May 2025
Research Report by Kathleen Gregg

Hundreds of our wild horses missing from Flanigan and Fort Sage Herd Management Areas (HMA) appear to have been illegally captured and removed last fall during the 2024 Twin Peaks HMA round up. Due to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lack of transparency, I reviewed and analyzed the data and circumstantial evidence and found the truth.

BLM Population Statistics 2024-2025
HMA	Date	BLM Horse Population #	Date	BLM Horse Population #	Notes
Twin Peaks	3/1/2024	1,173	3/1/2025	843	2024 Captured 435 per FOIA*
Flanigan	3/1/2024	567	3/1/2025	230	No Roundup since 2012**
Fort Sage	3/1/2024	583	3/1/2025	266	No Roundup since 1998**
*435 wild horses removed from within the Twin Peaks HMA
**Significant number of horses missing from both the Flanigan and the Fort Sage HMAs

Background:

The BLM is required by law to notify the public of any capture or removal of our wild horses from our public lands. The BLM issues an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) to inform the public of any management actions that impact wild horses and burros. In other words, the BLM is not allowed to just roundup and remove our wild horses or burros (WH&B) from legally designated wild horse and burro lands without informing the public and allowing the public to comment or appeal the BLM’s proposed plan or decision. These legally designated WH&B lands are known as Herd Management Areas (HMAs) or Herd Areas (HAs) where wild horses and burros are to be protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act.

In Northeastern California, on the Nevada state line are three HMAs: the Twin Peaks HMA, Flanigan HMA and the Fort Sage HMA. Below is a map showing the nearby relationship of these three HMAs. Flanigan is about one mile south of Twin Peaks and Fort Sage is about 8 miles south of Twin Peaks. This area is mostly in the arid high desert and only partially fenced.

Here is a timeline to help explain:

March 1, 2024 BLM annual published HMA populations.

• Twin Peaks 1,173 wild horses
• Flanigan 567 wild horses
• Fort Sage 434 wild horses

In April of 2024, the BLM issued a DNA that stated they would be removing an additional 870 wild horses from the Twin Peaks HMA based on their 10-year plan.

In October 2024, as a result of a successful legal challenge of the DNA, by Friends of Animals, the BLM was only authorized to roundup a portion of the Twin Peaks HMA, but not the entire HMA as originally planned.

The BLM was only authorized to roundup in only two of the five home ranges, the far north section called the North Observation Home Range, and the South section called the Skedaddle Home Range.

As a result of the court’s decision, the BLM would only be allowed to remove approximately 435 horses from the Twin Peaks HMA instead of the originally proposed removal of 870 wild horses, according to the 2024 population estimates and flight inventory for those two home ranges. However, because the BLMs contract with the Cattoor Livestock Company contract for $205,465 was already agreed upon, removing only 435 horses would not meet the quota for the dollar amount in the contract.

Only after analysis of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data and the circumstantial evidence, it is obvious that the BLM directed the contractor to capture wild horses outside the Twin Peaks HMA, those horses being from the nearby Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs.  After reviewing the FOIA documents and BLM online data, 517 wild horses were captured outside the Twin Peaks HMA. The majority of those “outside HMA” horses captured were most likely from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs, which was not a legal roundup or disclosed to the public.

Further analysis shows that it just so happens that the two very near-by HMAs the Flanigan and Fort Sage show a total of 614 missing during that time (March 1, 2024 through March 1, 2025). See population statistics table above again for reference.

• Flanigan HMA March 1, 2024 population 567, and the March 1, 2025 population 230.
  • This is a loss of 337 wild horses (missing). No legal roundup since 2012
• Fort Sage HMA March 1, 2024 population was 583, and the March 1, 2025 population was only 266.
  • This is a loss of 317 wild horses (missing). No legal roundup since 1998.

No legal roundup was planned for either the Flanigan or Fort Sage HMAs during that time or any announcement of a roundup that would of notified the public or any public comment period.  The most recent legal roundup for the Flanigan HMA was January 2012 and the most recent l roundup of the Fort Sage HMA was in September 1998. Therefore, there should not have been any large loss of wild horses during 2024. The population data says otherwise.

BLM did provide a trap site map showing the trap sites outside the Twin Peaks HMA were to the south of Twin Peaks within a short distance from both the Flanigan and the Fort Sage HMAs. Knowing that the trap sites were only a few miles from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs and using the BLM published 2024 and 2025 wild horse population figures documenting 337 wild horses missing from the Flanigan HMA and 317 wild horses missing  from the Fort Sage HMA between March 1, 2024 and March 1, 2025 HMA, with no roundup, it appears that many of the 634 missing wild horses were illegally captured and removed from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs under the disguise as part of the 2024 Twin Peaks HMA roundup.

So my question is: DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

REFERENCES:
2024 BLM Wild Horse and Burro Population Estimates

2025 Wild Horse and Burro Population Estimates

2024 Twin Peaks Herd Management Area Wild Horse and Burro Gather | Bureau of Land Management

CONTRACT to CATTOOR LIVESTOCK ROUNDUP, INC | USAspending

FOIA DOI-2025-001326

BLM Natl Wild Horse and Burro Herd Area Polygons | BLM GBP Hub