BLM proposes wild horse roundups

Federal officials are proposing to round up hundreds of excess wild horses in southwest Wyoming later this year in a continuing effort to reduce the animal's numbers to more manageable levels, according to Bureau of Land Management administrators. The agency plans to use a combination of helicopter roundups and fertility control methods to reduce wild horse numbers in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas. The proposed roundup is part of a larger agency effort to remove thousands of wild horses that now roam public rangelands across the West. In 2003, after wild horse populations in Wyoming soared upwards of 7,000 animals, the state and the BLM signed a "consent decree" dictating that the BLM meet the state's wild horse population objective with roundups. Under the decree, when data is gathered that indicates a herd management area is determined to be over its population objective, the BLM has one year from discovery to remove wild horses to the low range of the management area. Population surveys conducted in July 2009 revealed approximately 1,950 wild horses were within the two herd management areas. The appropriate management range for the Adobe Town unit is 610 to 800 wild horses, according to agency data. The appropriate range for the Salt Wells Creek management area is between 251 and 365...read more