Wild mustangs to be moved - Herd of Wild Horses Gets in Wa..

Monday, September 13, 2004
Drilling to oust wild horses
By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Staff Writer

BLM says 30,000-acre grazing area in N.W. Colo.
can't sustain 120-mustang herd. Conservationists call
the federal plan "shameful" and say it does not bode
well for some of the country's other estimated 27,000
free-roaming mustangs.

One of Colorado's five remaining herds of wild horses
is slated to be rounded up and removed from a rugged
area in northwest Colorado to make way for more oil
and gas development.

The pending removal has infuriated wild horse advocates
and environmentalists who view the action as a failure of
the Bureau of Land Management to follow a 34-year-old
federal mandate to manage wild horse populations. They
say it also sets a dangerous precedent for some of the
country's other estimated 27,000 free-roaming mustangs
because this marks the first time the bureau is removing a
herd due to the encroachment of oil and gas wells.

The animals will either be adopted or put in a "sanctuary,"
which is a long-term holding facility.

"We think it's shameful," said Andrea Rococo, Rocky
Mountain coordinator for The Fund for Animals. "Colorado
horses are dwindling down to about zero, and now the
BLM is considering zeroing out another herd."

The herd targeted for removal is a band of an estimated
120 horses west of Douglas Divide and south of Rangely.
About 900 oil and gas wells already dot the 123,000
acres the horses once grazed. Now, drilling is going to be
permitted on the 7 percent of the grazing area that hadn't
been leased in the past.

Colorado's other wild horse herds, located east of Douglas
Divide, in the Book Cliffs near Grand Junction, southwest
of Montrose, and near Maybell, co-exist with oil and gas
drilling. Wild horse advocates say the more than 500 animals
adapt well to drilling activities and pose no conflict.

Oil and gas development "wasn't as intrusive as I thought
it would be," said Marty Felix, who monitors the Little Book
Cliffs herd near Grand Junction for Friends of the Mustang.

Felix is complimentary of the way the BLM is managing
wild horses. But Toni Moore, a Grand Junction veterinary
assistant who has taken on the cause of the West Douglas
herd, claims the BLM is illegally decimating the ranks of
wild horses while favoring livestock grazing and energy
development interests.

The bureau was mandated in 1971 under the Wild
Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to give wild horses
the same priority as other uses.

"We're absolutely required by law to provide the horses
with the best possible range. And we're pretty proud.
We have the best herds," said Bob Fowler, a forester and
range management specialist with the Meeker-based field
office of the BLM.

Fowler said the horses slated for removal have been
affected by drilling and now graze an area of less than
30,000 acres - not enough for a healthy herd. Fowler
said when the horses are removed sometime before
2007, the area will maintain its status as a herd area,
which means that horses could be returned when the oil
and gas reserves are depleted, in approximately 40 years.

Horse advocates predict the herd-removal issue that
drew 500 letters of objection will end up in court.
Nineteen formal protests have been filed since the
decision was issued in August.

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