BLM to Remove Wild Horses Southeast of Rangely Amid Controversy
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a plan to remove up to 100 wild horses from private and other lands southeast of Rangely this fall. This decision has sparked controversy due to activists' concerns that the animals could end up being euthanized.
The agency announced plans to use a helicopter operation to round up horses that have strayed outside the designated Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area. This 300-square-mile area is located east of Colorado Highway 139, south of Colorado Highway 64, and west of Colorado Highway 13.
The decision, which is subject to a 30-day appeal period, also allows for future gathers to remove other horses outside the management area. The BLM estimates that approximately 210 horses live outside the management area but within the land covered under its decision.
In a preliminary environmental assessment, the BLM proposed removing up to 72 horses this fall. However, in its final Environmental Assessment (EA), the White River Field Office has been approved for the removal of up to 100 horses. The office is pursuing this removal because the BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Program determined that there is space available in off-range corrals or pastures for excess horses that might be removed in Colorado during the 2017 fiscal year.
The local removal will occur on private land in the Cathedral Creek area. The BLM plans to transport removed horses to its Cañon City holding facility, where they will be adopted out, sold, or placed into long-term holding.
The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) expressed concern in a news release about the potential fate of nearly 10,000 wild horses that the BLM is attempting to remove from rangelands in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Oregon in the coming months. The group claims that the agency aims to remove nearly 7,000 horses in Nevada alone, marking one of the largest such roundups ever.
“These horses are in grave danger of being killed or sold for slaughter if Congress grants the BLM’s request to lift the current prohibition on destroying healthy wild horses and burros or selling them for slaughter,” the group stated in its release.
A provision allowing the destruction of healthy, unadopted wild horses and burros, while continuing to prohibit their sale for processing into commercial products, passed the House Appropriations Committee in July. However, a longstanding congressional prohibition against the destruction of these animals or their sale for slaughter remains in place.
Nearly 50,000 such animals are currently in holding facilities, costing taxpayers $50 million annually for their care.
“The BLM is committed to maintaining a healthy wild horse population on healthy rangelands in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area,” BLM White River Field Manager Kent Walter said in a news release. “Wild horses that stray from the established Herd Management Area need to be removed to reduce conflicts with other resources and private land under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.”
The BLM has received multiple requests from a private landowner to remove wild horses that have moved onto the landowner’s ranch, damaging riparian areas, feeding in irrigated pasture, and causing domestic horses to disappear or be injured, resulting in at least one horse being euthanized.
The agency has also been involved in fencing work in the area to try to keep wild horses within their designated area.
Originally posted by The Daily Sentinel