Challis Field Office, 1151 Blue Mountain Road, Challis, Idaho 83226, Attention: Kevin Lloyd. Comments must be postmarked by September 10, 2012.
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More Info on the Challis Herd Management Area
Location: Challis Mountains, central Idaho
Acreage: 154,150 BLM Acres
Elevation: 4,600 to nearly 8,000 feet
"Allowable" Management Level for Wild Horses: 185
Livestock Grazing: Occurs on 88% of the Challis HMA on six grazing allotments: Warm Springs, Mountain Springs, Road Creek, Split Hoof, Bradbury Flat and Bradshaw Basin (For map of grazing allotments in HMA, please click here.)
Animal Unit Months (AUMs) Authorized for Livestock: 11,438 (equivalent to 953 year round cows)
AUMs for Horses: 2,220 (185 horses)
BLM allocates five times more forage resources (Animal Unit Months, or AUMs) to commercial livestock than to wild horses in this federally-designated Challis Herd Management Area.
