Pt II: The Battle at Devil’s Garden
Ranchers score another win at expense of Devil’s Garden wild horses and public lands
Part II
Read Part I here.
Mary Koncel | December 20, 2024
On Saturday, November 30th, after 34 days of chasing bands of terrified horses between thick stands of junipers and across the flat lava plateau, the helicopter landed, the trap sites were dismantled, and the seventh roundup on the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Plateau Territory (DGPWHT) in nine years officially ended. Three hundred and forty-one horses and foals were removed, reducing what was once California’s largest wild horse herd to less than 400 horses.
Now the horses are facing an even bigger threat – the “revised” 2024 Territory Management Plan (TMP) that will replace the controversial 2013 TMP for the DGPWHT, which embraced expensive and inhumane management tools, such as roundups and removals, over sustainable and humane alternatives, including rangeland restoration and fertility control.
In January 2025, the United States Forest Service (USFS) is expected to finalize and release the document that will determine the future of the Devil’s Garden wild horses for the next 10 years.
And that future appears grim.
While lawsuits and strong public scrutiny brought some hope that the 2024 TMP would correct the multitude of problems in its predecessor and commit to preserving and protecting the herd as required by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, that’s not the case. Thanks to the USFS’s partnership with local ranching interests, the revised TMP is no more than a thinly disguised extinction plan for the Devil’s Garden horses and another victory for cheap, subsidized private grazing on public lands.
Credit: Mary Koncel. A helicopter drives a band of wild horses, obscured from observers’ view.
PAST ROUNDUPS – THE COSTS AND CONSEQUENCES
Between 2003 and 2012, the USFS conducted 10 roundups and removed 898 horses, leaving an estimated 1,224 horses on the DGPWHT.
These 898 horses, however, are a drop in the bucket compared to what was to come. Under the 2013 TMP, an estimated 3,686 horses including foals have been removed – over four times the number taken off between 2003 and 2012.
Wild Horse Population Estimate and Scheduled Removals since 2016
As a result of this year’s operation, which has left only 381 horses on the DGPWHT, the USFS and the ranchers have achieved their goal of reaching an Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 206-402 horses. (Remember AML is the optimal number of wild horses or burros that an area of land can support while sustaining a thriving natural ecological balance and protecting range health.)
But the question is at what cost?
Let’s start with the money. The most obvious expense is the contractors who round up the horses with helicopters and sometimes bait trapping.
According to USA Spending.com, these awards over the last seven years amounted to $4,524,880.
2024 - $749,500 contract to C.D. Warner Livestock LLC
2023 - $650,000 contract to Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc
2022- $708,000 contract to Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc
2021 - $692,240 contract to Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc
2020 - $496,061 contract to Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc
2019 - $574,342 contract to Sun J. Livestock
2018 - $654,737 contract to Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc
Yep, that’s $4,524,880, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Although final costs are hard to come by, the projected budget in the USFS WorkPlan System for the 2020 roundup, for example, came to $1,442,912. This figure includes the contract with Cattoor, $260,773 for USFS personnel, $165,000 for transportation, $140,949 for hay, and $80,000 for a multi-year contract with Modoc Veterinary Services. Missing from the budget is the price tag for transferring 142 horses to the BLM holding corrals in Bruneau, ID.
So, it’s safe to assume that, on average, each operation costs at least $1.5 million. Important too is that between 2016 and 2024, the 2013 TMP – which was dictated by the ranchers – did not allow for the use of fertility control with PZP that has a long history of being safe and reversible.
Such a fertility control program would have significantly slowed the population growth rate, meaning that many horses and foals would not have been subjected to the brutality of the roundups and American taxpayers wouldn’t have been left footing the bill for this travesty.
But there are other consequences.
Besides 3,686 horses and foals losing their families and freedom in the past eight years, hundreds of Devil’s Garden horses and foals have lost their lives. Although a common belief is that the deaths of the horses occurred mostly during the helicopter operations, the majority of deaths came after capture while the horses were in holding either at the USFS’s Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals or the Bureau of Land Management (BML) corrals in Bruneau, ID.
As of 12/19/2024, the USFS has reported four deaths from this year’s roundup. In all probability, though, Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) requests over the next year will increase that number.
Credit: Mary Koncel. Devil’s Garden wild horses in captivity.
Here are some of the most recent and egregious Devil’s Garden fatalities:
In 2022 - 20 deaths: 4 horses during the roundup and 16 horses at Double Devil for which the USFS has yet to provide details.
In 2021 - 28 deaths: 5 horses during the roundup and 16 horses at Double Devil including 3 weanling colts euthanized due to “post castration evisceration”; 1 stallion dying after breaking his neck while being loaded in the squeeze chute for gelding; 1 mare found dead from no known cause; and 6 weanling colts found dead in a pen after a mountain lion attack.
Also, 7 older horses were euthanized after being shipped to the BLM corrals in Bruneau, and 12 mares miscarried within months after the roundup.
In 2020 - 16 deaths: 1 horse during the roundup and 15 horses at Double Devil including 11 stallions euthanized after being gelded because of intestinal hernias and 2 foals born prematurely and euthanized.
