What we’ve achieved for wild horse conservation this year
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Help us unlock a 2X match!
Can you help us unlock a 2X matching gift to help us continue our critical work saving wild horses and burros in 2024? We need to raise $50,000 before Friday at midnight to unlock this match.
In addition to our legislative advocacy work, our growing field programs are a critical part of our mission to advance wild horse and burro conservation.
Today, we’re going to tell you about the great strides we’ve taken this year in this area – but first, please take a moment to chip in towards our end-of-year goal! We need to raise $50,000 by this Friday to unlock a generous 2X match offer from our gracious donors, and we’re over halfway there! >>
In 2023, we achieved several great victories for our on-range programs. First, we celebrated four years of our flagship PZP fertility control program on Nevada’s Virginia Range. This program has been a remarkable success, achieving the goal of vaccinating 80% of the mare population in less than four years, and reducing the foaling rate by 66% by the end of peak foaling season 2023 as compared to 2022.
Through the successful implementation of PZP vaccine programs, we’re taking a significant step toward reshaping the future of wild horse conservation and proving that there is a better, more humane, and less costly way to manage wild horse populations. That’s why we’ve expanded our support of conservation efforts and of the implementation of fertility control programs to other wild horse herds. Can you please make a contribution to AWHC to help power these fertility control programs?
SUPPORT OUR FERTILITY CONTROL PROGRAMS →
Earlier this year, we secured a federal grant from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to support the humane fertility control program that we are implementing on wild horses in Utah’s Cedar Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA)! This collaborative effort involves the Utah BLM, the HMA ranching permittee, and AWHC working together to humanely manage the Cedar Mountain wild horses, conserve their habitat, and eliminate helicopter roundups.
Additionally, we are providing logistical, financial, and darting support for the fertility control program in Nevada’s Pine Nut Mountains. With our assistance, the program has darted over 40% of the mare population with at least one PZP vaccination. This success in darting these wild horses, who are not habituated to human presence, is further proving the feasibility of this approach to keeping wild horses wild and in balance with their environment.
2023 was clearly a big year for our fertility control programs, but perhaps our most exciting achievement this year was the launch of our Land Conservancy Project – an innovative new initiative that will preserve and enhance key habitats for America’s wild herds.
As part of this effort, AWHC acquired 3,300+ acres of prime habitat in Nevada’s beautiful Carson Valley to serve as a pilot program for the project! Through this pilot, we’re working to set the conservation standard for wild horse and burro protection by preserving and restoring habitat and developing collaborative partnerships with federal and local governments to further land and wildlife conservation goals.
Thank you,
Team AWHC