Founded in 2010, the mission of Wild Love Preserve engages public and private lands to protect and preserve wild horses in their native environments and nurture the legacy of respective indigenous ecosystems as an interconnected whole by bringing stakeholders from all sides together in a new light.
"Wild Love Preserve is named such because it is committed to the greater good of our planet, now and for future generations - centering on humanity, compassion, sustainability, two-legged accountability, and our responsibility to the whole. It is not but a mere fenced wild horse sanctuary. The objective of Wild Love Preserve is the protection and preservation of native ecosystems as an interconnected and balanced whole. Great beauty and benefit lie in the fact indigenous wild horses offer such unique opportunity to achieve this intent by walking new paths together.” -Andrea Maki, Founder
Located in central Idaho, Wild Love Preserve's pioneering conservation model is recognized as a paradigm project from stakeholders on all sides. Over the last 11 years, contemporary artist, photographer, and founder Andrea Maki and Wild Love Preserve have intently focused on building positive working relationships and partnerships with the Idaho Bureau of Land Management (BLM), ranchers, environmentalists, wildlife biologists, wild horse advocates, youth employment groups, and regional communities. Kindness, mutual respect, conflict resolution, accountability, science, and education drive the Wild Love mission to protect and preserve western wild horses in their native habitats and nurture the legacy of respective indigenous ecosystems as an interconnected whole. By design, Wild Love Preserve engages public and private lands to address all facets of regional wild horse conservation on home turf in Idaho, from our collaborative work on the range to our adopted 165 Idaho wild horses following the 2012 and 2019 Challis BLM roundups and the creation of our permanently protected Idaho wildlife preserve.
In November of 2019, the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho conducted the first helicopter roundup of the Challis wild horses in 7 years, versus every 2-3 years. This extended window of time between roundups is the result of our pro-active collaborative work with the Challis BLM and the Challis Herd Management Area following their 2012 roundup and our success in slowing population growth with the fertility vaccine Native PZP-1YR. In addition to work on the range, Wild Love also exists to ensure Idaho wild horses that are removed from public lands have an opportunity to remain wild on their native turf. In July of 2020, we adopted and purchased the first group of 24 wild horses from the 2019 Challis roundup needing placement, bringing our number of permanent residents to 165. As per our mission, Wild Love adopts and purchases those Challis-Idaho wild horses that do not find homes through other BLM adoption programs, and as we did following the 2012 Challis roundup. Once with us, they live forever wild and together on their terms in Idaho at Wild Love Preserve.
We've demonstrated with Wild Love programs that coexistence, humane treatment, sustainable management, protecting wild lives and indigenous habitats, and saving tax dollars, all work together with our model. By design, our collaborative conservation efforts offer a viable option to government helicopter roundups, integrating total range health, collective harmony, coexistence with indigenous wildlife, and livestock where applicable. Wild Love programs have saved American taxpayers over $9 million dollars since 2013 and benefitted the local region with new forms of revenue.
Wild Love Preserve is funded by donations, grants, sponsorships, in-kind services, and volunteers. Like others, we have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. While we continue fundraising for the land aquisition of our permanently protected wildlife preserve and subsequent move, we also concentrate on necessary fundind to support daily operations at our leased 400-acres with Wild Love Preserve’s 165 adopted Challis-Idaho wild horses from the 2012 and 2019 Idaho BLM Roundups. Operations include our annual lease, increased supplemental winter hay, our wild horse conservation and education programs. 100% of every donation supports our boots-on-the-ground work with Idaho’s wild horses on home turf.
