HOLD YOUR HORSES
A wild foal was found dead in northern Mono County on Friday, June 6, with what appeared to be a bullet wound, according to locals.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) confirmed the incident is under investigation. Public Affairs Officer Philip Oviatt said the agency is “deeply saddened.” The Mono Lake Committee also expressed shock and sadness.
For many, wild horses symbolize the rugged freedom of the American West. The death of a young horse, likely shot, reflects a darker and more complicated reality — one increasingly shaped by policy disputes, environmental pressure, and controversial removal programs.
Within that reality, a section of the Project 2025 policy document, authored by former BLM acting director William Perry Pendley, recommends that Congress allow for broader use of euthanasia in the agency’s management of wild horses, according to a Wall Street Journal article published May 22, 2025.
Though the Interior Department has not confirmed an application of this plan, the recommendation underscores a mounting concern across the West: public lands are now home to far more wild horses than management targets allow, and the situation is becoming increasingly urgent and costly.
The BLM currently manages around 73,000 wild horses, which is nearly three times its sustainable target. As a result, roughly two-thirds of the agency’s $153 million 2024 wild horse program budget was spent on off-range holding facilities.
This issue is also playing out in the Eastern Sierra.
The Inyo National Forest and the Bishop BLM Office recently approved a gathering and removal plan for 300–500 wild horses near the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory, starting this summer. If executed as slated, it will be the most significant removal of horses in the area’s history.
Under current law, government agencies may humanely euthanize wild horses with chronic or incurable disease, injury, lameness, or severe physical defects—though this is reportedly an “infrequent” occurrence.
Healthy horses can legally be euthanized or sold without limitation if there is no adoption demand, but Congress has barred the use of appropriated funds for such actions for decades.
However, as the Inyo National Forest and Bishop BLM Office wrote in the project’s Environmental Assessment, “If Congress were to lift the current appropriations restrictions, then it is possible that excess horses removed from outside the [territory] could potentially be euthanized or sold without limitation.”
The Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory spans both sides of the California–Nevada state line at the southern end of the Excelsior Mountain Range. It was established under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which authorizes federal agencies to manage and protect wild horses on public lands.
Since the territory’s establishment, the wild horse population has increased dramatically.
It is currently managed for a herd size of 138 to 230 animals. Still, a 2024 survey counted approximately 699 wild horses in the area, with 624 of them outside the designated territory, not including anticipated foals.
Many of those horses have advanced toward the edges of Mono Lake, which, according to BLM Bishop Field Manager Sherri Lisius, is “causing impacts to sensitive wildlife habitat, riparian areas, and tufa geological formations; where there are safety concerns for motorists; and areas where private landowners have requested their removal.”
The current plan for the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory calls for the removal of “all excess animals outside the boundaries.” The Forest Service and BLM began formal planning on the project in August 2023 and conducted tribal consultations and public input sessions through the fall. A Final Environmental Assessment was released in August 2024, followed by a Finding of No Significant Impact in March 2025.
Removal operations for the project may include helicopter drive-trapping, bait and water trapping, and possibly roping. Multiple efforts may be needed due to weather, terrain, and holding capacity.
Under the plan, captured horses will be sent to off-range holding facilities. If deemed healthy, they may be adopted or sold. When federal agencies sell wild horses, some are taken in by sanctuaries, ranches, or youth programs. But others are sold at auction, and, in one of the program’s most controversial aspects, can later be resold without restriction.
The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) reported in 2022 that since 2019, at least 840 wild horses and burros removed from federal rangelands were sold at livestock auctions frequented by slaughterhouse buyers.
The advocacy group contended that this is happening through a program called the Adoption Incentive Program, where the BLM offers cash incentives to adopt unhandled wild horses and burros.
The United States District Court for the District of Colorado overturned the Adoption Incentive Program in March, ruling that it violated multiple federal laws by failing to undergo required National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedures Act requirements.
Despite the ruling, advocacy groups remain skeptical of BLM’s commitment to reform.
The agencies claim that expanding horse population beyond the designated territory must be removed because it threatens geological features — including Mono Lake’s famed tufa towers and sand tufa — and damages sensitive ecosystems through grazing and trampling.
Of the affected species, the agencies name the endangered sage-grouse, of which there are approximately 15 active breeding grounds and several inactive breeding grounds within the project area.
While most active breeding grounds are in the Bodie Hills and Long Valley subpopulations and do not overlap with the current wild horse-occupied habitat located outside the territory, two inactive ones are commonly occupied by wild horses. Those two inactive grounds are the only ones overlapping with horse-occupied habitats.
The AWHC disputes this connection, arguing that “reducing horse populations in a given area has a negligible effect on range conditions: after massive wild horse roundups, herd areas show little or no improvement.”
Vehicle collisions are another concern cited by the agencies: “Wild horses are crossing highways and other high-use roads outside the MPWHT and creating a hazard for travelers. Observations in the Big Sand Flat corridor consist of larger groups of up to 190 horses, with groups of over 100 animals common near and along SR 120.”
Advocacy groups support mitigation alternatives, such as lower speed limits, improved lighting, and enhanced signage in high-traffic areas.
Other reasons cited by the BLM and USFS include odor from manure affecting recreation, impacts on cattle grazing, and competition for forage with pronghorn antelope. For nearly every point raised in the agencies’ assessment, advocacy groups offer a counterpoint.
It’s a contentious issue, reflecting deep divisions over how to share and steward public lands — and as the national debate continues, expect to see fewer manes by Mono Lake.
