{"id":44859,"date":"2021-09-01T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-to-remove-80-of-wild-mustang-herd-from-sand-wash-basin-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2021-09-01T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:47:00","slug":"blm-to-remove-80-of-wild-mustang-herd-from-sand-wash-basin-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-to-remove-80-of-wild-mustang-herd-from-sand-wash-basin-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"BLM to remove 80% of wild mustang herd from Sand Wash Basin in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A wild stallion roams Sand Wash Basin in northwestern Colorado during a recent winter. The federal Bureau of Land Management plans to roundup 733 wild horses at Sand Wash during the next two weeks. (Scott Wilson\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Scott Wilson\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For the second time this summer, a helicopter hired by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will round up hundreds of wild horses roaming northwest Colorado in what the agency is calling an emergency operation to thin the herds.<\/p>\n

The roundup<\/a> in the Sand Wash Basin, in far northwestern Colorado near the Wyoming border, was scheduled to begin Wednesday and continue until the federal agency has removed 733 mustangs, which is about 80% of the population on the high-desert rangeland.<\/p>\n

This two- to three-week operation comes after the July-August emergency removal of 457 horses from the West Douglas herd, in nearby Rio Blanco County.<\/p>\n

The BLM\u2019s aggressive goal \u2013 leaving 163 horses in the 156,000-acre Sand Wash Basin \u2013 has met protest from mustang advocates across the country, including Colorado\u2019s first gentleman Marlon Reis, a longtime supporter of animal rights.<\/p>\n

Reis posted on social media that he and Gov. Jared Polis suggested to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that Colorado take on a \u201cmore active, co-managerial role\u201d in overseeing wild horses and burros. He urged Coloradans to call members of Congress to protest the roundup.<\/p>\n

Polis urged Haaland and BLM deputy director of policy Nada Wolff Culver in a letter Monday to \u201ctemporarily freeze any planned round-ups\u201d for six months to allow for a \u201cmore thoughtful and inclusive process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain extremely concerned with the historic scale and condensed period of the BLM\u2019s proposed round-ups at Sand Wash Basin,\u201d Polis wrote in the letter, which his office provided to The Colorado Sun. \u201cI believe that, through Colorado\u2019s unique position as a state with a long history of innovation and care for our public lands and wildlife, we can work more collaboratively with the BLM to effectuate more scientific and humane outcomes to herd management.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A stallion named Picasso, captured on camera in 2018, is among the most well-known mustangs of the Sand Wash Basin herd. He has not been seen since winter of 2019 and is presumed to have died of old age. (Scott Wilson\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Scott Wilson\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The governor said he had received an \u201coutpouring\u201d of letters from people opposed to the roundups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere remain legitimate concerns about the fate of gathered horses, and I believe that better collaboration with the state and advocates could improve assurances about their long-term well-being and the avoidance of any potential slaughter,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

But the federal agency has not swayed from its plan, scoping out the rangeland Tuesday with a contracted helicopter that will use low-flying maneuvers when necessary to push the horses toward a corral for trapping.<\/p>\n

During the July-August roundup at West Douglas, nine horses were euthanized because of pre-existing fractures and injuries and one was put down because of a leg fracture that occurred during the roundup.<\/p>\n

The emergency gather is needed, according to the BLM, \u201cdue to exceptional drought and lack of forage.\u201d The Sand Wash has sustained years of drought, causing the federal agency and volunteers to haul water to the mustangs several times in the past five to seven years, including earlier this summer, said Chris Maestas, with the BLM\u2019s Little Snake Field Office in northwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"Wild
Wild horses gather in a canyon in the Book Cliff range north of Grand Junction in May 2006. (William Woody\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Scott Wilson\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The land, shared with mule deer, elk and sage grouse, has in some areas turned to \u201cmoon dust\u201d because of drought and overgrazing, he said. The grouse population in the basin has decreased 26% this year, Maestas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that many horses, it\u2019s become decimated,\u201d he said. \u201cAbout 60% of the range has been destroyed. People are saying, \u2018It\u2019s not an emergency. Look at the horses today. They\u2019re fat and there is water.\u2019 We are concerned about what is going to happen this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maestas estimated it will take several years, with what the BLM considers an appropriate number of mustangs, for the range to recover. An estimated 150 horses have left the designated management area, jumping fences and slipping through open gates, to literally find greener pastures near farmland along the Little Snake River, he said.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun<\/em> is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

733 horses from northwestern Colorado targeted despite protests from Polis, advocates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44859"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}