Champion Wild Horses, Restore Native Lands

We would like to find common solutions together to keep wild horses out of areas of concern to the FS, BLM, nonprofits, and ranchland owners. We want all agencies, nonprofits, concerned ranchers, and the CA Wild Horse Coalition Management to work together first to identify alternatives to a helicopter roundup and to develop a joint Wild Horse Management Plan.

The $400,000 awarded to the helicopter roundup company for the July 2026 operation could have significantly changed local culture. Think of investing this $400,000 in an INYO MONO County community-led management program. We can be the solution the federal government needs.

Coalition Members

American Wild Horse Conservation, The Wild Horse Conspiracy, Loving Nature White Cloud Refuge, Order of the White Lotvs, Made by Mother Earth nonprofit, tribal voting members from the Cherokee/Choctaw Nation, Nüümü (Paiute) Tribal members, community members from the African American-Blackfoot Nation, the Mexican-American community, as well as Miwok Tribal members, Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribal members, Ahwahnechee Tribal members, Asian American, European lineages.

HISTORY

Between the beautiful Eastern Sierra of California, just outside Yosemite National Park, and the White Mountains of Nevada, a wild herd of horses, each with different colors, shapes, and sizes, belonging to separate bands, has, according to Kootzaduka’a Mono Lake tribal members, roamed free since time immemorial. The horses seen on Mono Lake were released by Ahwahnechee (7 tribes of Yosemite) tribes from their villages in the meadows within Tioga Pass on Rush Creek (and other areas in the valleys) when settlers pushed them off their homelands. Years later, with the arrival of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the settlers were pushed off Rush Creek by LADWP, and the settler horses were also forced off the lands they had taken to build a water pipeline for the city of Los Angeles. Other horses were brought to the area by mustang drives from the central valley after the Civil War to replenish horses lost in war, resulting in the last true Spanish mustang populations mixing with Native American horses and settlers’ horses brought over from Europe and the Americas.

WATER, LAND & WILD HORSES…

The “horse problem” is a unifying factor for a solution because we now have the opportunity to work together. So many understand that this truly is truly NOT a wild horse problem; it is a management problem, a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) problem. If population levels were not set for the extinction of the wild horse, this “problem” would not exist. And if the lake levels at Mono Lake were where the Supreme Court has asked them to be, the springs on Mono Lake would be invisible to wild horses.

Wild horses are not the problem. Water is the solution. Bring Mono Lake Levels back to normal.

The problem is the solution, and by working with agencies that have tried their best at wild horse management within a natural balance, we seek to be a part of the solution – humans working with the environment together. Wild Horse Protections have positive benefits and also made it difficult for local people to manage horses left behind by our difficult shared history. Let us work together to find solutions that do not overwhelm sanctuaries and agencies.

CA WILD HORSE COALITION

Our Mission Statement is to establish a diverse community-led wild horse preserve for all children, where horses live wild and free, helping to heal the land, restore ecosystems, renew cultural traditions, and protect the enduring spirit of the American West. Guided by both traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and evidence-based wildlife management practices/science, we seek to expand the wild horse territory, create meaningful local employment, and ensure compassionate, sustainable stewardship that keeps resources and responsibility rooted within our communities. Education and mentorship will be available to community youth, mothers, fathers, veterans, and elders. They will also be open to survivors, the justice-involved system, and in coordination with recovery support services.

“Indigenous wild horse protected territory managed by the tribes. A preserve/reserve running along the eastern edge of Mono Lake 120-Benton boarding the MPWHT. Our Vision is to keep the cowboy business in California, keeping cowboys and girls from our county employed, both US and Indian. I would like to see the creation of local jobs. Keeping the $400,000 or all the money for a proposed roundup in California, Inyo and Mono counties to use funding locally towards management in the wild, supporting jobs in our community, not having funding go to out-of-state helicopter companies. Programs for all youth and the entire community. Including separate equine therapy, prevention, and justice-involved programs. Managing wild horses in the wild with fertility control and other more natural means allowed by FS/BLM.” Maya

We are also working with local horse communities, pack station owners, Native business owners teaching horseback riding, Indian cowboys/cowgirls, American US cowboys/cowgirls, and other local nonprofits joining our coalition.

Our Vision

Every child needs to see wild horses run free.
Just outside Yosemite National Park, the 120 continues beside Mono Lake across Adobe Valley. This is the traditional homeland of wild horses and nomadic ranges, and it will be protected with large spaces for children. In the long term, we will work toward establishing a Wild Horse Protected territory while upholding the horses’ federally mandated protected status. The area can become a reserve, preserve, and wild horse viewing zone. Through land returns, land leases, ranch collaborations, and local nonprofits working together, we seek solutions. We can place signs of wild horse crossings at the entrance, along with speed bumps.

The wild horses on Mono Lake, 120 all the way to Abode Valley in Nevada, are an important local secret we have all kept for as long as we can. Now that the secret is out, this historic herd can become a national treasure through a Wild Horse Protected Territory.

Given that the agencies have not managed the local wild horses and are facing federal budget cuts, this is the perfect opportunity to find a reasonable path. This is an ideal time to explore a practical, less costly, community- and tribe-friendly, and humane solution. (Roundup vs CA Wild Horse Coalition Management).

Our vision is to keep cowboy businesses in California—preserving employment for cowboys and girls from our county, including both U.S. and Indian cowboys and girls. Supporting our rural Indigenous frontier INYO/Mono community helps save federal funding by investing in our local economy. This is a unique, first-of-its-kind alternative represented by the CA Wild Horse Coalition, a wild horse program in California started by the tribes. Keeping the $400,000 allocated for helicopter roundups in our community, rather than giving it to out-of-state helicopter roundup companies, allows the local coalition to bid on the project and present alternatives. This approach is key.

Thank you again for visiting us!

Our Vision for the Children and Stewardship

If the federal government will not allow wild horses to remain free, we will develop a community wild-horse sanctuary for the children—creating jobs, youth programs, and opportunities for cultural reconnection.
• We have already secured land back for the closest tribal nations and ensured they have secure funding.

• Now our goal is to work with land trusts and federal agencies to protect ancestral horses on ancestral lands for long-term conservation that restores cultural ties and ensures herd survival, with a sanctuary near the Wild Horse Protected Territory.

• Humane, Gradual Herd Adjustments
When removals may be deemed necessary under federal regulations, use small-scale bait trapping rather than helicopter roundups of perhaps 100 horses.

• Prioritize young, adoptable horses who can transition into adoption and training programs through tribal facilities and trusted sanctuaries. An adoption program with local pack stations that gives local wild horses jobs.

Support for Humane On-Range Fertility Control is a last resort

• While some support humane on-range fertility control, we would like to see the herds remain pure.

• Launching an immediate fertility control program using PZP, administered must be the last resort.

• While this reversible method prevents overpopulation while keeping horses wild and free on the range there are well know side effects.

• Rethinking AML (Appropriate Management Level)
We are calling for a collaborative review process — led by tribal voices and informed by science — to reassess carrying capacity, water, and forage.
Create local jobs and do something good for our local communities.