{"id":44663,"date":"2021-09-16T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T00:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/northwest-colorado-wild-horse-roundup-ends-with-70-of-the-herd-removed\/"},"modified":"2021-09-17T00:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T00:57:00","slug":"northwest-colorado-wild-horse-roundup-ends-with-70-of-the-herd-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/northwest-colorado-wild-horse-roundup-ends-with-70-of-the-herd-removed\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Colorado wild horse roundup ends with 70% of the herd removed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A wild horse peers from the fencing shortly after being captured during the roundup Sept. 1 in Sand Wash Basin outside Craig. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Stella Trueblood stood on a platform above the corrals, her eyes quickly scanning through the dust as the wild horses were pushed through a chute toward a trailer.<\/p>\n

The mustangs that reached the semitrailer would ship out of the Sand Wash Basin forever. Trueblood and other volunteers from the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse Advocate Team \u2013 called SWAT \u2013 could save only 50 of the nearly 700 horses that were rounded up by helicopter in the high desert rangeland in far northwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThird one back is a save! Pull it!\u201d she shouted.<\/p>\n

One at a time, as the wild horse advocates spotted a mustang on their \u201csave list,\u201d the animals were pulled by cowboys to a separate corral. And at the close of the roundup<\/a>, the horses were released, trotting off into the landscape of sagebrush, juniper trees and red and tan cliffs.<\/p>\n

The wild horse group\u2019s list of 50 mustangs \u2013 25 mares and 25 stallions \u2013 was a concession allowed by the federal Bureau of Land Management after the local group failed to persuade the BLM to switch the roundup from a helicopter gather to a gentler bait-and-trap operation.<\/p>\n

In the end, federal officials removed about 100 fewer horses than originally planned. An estimated 250 or more mustangs remain in Sand Wash Basin, northwest of Craig in Moffat County, near the Wyoming state line.<\/p>\n

The BLM began the roundup with an aggressive goal of removing about 80% of the herd, which was estimated at nearly 900. Instead, a wrangling crew and helicopter pilot hired by the government removed about 70% of the mustangs before the roundup officially ended and the last of the makeshift corrals were dismantled this week.<\/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>

In all, 684 horses were herded by a low-flying helicopter<\/a> into holding pens during the two-week roundup. The local wild horse advocacy group, which has documented the horses since 2008 and knows all of their names, created a list of 25 stallions and 25 mares to return to the wild, based mostly on bloodlines and color.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the allure of our treasured herd was the color,\u201d Trueblood said. \u201cWe know the lineage of every horse. It was very hard to determine who is going to live free and who is going to be hauled out. It was heartbreaking, but we had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those saved were an old palomino mare named Irma, who has been on the range since before 2008, and a small, black mare named Em that for 15 years has partnered with Corona, a famous dunalino stallion that once again escaped capture during a roundup. This time, Corona jumped the fence after he was herded in by the helicopter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they find each other again,\u201d Trueblood said.<\/p>\n

She could hardly speak about a stallion named P.J., the son of the most famous horse in the Sand Wash, a pinto named Picasso that is thought to have died of old age in winter 2019. After P.J., short for Picasso Junior, was herded by helicopter into a holding pen, a veterinarian discovered the old stallion has eye cancer. And although P.J. was on the save list, the BLM would not return him to the wild.<\/p>\n

Trueblood broke down in tears as she explained why only 49 horses, not 50, were returned to the range. P.J. did not get to go home.<\/p>\n

The stallion boarded the semi trailer headed for a holding facility in Ca\u00f1on City, and the BLM said it was too late to save another stallion in his place as most of the horses had already been shipped. P.J. is too old and sick for adoption and instead is likely to be euthanized.<\/p>\n

Going forward, the BLM intends to keep the herd size within its designed \u201cappropriate management level\u201d of 163 to 362 mustangs.<\/p>\n

