Arizona’s Collaborative Efforts to Manage Salt River Horses 

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In 2016, Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill making it illegal to harass, injure, or kill horses from the Salt River Horse Herd. The Arizona Department of Agriculture has since entered into agreements with the United States Forest Service and a non-profit organization, the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, to protect these horses. These managers continue to face challenges to ensure the safety of the horses and humans alike.

Who Are the Salt River Horses?

The Salt River Horse Herd are horses that have historically lived in and around the lower Salt River and Saguaro Lake areas in the Tonto National Forest, and do not have a brand or any other kind of mark that indicates ownership. The State of Arizona chose to protect these horses by statute in 2016 and entered into an agreement with the United States Forest Service in 2017 to share responsibility for their management after a public outcry following the Forest Service's decision to impound them. The Arizona Department of Agriculture has also entered into an agreement with the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group to help manage the herd.

» Agreement between Arizona Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Agriculture, Tonto National Forest: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd569383.pdf

Whether or not the horses are actually “wild” has been a point of contention between interested parties. This question gets to the heart of how long the horses have been there and what their level of protection should be. The United States Forest Service does not consider these horses to be “wild” for the purposes of the Wild Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which means the protections of the Act do not apply to them. At the time the Act was passed, the Forest Service surveyed Tonto National Forest to determine if there were any wild horses present but determined that all of the horses there had been claimed, mostly by the local Native American tribes. When the Forest Service decided to impound these “unauthorized” horses in 2015, however, no one came to claim them.

What Dangers Are Posed by and for the Horses?

The initial concern of the Forest Service was that the horses were moving into areas meant for humans and that the interaction was dangerous to both the horses and the humans. The Forest Service was finding that the horses were heading not only into campground areas, but also out onto the highway where they were causing vehicle collisions. The Forest Service sought to impound the horses to stop these problems from happening.

Naturally, these interactions are dangerous to the herd as well. Arizona’s statute protects the horses from harassment, shooting, injuring, killing, or slaughtering these horses. These horses are often the subject of harassment by visitors to the forest, and the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group has found horses that have been shot.

For the horses, there are additional dangers beyond interaction with humans. The biggest concern is overpopulation and lack of forage. If there is not enough for them to eat, they may wander beyond the boundaries of the management area, putting them further away from water they need and more likely to wander into the highways.

» Forage Assessment of the Lower Salt River Horse Recreation Area, Maricopa County, Arizona, https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd597457.pdf

How Are the Horses Currently Being Managed?

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, under an agreement with the Arizona Department of Agriculture, currently manages the horses. The group works to rescue and take care of injured horses, helps keep horses off the roads, installs and repairs fences, and works to manage the size and health of the herd. Although the group warns people from feeding the horses, it brings in hay to mitigate the issue of over-foraging. Under their contract with the Department of Agriculture, they are also authorized to use humane birth control to try to control the population size. They use PZP (Porcine Zona Pelucida) immuno-contraception which is darted into the field. This kind of birth control prevents fertilization for one year. They are hopeful that by using this method, it will not be necessary to roundup the herd for the future.

» Salt River Wild Horse Management Group Website, https://saltriverwildhorsemanagementgroup.org/

What Challenges Remain?

The birth control program will not affect the foals to be born in 2019, which means the first real effects won’t be seen until 2020. In the meantime, the population is still growing, and forage is limited. Beyond birth control, the managers have to tackle the problem of existing forage and ways to cultivate more plants, especially as the southwest continues to feel the effects of climatic variation. Additionally, despite the statutory protection, the horses also continue to be subject to harassment and injury by humans even when they are not entering the freeway. So even though the statute protects these horses from roundup by the Forest Service, it has not stopped the harmful interaction with humans.

Yet, despite these challenges, management of the Salt River Horses also shows a lot of promise. The horses were saved from roundup and impoundment because of a massive public outcry and are now being managed by two different government entities—one federal, and one state—and a non-profit. This style of collaborative management could be the answer to other problems posed by federal and state lands where stakeholders are deeply invested in the outcomes.