Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Preliminary Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse Herd Gather Environmental Assessment available for comment

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a preliminary Environmental Assessment, which analyzes the environmental consequences of removing up to 50 excess wild horses from the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area on BLM lands located in San Miguel and Dolores counties, about 45 miles northeast of Dove Creek, Colo., and 33 miles southwest of Norwood, Colo., off San Miguel County Road 19Q. The document is tiered to the 1994 BLM Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area Management Plan and the 1985 San Juan/San Miguel Resource Management Plan.

The Proposed Action would gather about 60 and remove approximately 50 excess wild horses from within and outside (if necessary) the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area in mid-September 2011 (the roundup is now scheduled from Sept. 15-18). Horses would be removed using a selective removal strategy.  In keeping with BLM guidance, fertility control options are also being evaluated.  

Comments must be received by close of business on Friday, July 11, 2011, and should be mailed to Tom Rice, BLM Associate Field Office Manager, 27501 Highway 184, Dolores, CO 81323 or emailed to trice@blm.gov. For more information, please contact Tom Rice at (970) 882-6843. Comments are most helpful if they are specific to the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area and to the proposed gather activities described in the Alternatives section of the EA. Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and addresses, will be part of the public record. Link to PDF : Preliminary Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse 2011 Gather Plan EA

[NOTE: The EA link referred to above is not actually set as a hyperlink right now, but this is the link to the San Juan Public Lands website for the above information: http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/sjplc.html 

Please also note that the correct name of our herd area is Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, not “Spring Creek Wild Horse Herd Management Area.”

**I’ve changed it above to reflect the correct name.]

UPDATE: Here is the link to the actual preliminary EA for the 2011 Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area Gather Plan.