IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF WYOMING

STATE OF WYOMING, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

) Case No. 2:14-cv-00248-KHR

v. )

) Judge Kelly H. Rankin

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF )

THE INTERIOR, et al. )

)

Respondents. )

)

)

DECLARATION OF SUZANNE ROY

I, Suzanne Roy, hereby declare as follows:

1. I am the Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

(“AWHPC”), a national campaign dedicated to protecting and preserving viable free-roaming

herds of wild horses on public lands for future generations. AWHPC is endorsed by a broad-

based coalition of public interest groups, environmentalists, and humane organizations

representing over ten million supporters.

2. AWHPC and its supporters and coalition members are dedicated to protecting and

preserving wild horse and burro herds as intact viable populations. Our supporters enjoy

viewing, studying, photographing, and filming wild horses and burros, including wild horses on

public lands in Wyoming, such as the Antelope Hills, Crooks Mountain, Fifteenmile, Green

Mountain, Little Colorado, Lost Creek, and Stewart Creek Herd Management Areas (“HMAs”).

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AWHPC is engaged in several campaigns and programs to ensure the survival of wild and free-

roaming horse and burro herds in the West through educational and media initiatives, litigation,

lobbying, and other advocacy initiatives. AWHPC works with government agencies, including

the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”), to implement solutions for on-the-range management

of wild horses and burros in their habitats with the goal of preventing captures and removals.

3. AWHPC routinely participates in the administrative processes for agency actions

affecting wild horses, including by consistently submitting comments on behalf of its member

organizations and supporters on decisions related to the management of wild horses. AWHPC

regularly submits comments and participates in the public process for wild horse roundups on

public lands, including in Wyoming. See, e.g., Bureau of Land Mgmt., Catch, Treat and Release

with Limited Removal, Red Desert Complex Wild Horse Herd Management Areas (Lost Creek,

Stewart Creek, Green Mountain, Crooks Mountain, Antelope Hills), WY-050-EA11-78 (2011),

available at http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wy/information/NEPA/rfodocs/red-

desert/2011.Par.44591.File.dat/reddesertEA.pdf; Bureau of Land Mgmt., White Mountain &

Little Colorado Herd Management Areas Wild Horse Gather, WY-040-EA11-124 (2011),

available at http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wy/information/NEPA/rsfodocs/whitemtn-

wind/rev-ea.Par.94277.File.dat/EA.pdf. Additionally, AWHPC submitted comments on the

Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse Draft Land Use Plan Amendment and Draft Environmental

Impact Statement, (2013), available at https://www.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/

planAndProjectSite.do?methodName= dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=11870, which

impacts HMAs across the state of Wyoming. AWHPC also prepares alerts on these agency

actions to notify interested citizens about the opportunity to comment on BLM management

decisions affecting wild horses. See, e.g., AWHPC, Take Action to Protect Wild Horses from

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Massive Industrialization of Public Lands, http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/

action/public/?action_KEY=13109 (last visited Dec. 16, 2014); AWHPC, BLM Wyoming Needs

to Hear from You!, http://act.wildhorsepreservation.org/p/dia/action3/common/

public/?action_KEY=16974 (last visited Dec. 16, 2014) (action alert concerning Wyoming

BLM’s sage grouse management plan). Since 2010, by issuing alerts, AWHPC has generated

over 137,000 public comments on BLM management actions in Wyoming affecting wild horses.

In addition, AWHPC uses the information published by federal government agencies as a result

of these administrative processes in its campaigns, advocacy efforts, and public education of how

wild horses are being managed in particular areas.

4. For years, AWHPC has been involved in the unrelenting battle between those

pushing to use public lands to graze cattle and those wishing to preserve federally protected wild

horses’ place on the range. In its efforts to ensure wild horses remain protected on our western

public lands as Congress intended when it unanimously passed the 1971 Wild Free Roaming

Horses and Burros Act, AWHPC constantly monitors government agency decisions that affect

wild horses, including decisions authorizing roundups, and advocates for additional financial

resources and protection for wild horses.

