The Salt Lake Tribune: BLM postpones wild horse roundup

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is putting off plans to round up about nearly 200 wild horses in a remote western Utah mountain range.

The agency had planned the roundup for Jan. 15, but it’s been rescheduled for July so the BLM can conduct an environmental analysis before proceeding. Snowy conditions would have made the roundup more difficult and the delay also gives the agency more time to coordinate with contractors who would do the work, officials said.

The herd roams the Confusion Mountains about 90 miles northwest of Delta on a rugged management area that stretches across more than 360 square miles.

The agency had said the roundup was needed to reduce the herd to its target size, between 60 and 115 horses. It currently has about 285.

The roundup was initially scheduled for the summer of 2008 but has been delayed several times.

Horses that are gathered will be sold, adopted or taken to BLM’s long-term holding facilities.

In late February, crews will do a population count of the herd in the Confusion Mountains. The BLM may decide to round up more horses than initially planned if it finds the herd is larger than expected, Lisa Reid, an agency spokeswoman in Fillmore, said Thursday.

An environmental analysis of the roundup is expected to be done in May.

Gathering the horses in July will likely be easier because horses will be more congregated, Reid said.

She added it’s not unusual for roundups to be delayed.

The wild horse advocate group In Defense of Animals, which fought a BLM roundup that started last month targeting 2,500 horses in northern Nevada, said postponement of the Utah gather came a day after it circulated criticism of the project.

Among the organization’s concerns are the use of helicopters during the roundups and reliance on outdated reviews.

“The BLM’s mismanaged, wasteful and inhumane wild horse and burro program must be reformed, and the first step is a moratorium on unnecessary and inhumane roundups,” Eric Kleiman, the group’s director of research, said in a statement.

The BLM manages around 37,000 wild horses in 10 Western states under a 1971 law. Most of them are descendants of domesticated horses and burros that escaped or were set loose long ago.

In Utah, the BLM manages about 3,600 wild horses in 23 herds. Without any predators in the wild, horse populations can grow quickly, putting a strain on land designated by the BLM for habitat.

Each year, government agents take thousands of horses and burros off the range and put them up for adoption.

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