The BLM claims that the roundup is necessary to “restore a Thriving Natural Ecological Balance (TNEB),” but environmentalists like Erik Molvar or Western Watersheds Project say that the area is already at TNEB at the current wild horse population level. They note that the number of cattle and sheep in the HMA vastly exceeds the number of wild horses. In fact, the BLM authorizes ten times more forage to privately-owned cattle and sheep in this public lands area than to federally-protected wild horses and burros. Recently, the 3.8-million-member Sierra Club called out the BLM’s bias against wild horses in resource allocation and called for the removal of livestock from designated wild horse habitat areas instead of removing horses. Other environmental groups, including Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and WildEarth Guardians have also called for the removal of livestock from wild horse habitat areas. The pending Checkerboard roundup is a precursor to the pending BLM plan to eradicate horses entirely from most of the HMAs in this area. If successful, this action would result in the loss of 52% of the state’s wild horse habitat. This plan is the outgrowth of legal and political pressure from the Rock Springs Grazing Association, which has sought the elimination of Wyoming Checkerboard herds for over a decade.