5. AWHPC has filed litigation over management of wild horses in Wyoming, see

Am. Wild Horse Pres. Campaign v. Jewell, 14-cv-0152, (D. Wyo. Aug. 28, 2014), including in

the White Mountain and Little Colorado HMAs, see Am. Wild Horse Pres. Campaign v. Salazar,

800 F. Supp. 2d 270 (D.D.C. 2011). Additionally, AWHPC was granted intervention in Rock

Springs Grazing Association v. Salazar, 935 F. Supp. 2d 1179 (D. Wyo. 2013) in order to

safeguard its aesthetic, recreational, educational, photographic, and other interests in protecting

the wild horses on the Checkerboard lands in Wyoming.

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6. AWHPC believes that the relief sought by the Petitioner in this case will

substantially impair AWHPC’s interests in preserving and protecting wild free-roaming horses in

the state of Wyoming. Thus, AWHPC seeks to intervene as a party in order to represent and

defend those interests. For example, the State of Wyoming is requesting that this Court (1)

compel BLM to take immediate action to remove “excess” wild horses from public lands in

Wyoming; and (2) declare that BLM has violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros

Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1331-1340, by not removing wild horses from the range as soon as their

population levels exceed established Appropriate Management Levels (“AMLs”). Such relief, if

granted, would result in the immediate removal of hundreds of wild horses from the range and

would set a dangerous new and precedent for federal wild horse management. Such relief would

substantially affect AWHPC’s campaigns and programs because it is directly contrary to

AWHPC’s goals of finding ways to preserve wild horses and burros in their natural habitats by

humanely managing them on the range and preventing wild horses from being captured and

removed from their habitat.

7. AWHPC is specifically concerned about addressing misinformation and

misunderstanding about wild horses, their population numbers, the impacts of wild horses on the

range, the ecological relationship between wild horses and other animals that use these public

lands, such as livestock and “big game,” and the efficacy of fertility control as a wild horse

management tool. AWHPC seeks to intervene in this action on behalf of the federal government

to protect its interests and to assist the Court with its expertise and knowledge concerning wild

horse protection, including population numbers, population control methods, and the ecological

impacts from horses.

8. Wyoming is home to fewer than 3,000 wild horses that range on 3.6 million acres

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of BLM land in sixteen HMAs. In March 2014, the BLM reported a statewide estimated

population of 3,771. However, between September 15 and October 9, 2014, 1,263 wild horses

were removed from the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells HMAs, reducing the

statewide wild horse population estimate to 2,508, a number substantially below the statewide

AML of 3,725 horses.

9. When wild horses are removed from the range, they are placed in holding

facilities and put up for adoption or sale. Due to the BLM’s practice of removing wild horses and

burros from the range in numbers that far exceed adoption demand, there are currently

approximately 48,447 wild horses in holding facilities throughout the West and Midwest.

10. AWHPC also seeks to intervene in this case because the existing parties do not

adequately represent the organization’s and its members’ interests. Through its suit, the State of

Wyoming seeks removal of wild horses from the range. This relief directly conflicts with the

interest and commitment of AWHPC to protect and preserve wild horse herds on public lands.

11. Federal Respondents also do not represent AWHPC’s interests in this case. BLM

is responsible for balancing the interests of private livestock grazing and wild horses on public

lands and is charged with managing public lands for multiple uses. Because the Federal

Respondents do not adequately represent AWHPC’s interests, AWHPC’s motions to intervene

have been granted in other lawsuits involving the federal government’s management of

rangeland resources. See Order Granting Motion to Intervene, Rock Springs Grazing Ass’n v.

Salazar, Civ. No. 2:11-CV-00263-NDF (D. Wyo. Nov. 2, 2011) (Attach. 1); Order, Nev. Ass’n of

Counties v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, Civ. No. 3:13-cv-00712-MMD-WGC (D. Nev. Apr. 2,

2014) (Attach. 2).

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Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and

correct:

________________________________

Suzanne Roy

Date: , 2014