Federal land managers have had a rough time implementing contentious plans to eliminate roughly 3,600 free-roaming horses from 2.1 million acres of southwest Wyoming, where private and public land are interspersed in a checkerboard pattern.

Although U.S. District Judge Kelly Rankin of Wyoming concluded last year that the Bureau of Land Management’s whole-herd removal plan is legal, his decision was appealed and roundups were postponed, and then in July the plan was declared at odds with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The federal appellate judges out of Denver sent the case back to the Wyoming court to remedy legal deficiencies. The lower court is set to regain jurisdiction over the matter on Friday, according to an involved attorney.

Bu

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