Appeals court nixes BLM's Wyoming wild horse reduction plan
The ruling issued Tuesday by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a district judge's decision last year that upheld a 2023 BLM plan to reduce wild horse populations in the region to comply with an April 2013 legal settlement with ranchers who demanded the bureau remove stray animals encroaching on their private property.
The three-judge panel reversal of the decision from Judge Kelly Rankin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming once again throws the decadeslong case into turmoil. However, Judge Timothy Tymkovich, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush, implied in the ruling that BLM could eventually move forward with the plan if it revised it to address violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.
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The bureau has struggled to keep populations of wild horses and burros on federal rangelands at sustainable levels. BLM estimates that as of March 1, the total rangewide wild horse and burro population was roughly 73,130 — down from a record 95,114 in 2020. But that's still tens of thousands of horses above levels that do not cause damage to vegetation and soils.
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