This will happen through bait-and-trap gathers, which involve luring the horses into corrals containing fresh water and hay and shutting the gates via remote-control switch. The federal agency also plans to continue funding a birth control program in which volunteers help dart mares each year with a vaccine called PZP, said BLM spokesman Chris Maestas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall it went extremely well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe brought our numbers back into that appropriate management level and that was an important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wild
Wild horses grazing on public lands on Wednesday, Sept. 1 near the Sand Wash Basin outside Craig. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Maestas, who spent every day of the roundup arranging a caravan and coordinating viewing locations for wild horse advocates and the media, said the number of horses taken during the roundup was flexible. He did not say whether outcry from mustang and animal rights groups across the nation, or a letter from Gov. Jared Polis to the BLM asking for a reprieve, led to more horses left on the range.<\/p>\n

But the governor\u2019s office told The Sun that the roundup\u2019s early end was \u201crelated\u201d to Polis\u2019 plea to the federal agency. While the BLM is charged with managing wild horses on four designated rangelands in Colorado, the governor\u2019s office is now exploring options to work with the federal agency.<\/p>\n

Polis intends to engage experts, academics and advocates \u201cto avoid further roundups and for better planning and a more humane management approach,\u201d spokesperson Elizabeth Kosar said.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s first gentleman, Marlon Reis, a long-time animal advocate, posted on social media that state engagement in the process was a \u201cmeaningful step toward a future in which states work hand in hand with the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am relieved for the horses who have been spared \u2026 and determined to do everything I can to help ensure Colorado\u2019s wild horses receive the dignity and respect they deserve going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The BLM\u2019s Maestas said the observing area for the roundup, which moved daily depending on where horses were spotted, grew tense as the days went on. Emotions ran high, horse advocacy groups got annoyed with each other over varying opinions, and most of the anger was directed at him, Maestas said.<\/p>\n

Horse advocates reported seeing foals separated from their mothers, including a 6-month-old now alone in the wild and a foal that was shipped to Ca\u00f1on City without its mother and is now in \u201cfoster care\u201d with humans. Midway through the roundup, one foal that had been separated from its mother was later herded \u2013 along with a stallion \u2013 into the corrals by helicopter. The baby horse ran into the corral, while the stallion jumped a jute fence and eluded capture.<\/p>\n

Two horses were euthanized for reasons the BLM said were not related to the roundup. One was a colt that had trouble walking and was diagnosed with a neurological issue. Three horses were taken to another BLM mustang area, Spring Creek Basin in southwest Colorado\u2019s Disappointment Valley, instead of going to holding pens in Ca\u00f1on City.<\/p>\n

In Ca\u00f1on City, the horses will receive vaccinations and medications and the stallions will be gelded. Those deemed fit for adoption will become available in February. Others will go to wild horse advocacy sanctuaries or to pasture for the rest of their lives at ranches in the West and Midwest that the BLM contracts to house them.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s \u201cadoption incentive program\u201d pays people $1,000 to adopt a wild horse or burro, and they must agree to care for the animals for a year, when they will receive title to the horses. The bureau also has a new online auction where people can sign up for mustangs and have them delivered to a nearby pick-up location.<\/p>\n

When that year is up, say horse advocates, some horses and burros end up sold in auctions for slaughter. This week, members of Congress reintroduced the \u201cSave America\u2019s Forgotten Equines\u201d Act, which is intended to stop the export of wild horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.<\/p>\n

The BLM rounded up thousands of wild horses this year and last year, an attempt to thin herds across the West. The helicopter gathers included two in Colorado this summer. More than 450 horses were removed in July and August from the West Douglas range, in Rio Blanco County.<\/p>\n

Colorado has four mustang rangelands managed by the federal agency and, before this summer, counted 2,412 wild mustangs. The appropriate number for the land, according to the BLM, is just 827. At Sand Wash, the same land is home to deer, elk and sage grouse, as well as domestic sheep that graze the rangeland.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the agency estimates there are more than 86,000 mustangs and burros in the wild, after BLM roundups removed more than 10,000 last year in several Western states.<\/p>\n

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

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

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