Utah sues feds, demanding removal of horses from trust lands

The state of Utah is asking a federal judge to force the Bureau of Land Management to remove wild horses from state-trust lands, particularly from a big tract in Iron and Beaver counties. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration alleges years of failed management has led to population explosions of the protected animals, even though BLM wranglers scoured the Blawn Wash area last summer, removing every horse they encountered. "SITLA has provided the BLM with notice of the presence of and damage from wild horses on these 'school section lands' but wild horses and their depredation of rangeland resources on these lands continue unabated." Meanwhile, state lawmakers emphasized their unhappiness with the situation, introducing a resolution before the Utah Senate that echoes the allegations in the SITLA suit. BLM officials declined to comment on the suit, but they said Blawn Wash has been the subject of numerous horse gathers back to 2000, around the time SITLA acquired a 26,000-acre block in a large west desert land swap. On Thursday a Senate committee will hear a resolution calling on the federal government to transfer the management of "feral" horses and burros to the state and urging the governor to draft a management plan. "Excessive feral horse and burro populations in Utah are damaging range and water resources, consuming forage allocated to livestock and wildlife, abridging multiple-use principles applicable to public lands, and otherwise impairing the natural ecological balance on impacted lands," states SJR7, sponsored by Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City...more