{"id":107724,"date":"2015-12-10T20:51:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T03:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-starts-process-of-removing-horses-cattle\/"},"modified":"2015-12-10T20:51:05","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T03:51:05","slug":"mesa-verde-starts-process-of-removing-horses-cattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-starts-process-of-removing-horses-cattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesa Verde starts process of removing horses, cattle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa Verde National Park is asking the public for comment about how to remove feral horses and cattle from the park.<\/span>Sam Green\/Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A band of 80 feral horses and about 12 head of cattle roaming Mesa Verde National Park have rangers at a loss for how to handle the trespassing animals, which have caused significant damage to archaeological sites and pose a risk to visitors.<\/p>\n

The animals, under law, are considered \u201ctrespass livestock\u201d and have been banned from the park since 1908 \u2013 just two years after the site received the presidential designation that seeks to preserve significant prehistoric sites.<\/p>\n

But ever since the early 20th century, when park officials attempted to fence off the park\u2019s boundaries, livestock from surrounding properties managed to escape their enclosures and thrive on the arid land, about an hour\u2019s drive west of Durango.<\/p>\n

The Park Service responded by trying to mitigate the animals\u2019 populations, but the agency recently said in a news release that existing park programs and practices, including maintaining existing fencing, have not been effective at managing livestock, and the number of trespass livestock, particularly horses, has increased during the past 20 years.<\/p>\n

This has caused damage to archaeological sites, stressed resources for native animals and posed a threat to humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deer and other animals tend to stay away from the (archaeological) sites,\u201d said Cristy Brown, public information officer for the park service. \u201cBut the livestock will go right across the sites. We\u2019ve even seen cattle inside some of the structures in the backcountry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said horses in the past have been struck by vehicles and even charged tourists who\u2019ve come too close.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do our absolute best to prevent anything negative like that from occurring,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the visitors definitely are attracted to any sort of animal they see in the park, whether it\u2019s horses, deer, turkeys or bunnies. But they tend to associate horses as something that\u2019s domesticated, and, unfortunately, these horses react in a different way than a horse in a petting zoo, and people don\u2019t realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, six feral horses died from dehydration-related causes, sparking protests at the park when rangers refused to provide the animals water \u2013 standard protocol for wildlife management on federal lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cElk and deer are native species, and horses are not,\u201d Neal Perry, a park wildlife biologist, told The Cortez Journal at the time. \u201cAlso, elk and deer have a natural instinct to move on when water is limited, whereas feral horses were once bred for certain attributes and become loyal to one water spot. When it dries up, it leads to dehydration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said there is a distinction between feral and wild animals. The animals are legally considered feral because they\u2019ve eluded domestication and, therefore, do not qualify for protections under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which designates an area for the Spring Creek herd in Disappointment Valley.<\/p>\n

That leaves only one legal option, park officials say: completely remove the livestock.<\/p>\n

The NPS collaborated with the Colorado Chapter of the National Mustang Association last year to organize a roundup, but those plans fell through after it came to light that under law, the animals would have to be sold at auction, which could send the horses to the slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n

Now, park service officials are seeking public comment about ways to remove the trespassing livestock, how to prevent future entry into the park and any other related issues or concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we really are just asking for viewpoints from the public about what they feel we should do,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

This week, the NPS released a set of proposed actions. Ideas for the capture, removal and exclusion of the livestock included roundups, baited-pen capture, fencing and fertility control. As for long-term placement, the NPS suggested public or private sale, or possibly adoptions.<\/p>\n

Comments can be submitted on the park\u2019s website, www.parkplanning.nps.gov\/meve_livestock. The deadline is Jan. 8.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

To comment<\/h4>\n

Mesa Verde National Park is seeking public comment about the removal of feral horses and cattle from the park. Comments can be submitted at www.parkplanning.nps.gov\/meve_livestock. The deadline is Jan. 8.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Animals damage sites, pose risk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[551,173],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-feature-box","tag-mesa-verde-national-park"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107724"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}