Utah Roundup Targets Wild Horses on State Land

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is launching a new roundup to remove wild horses from Utah's open range, specifically targeting Blawn Wash in Beaver County. This action comes in response to complaints from ranchers about free-roaming horses degrading the range.

The roundup fulfills a legal settlement with state officials who previously took the BLM to court over the proliferation of wild horses on state trust lands in the West Desert. The settlement requires cooperation between federal and state authorities to manage horse populations. These animals, protected under federal law, have become a contentious issue for ranchers and county commissioners who argue that the BLM is not adequately controlling horse numbers.

The BLM spends millions gathering horses from the range and housing them in contract corrals for life. Starting Wednesday, the BLM will deploy helicopters to drive up to 150 horses into traps. The public is invited to observe the operation each day, with interested parties meeting BLM staff at the KB Express, 238 S. Main in Milford, by 5 a.m. For more details, call 801-539-4050.

Last month, the BLM removed 370 horses from the Conger and Frisco herd-management areas, with about 60 returned to the range as part of a population-control research project.

Under a 2001 land exchange, the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration acquired a 26,000-acre block of land about 35 miles southwest of Milford at Blawn Wash. This area represents 43 percent of what was then a federal herd-management area and more than two-thirds of its forage.

The state has routinely pressured the BLM to remove horses from these lands, but their numbers have rebounded after each of the previous four roundups. Since 2000, the BLM has removed 550 horses from Blawn, including 143 as recently as two years ago.

Some of the gathered animals are adopted out, but most join thousands of other formerly free-roaming horses living in captivity at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Federal law prohibits the killing of wild horses except for humanitarian purposes.

Horse advocacy groups, which attempted to intervene in the lawsuit, were displeased with the BLM court settlement, arguing it prioritizes ranchers' interests over the broader public's.

"This Blawn Wash roundup is the latest example of the BLM eliminating wild horses to make room for private livestock grazing on our public lands," said Deniz Bolbol of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation). "The BLM is wiping out wild horses by eliminating congressionally designated wild horse habitat and giving it to welfare ranchers who profit from taxpayer-subsidized grazing on our public lands."

Originally posted by The Salt Lake Tribune