Drought Does Not Justify Emergency Roundups of Wild Horse Herds in the West
August 4, 2021America’s Wild Horses Need Us the Most in 2022
January 10, 2022Sand Wash Basin Herd Roundup is Not an Emergency
The Sand Wash Basin Herd in Colorado faces an “emergency” roundup as Bureau of Land Management avoids NEPA
by Carol J. Walker
The Bureau of Land Management announced that an additional 6000 wild horses would be rounded up in 2021 due to drought, and using the emergency designation to push full steam ahead without fulfilling its National Environmental Policy Act regulations, allowing them to go in without public input, with very little notice, and leaving less wild horses than the Appropriate Management Level for these herds. But the Bureau of Land Management’s own handbook does not classify drought as a reason for an emergency roundup.
in April, the Bureau of Land Management announced its plan to remove wild horses fromSand Wash Basin with a 30 day period for the public to review and comment upon this plan:
https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2012689/570
Update on 81-18-2021
They have released the Decision Record now, it is here:
The next step would be to publish a Decision Record with the final Environmental Assessment with another 30:days for the public to comment. But they did not do this. They announced an emergency roundup, starting September 1, saying they will roundup 683 horses within the Herd Management Area and 100 outside, for a total of 783 wild horses to be removed using a helicopter roundup, and the goal is to leave 163 wild horses which is the low Appropriate Management Level. There was a flyover count done about a month ago, but those figures have not been released to the public.
The monsoon rains filled many of the waterholes and new grass is coming up in the basin. When I visited four days ago I was happy to see the water in many waterholes. I am not an expert on range conditions but it is very dry and the horses are spread out and hard to find as they look for forage. The horses I saw were in good condition, I did not see any starving horses. I am always of the opinion that wild horses are better off and safer on the range in their homes than rounded up becoming some of the over 60,000 wild horses in holding facilities, and with the Adoption Incentive Program continuing, at risk of being sold to slaughter.
There are over 10 new foals as of last week, and with the roundup starting in 2 weeks there is no question that using bait in traps to capture the horses would be so much safer and more humane for the horses especially the foals, instead of using a helicopter to stampede the horses.
The Decision Record now includes IUDs in wild mares to be possibly used in the 50 horses to be released back to the range. IUDs should never be used on wild mares. Why would you use this dangerous, unproven method of birth control when safe, humane methods of birth control are readily available? They should not experiment upon/torture our wild mares.
I would like to see this roundup changed from an emergency roundup and the Decision Record and final EA published and available to the public, with the flyover count numbers included. The removal of the horses should never go down to the low AML of 163 but should never go below the high AML of 362 wild horses. The range can carry more horses than this, and the population should be managed using humane birth control. The livestock grazing leases for sheep should be retired and sheep grazing should never be allowed in Sand Wash Basin.
What can you do to help? Call the Bureau of Land Management State Office: https://www.blm.gov/office/colorado-state-office
Call the Little Snake Field Office: https://www.blm.gov/office/little-snake-field-office
Contact Senator Michael Bennet’s office: https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
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9 Comments
I just made a call to the BLM OFFICE . I asked them to stop the emergency Sandwash Basin Wild Horse Roundup because there is no reason to do this with the new adequate amount of water and new growth of grasses there. I told them that they need to stop all these unnecessary cruel Helicopter Roundups, they have to stop doing this to our Wild Horses, the America is not going to tolerate this anymore, stop abusing our iconic Wild Horses!!!! There are several new baby foals at the Sand Wash Basin!! PLEASE STOP THE HELICOPTERS RIGHT NOW!!!! Tina Wooten
Please!!!!stop these round up s they have a right to run free . human s think they have aright to control everything so inhumanely., it is sick out of control . STOP!!!!!!!????????????????????????????????????♀️????????????????❣️????????
Stop the round ups, this is non essential waste of tax dollars!
This is more travesty by the BLM. Have commented thru the Cloud site already. Will do so many more times, but until this current Secretary of the DOI wakes up & makes some changes?
I agree with all of you .We can only hope BLM does the right thing ! I don’t want to believe that all of their employees are heartless.
Please stop the ROUNDUPS. It’s not necessary please leave Gods creatures alone. There not hurting anyone. We pray you stop
Please stop the helicopters now. Don’t subject the foals to this noise.
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Claudia Holt
i saw the wild mustangs in 2016 outside of cody, wyoming in july my heart was racing as i kept up with our guide to see the herds at the watering hole this was a dream come true for me we went to another spot and saw some more they were not even afraid of us the guide had to remind us the we had to stay 300 yards away this was a hard thing to do we all wanted to get as close as we could to the american mustangs that’s right they belong to all of us and they are spending our hard earned taxes to pay for these devastating roundups that are happening now we cannot even afford beef and sheep to add to our grocery list they have nothing better to do with a tax money shame on them i would love to take my grand daughter to see them she loves horses just as i do they need to stop what they are doing