FIRST TIME EVER: Comment on BLM Programmatic EA

BLM Moves to Fast-Track Future Roundups, Sterilization, and Population Control

Pryor mare Sophia and her colt Autry. June 2026

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is attempting something it has never done before.

For the first time, the agency is preparing a nationwide Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) that could shape future roundups, removals, fertility control methods, sterilization proposals, and wild horse and burro management decisions across the West.

This is not just another roundup proposal.

For 55 years, wild horse advocates have fought one roundup, one herd, and one Environmental Assessment at a time. Now, BLM is attempting to create a programmatic framework that future decisions could rely upon for years to come.

While this PEA will not directly authorize on-the-ground actions, the analyses and conclusions adopted in this document could be incorporated into future site-specific reviews—making this scoping period critically important.

If we fail to speak up now, the agency could spend years pointing back to this document to justify managing herds at extremely low population levels, expanding fertility control and sterilization programs, relying on questionable genetic theories to excuse shrinking herds, and continuing to limit meaningful public oversight of roundups.

The comment period closes July 2, 2026.

Why This Matters

The Bureau of Land Management manages wild horses and burros across more than 25 million acres of public lands in the West. The agency's decisions regarding roundups, removals, fertility control, sterilization, and Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) directly affect the future of America's wild herds.

Through this Programmatic Environmental Assessment, BLM is seeking to establish a broad analysis of many of these management tools and practices. Future site-specific proposals may rely on the conclusions reached in this document, making public participation during this scoping process especially important.

The Cloud Foundation believes the public deserves a thorough analysis of the impacts these actions may have on wild horse and burro populations, genetic diversity, natural behaviors, humane treatment, and public transparency.

Please Take Action Today

BLM must hear from the public that this Programmatic EA must fully analyze:

• How AMLs and livestock grazing allocations comply with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the required balanced use of the range under FLPMA.

• The zeroing out of wild horses and burros from one-third of their original Congressionally designated habitat.

• BLM’s reliance on “metapopulation” theory to justify genetically vulnerable herd sizes.

• The long-term impacts of GonaCon, ovariectomies, castration, sex-ratio skewing, and other population suppression methods.

• The public’s right to observe roundups and the use of cameras on helicopters, at trap sites, and at temporary holding facilities.

The more comments we place in the record, the harder these issues will be to ignore.

Submit your comment today, then share this action alert with your friends and family.

The future of America’s wild horses and burros will be shaped by what happens during this comment period.

Comments due July 2, 2026