Also, 5 mares miscarried within months after the roundup.
In 2019 - 20 deaths: Including 3 horses euthanized after crashing into the corral panels or being trampled by other horses at Double Devil and 9 horses euthanized after contracting Salmonella at a layover during transport when sold and shipped to Florida.
There are also other welfare issues regarding the horses post-roundup. While the agency boasts a substantial adoption rate, many of the horses are sold. This means that they lack the protections of the adoption contract and their titles pass immediately to the owners allowing them to flip the horses at any time. Further, because the USFS horses are micro-chipped instead of freeze-branded like BLM horses, identifying them at kill pens is next to impossible – and, yes, they are turning up there.
Credit: Mary Koncel. Captured wild horses in Devil’s Garden muddy holding pens.
THE 2024 TMP AND ONGOING COLLUSION WITH LOCAL RANCHERS
As mentioned, the purpose of the 2024 TMP is to replace the 2013 TMP with a specific focus on evaluating the reinstatement of the 23,000-acre Middle Section of the DGPWHT that was conveniently eliminated in the 2013 TMP; incorporating the terms from the 2021 Settlement Agreement with the Devil’s Garden Preservation Group et al., a consortium of local ranchers, to reach AML; and using fertility control.
Not surprisingly, however, given the close relationship between the USFS and the ranchers – and despite public comments that pushed for true reform – the agency is weeks away from finalizing a plan that is strikingly similar to the 2013 TMP. Although it does allow for fertility control in the form of GonaCon, which has a growing reputation for causing permanent sterility in mares, it maintains the high levels of private livestock grazing, keeps the AML to just 206-402 horses, prioritizes additional roundups, and “adjusts” the Middle Section to a mere 114-acre corridor between the East and West sections of the DGPWHT.
Equally notable, like its predecessor, the 2024 TMP was bought and paid for by the Modoc County Farm Bureau (MCFB).
According to the MCFB’s 990s, it contributed almost $2 million to the project to “hire retired federal employees to collect data to show the impacts that wild horses have on land allotments” and “to assist the US Department of Agriculture to manage the wild horse population.” A pending FOIA request will most likely show that this funding came from Resource Advisory Committee money secured through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, the same source that paid for work on the 2013 TMP.
Here are those annual contributions, which total to nearly $2 million:
2023 - $717,825
2022 - $576,914
2021- $474,609
2020 - $208,150
Hmm – does conflict of interest come to mind, especially considering that the mission of the MCFB is to protect and promote agricultural interests in Modoc County through the responsible stewardship of natural resources? In fact, at a November objectors meeting during which stakeholders could provide final comments on the draft of the 2024 TMP, Sean Curtis, President and Treasurer of the MCFB, confirmed the group’s ongoing lovefest with the USFS. He said, “The Bureau has productively contributed to the wild horse management on the Forest and expects to continue to do so.”
“The Bureau has productively contributed to the wild horse management on the Forest and expects to continue to do so.” - Sean Curtis, President & Treasurer, Modoc County Farm Bureau
Collusion is also blatantly evident by the USFS’s 2021 Settlement Agreement with the Devil’s Garden Preservation Group et al. This sweetheart deal came about after the group took the USFS to court in 2017 for not reaching AML fast enough. To appease them, the USFS agreed to remove at least 500 horses every year until AML is reached though no science or data supports this plan. The 2024 TMP complies with this mandate, so another roundup could take place next year targeting 500 or more horses – if there are that many left on the DGPWHT.
In contrast, the USFS’s response to another lawsuit was not so generous. In 2012, several wild horse advocacy groups sued the agency for arbitrarily eliminating the 23,000-acre Middle Section in the 2013 TMP. Five years later, in 2017, the court ruled in favor of the advocates and ordered the USFS to “reconsider” its decision to “shrink” the DGPWHT. Although there were legitimate expectations that the 23,000 acres would be reinstated and therefore warrant an increase in the AML, the agency opted instead for that 114-acre corridor and no increase in AML.
All of which circles back to those concerns about eradication of the heard. A 2023 spring census estimated that there were 1,339 horses; that fall 240 horses were removed. But the 2024 census estimated that there were only 723 horses, indicating a drastic decline in population.
So, what happened to almost 350 horses? An extremely bad winter, mountain lion predation, an alien abduction – just kidding.
Currently, the USFS manages 53 Wild Horse and Burro Territories in nine states. Of those, 19 are Inactive because they are deemed unsuitable for a thriving horse or burro population. Yet several still allow private livestock grazing. So, it’s time to think hard on this potential scenario:
With an estimated population of less than 400 horses and a “revised” TMP that embraces the use of a known sterilant of mares, sanctions more massive roundups, and refuses to increase the AML to ensure a healthy and viable wild horse herd, will the DGPWHT become the next Inactive Territory?
We’ll keep you updated on the final decision on the TMP for the DGPWHT and the fate of the iconic Devil’s Garden wild horse herd.
Sources:
2017 Lawsuit
USAspending.gov