BLM OKs plan to place 805 wild horses at Ennis-area ranch

The Bureau of Land Management said Monday it is moving forward with a plan to place up to 805 wild horses on the 16,000-acre Spanish Q Ranch in Madison County by February. The agency originally proposed placing 1,500 horses on the Ennis-area ranch, but an environmental study found that those numbers would be destructive to wildlife habitat and soil. Susie Stokke with the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program has said the ranch will hold horses that have been captured to control population levels on public land, as well as those that that were not adopted at auction. Even though the BLM pared back the proposed herd size, concerns remain about the affects the horses will have on wildlife and the costs associated with placing the animals on private land. Fences around the horses' pasture are expected to be 6 inches higher than what the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks recommends for fences to be passable by wildlife. Also, the average cost for long-term holding pastures is around $1.30 per horse per day, putting the cost holding 805 horses at nearly $400,000 per year...read more