Wild Love Preserve

BRINGING STAKEHOLDERS TOGETHER TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY. As a nonprofit, founded in April 2010 by contemporary visual artist and photographer, Andrea Maki, Wild Love Preserve has pioneered an innovative model which engages public and private lands to address all facets of regional wild horse conservation, from our adopted 200+ Challis-Idaho wild horses, to our collaborative work on the range, and creation of our permanently protected wildlife preserve in the heart of Idaho wild horse country.

Viewed as a paradigm project by stakeholders from all sides, the mission of Wild Love Preserve remains steadfast in our efforts to protect and preserve western wild horses in their native environments and nurture the legacy of respective indigenous ecosystems in a collaborative, responsible and sustainable manner with regional engagement and benefit. Kindness, mutual respect, science and education are paramount to our mission and sustainability. In addition to saving wild lives and habitat in a lasting manner, Wild Love Preserve has saved American taxpayers over $8.5 million dollars since 2013 as result of our Adoption Project and our collaborative Native PZP-1YR population management program with the Idaho BLM, initiated at time of the 2012 Challis Roundup.

In 2017, we were instrumental in curtailing a proposed BLM helicopter roundup, in favor of a hay bait trap gather, due to our longtime collaborative work with the Challis wild horses and fluid communications with the BLM and stakeholders, read more: Challis Wild Horse Bait Trap Gather.

The Idaho BLM's November 2019 helicopter roundup of the Challis wild horses was the first conducted in seven years following October 2012, versus every 2-3 years which is the typical time-frame, due to Wild Love Preserve's pro-active work with the Challis-Idaho BLM and the implementation of our collaborative and humane management program on the range since 2013. As in 2012, Wild Love founder Andrea Maki worked on behalf of the Challis wild horses to reduce conflicts between the advocates, public and BLM, leading up, during and following this November 2019 Roundup. In 2018 Wild Love Preserve was able to work with the Challis-Idaho BLM on the Environmental Assessment of the Challis Herd Management Area as a collective whole to develop a 10-year pro-active management plan for the Challis Herd in conjunction with, and relation to, this indigenous ecosystem on our multi-use public lands as an interconnected whole. The collaborative work between WLP and the Challis-Idaho BLM continues to set new precedents which serve to benefit our work on all six herd management areas in Idaho, and be helpful for other wild horse regions in the west.

Read overview of Andrea Maki’s invitational talk at the August 2019 international wildlife fertility conference hosted by The Science and Conservation Center.

2022 marks the ninth year of our humane and collaborative Native PZP fertility management program which has proven successful in slowing population growth with free-roaming wild horses on the Challis HMA darting with the BLM on the range, and with Wild Love’s adopted wild horses. By design, Wild Love’s adopted Idaho wild horses have also served as our control herd because management on our private preserve mirrors our collaborative work on public lands. Native PZP enabled us to keep our numbers at roughly 136 between 2013 and 2020, when we adopted horses from the 2019 Challis roundup. We’ve also witnessed firsthand that Native PZP does not result in adverse behavioral issues, does not impact band or herd dynamics, has not altered the natural breeding season, does not negatively impact the fetus or cause birth defects if a pregnant wild mare is darted, and we have healthy babies born to our wild mares ensuring genetic viability.