Devil’s Garden Plateau helicopter roundup concludes
What’s to become of the wild horses still roaming free in the Modoc National Forest?
The Modoc National Forest has concluded the Devil's Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory helicopter roundup. The helicopter halted on Saturday, November 30th, after capturing one stallion, two mares, and two foals that day.
In an operation spanning more than a month, 341 wild horses were captured and removed from the Modoc National Forest, according to the USFS website. According to the same web reports, only six of the total horses removed were captured via bait traps. The agency also reports three wild horse deaths.
To put these numbers into perspective, an early 2024 aerial survey recorded 723 wild horses in and just outside the territory. If that number is an accurate estimation (our current information does find the aerial survey report questionable), nearly half of the herd has been extirpated.
As the fate of hundreds of wild horses has now been dictated by an outdated management plan, corrupt with the agenda of private interest since its inception, the lives of the horses that still roam Devil's Garden Plateau remain in the grips of private interests and the Forest Service in their pockets.
The agency's Proposed Action for a new wild horse territory management plan, as written in the 2024 Final EA released in September, officially implements terms of a 2021 settlement that mandates a yearly roundup of "no less than a minimum of 500 (excess) horses or the number necessary to ensure that the Devil's Garden wild horse population does not increase (annually), whichever is necessary to reach low to mid-AML." The settlement was the result of a group of ranching entities stealthily proclaiming themselves the Devil's Garden Wild Horse Preservation Group, demanding reparations of sorts for having their grazing allotments zeroed out.
The Proposed Action for the new plan does not adjust AML (appropriate management level) from the current management plan that’s been in place since 2013. In fact, as journalist, Mary Koncel, documented in her recent article for Wild Narrative Project, AML for the Devil's Garden Plateau wild horse territory hasn't changed since 1975, and that number relates to the small number of horses left on the range all the way back in 1943 — after decades of mustangers capturing, removing, and selling the horses (likely) for meat.
A final decision to implement the Proposed Action is expected this month. The decision could affect the Devil’s Garden Plateau wild horses for more than a decade to come. That is, of course, if there are any left.