A federal judge has expressed dissatisfaction with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to remove all wild horses from about 2 million acres near Rock Springs, Wyoming, ruling that the agency failed to properly consider ecological balance as required by law. The BLM’s plan, finalized this spring, aimed to round up roughly 3,000 horses from the Great Divide Basin, Salt Wells Creek, and parts of Adobe Town, following complaints from private ranchers about competition for grazing land. While the judge acknowledged the BLM’s discretion to manage or exclude wild horses on certain lands, the agency’s process violated the Administrative Procedures Act by not adequately addressing ecological impacts.

The ruling leaves the final decision on the horses’ fate to a lower court, creating uncertainty about whether the planned roundups, scheduled to start in late August, will proceed. Wild horse advocacy groups, including the American Wild Horse Conservation, are still analyzing the complex decision, which did not explicitly halt the gathers. Meanwhile, a separate roundup began in mid-July in the Rawlins area of Adobe Town, targeting over 1,600 horses with the goal of significantly reducing their numbers on the landscape.