Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon would like to continue supporting feral horse management on the Wind River Reservation next year using money the Wyoming Legislature appropriated in 2024, lawmakers heard last month.
The funding was included in the governor’s section of the 2024 budget bill, Gordon’s special counsel and Tribal relations policy advisor Kit Wendtland told the legislature’s Joint Agriculture Committee during a meeting in October, noting that the current appropriation – $500,000 – is the same amount the legislature allocated to the governor’s office in 2022 to fund wild horse management in the state, including on the Wind River Reservation.
About $100,000 of that 2022 allocation went to the Wyoming Honor Farm to support its wild horse and burro adoption and training program, Wendtland said, while $400,000 was used to fund “some pretty successful feral horse roundups in Wind River.”
“With just money from the governor’s office, I believe (Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game) was able to remove about 1,400 horses,” Wendtland told the committee last month, adding, “A lot of those were in areas that bordered state lands – for example by the East Fork which is between Crowheart and Dubois.”
Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game was also able to partner with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other entities during that time frame to fund the removal of up to 5,000-6,000 more feral horses on the reservation, Wendtland said – calling that a “huge amount.”
“Getting roundups of those amounts that quickly is something that has been a significant challenge for the state, which is a big reason why we partnered with (Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game),” he said.
Wyoming Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis, asked how much money was generated through the sale of the collected horses, but Wendtland said “at the time I don’t believe there was really much of a profit to be made” – either because “the market (wasn’t) great” or the horses were “sick” or “unhealthy for various reasons.”
Management plan
A Feral Horse Management Plan from Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game dated September 2024 indicates that, in 2022, a “comprehensive aerial survey estimated the feral horse population on the Wind River Reservation at 9,000-10,000.”
To address the issue, the plan document says Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game worked with the Wyoming Legislature, the Governor’s Office, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Wild Sheep Foundation, and Wyoming’s Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust “to initiate a series of large-scale helicopter gathers.”
“In 2023, these efforts removed 6,545 feral horses, with an additional 1,057 removed in 2024,” the plan document states. “Smaller-scale removals were also carried out by local Tribal members, honoring the cultural significance of horses in the community.”
A “repeat of the comprehensive aerial survey is scheduled for fall 2024 to reassess the current population,” the document says, with the goal “to reduce and maintain a manageable feral horse population of fewer than 500 animals, through continual localized removals and increased Tribal involvement.”
Some lawmakers on the Agriculture Committee asked about the decision to maintain the feral horse population at 500 animals, wondering whether the state had any input in that area, but Wendtland said “when it’s Tribal land, we just don’t have jurisdiction.”
“It’s the feds that determine that for Tribal Indian lands,” he said.
Wyoming Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, said that answer made him “question the state’s role” in the program.
“To me it’s disturbing that we’re doing this when obviously we didn’t create the problem,” he said. “These are Tribal horses. They don’t belong to us. They’re the property of the federal government and the Tribes, and I just worry about continually (miring) the state’s finances into an area where we have no jurisdiction.”
In response, Wendtland pointed out that feral horses don’t tend to “respect geographical jurisdictional boundaries,” and “some of the biggest horse concentrations” on Tribal lands “are right on the line of Tribal jurisdiction, especially by the Spence and Moriarty Wildlife Management area on the East Fork just southeast of Dubois.”
“I think those horses end up on (state land) a lot of the time if we don’t help manage,” he said.
He also noted that “there are a lot of horses that are illegally dumped” on Tribal lands by non-Tribal members.
“(That’s) been a big issue in Wind River,” he said. “It’s part of the reason the (horse) population has gotten out of control.”
A “key component” of the Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game Feral Horse Management Plan involves “hiring a dedicated feral horse technician” who “will be responsible for monitoring and counting feral horses across range units,” the plan document states, proposing that $400,000 from Gordon’s office could be used to cover wages for that employee for three years ($186,500), fuel for three years ($18,000), a vehicle ($60,000), and a side-by-side and trailer ($35,000).
Wendtland said the technician would work to “ensure people aren’t illegally dumping their horses” on the reservation.
Cooperative agreements
Hicks also asked about the statutory language allowing the state to enter into cooperative agreements for wild horse management.
The statute (W.S. 11-30-115) defines a “wild horse” as an “unbranded and unclaimed horse or burro on public lands” – prompting Hicks to ask, “Is the reservation (considered) public lands?”
“I’d like a legal opinion on that,” Hicks said. “Because under that statutory construct, (if) the reservation is not public lands, then those horses can’t qualify under that statutory provision for expenditure.”
Legislative staffers said they would research the question and provide a memo to the Agriculture Committee at a later date.