Comments on our preliminary EA for this fall’s roundup are due tomorrow – Monday, July 11. Comments from this preliminary document will form the basis of the final EA. If nothing else, and if you haven’t already, please send comments in support of “Alternative 1 – proposed action: Helicopter drive trap and capture up to 60 wild horses in order to remove 50 excess animals. Apply the contraceptive porcine zona pellucida (PZP) with annual boosters over the next five years, and establish a 60% male sex ratio.”
Cinch
Details: Mail to Tom Rice, BLM Associate Field Office Manager, 27501 Highway 184, Dolores, CO 81323, or email to trice@blm.gov. For more information, call Tom Rice at (970) 882-6843. Comments are most helpful if they are specific to 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.
Hacho & Maiku
We have worked hard – almost four years, since the last roundup in 2007 – to get to this point. Is there more work to do? Of course there is – management has goals, but good management has no end point – it evolves. Right now, this is the next step on the path to sustainable management for the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin. Do we wish bait trapping was being used over the helicopter? Of course we do. We worked on that, and for a variety of reasons, that plan did not come to fruition for this roundup. We’re also working on the gender skewing issue. Sixty percent stallions is actually better than it was after 2007 – and now we know the exact makeup of the herd to ensure it’s no more than that.
Whisper & Aurora
But annual PZP darting is a huge, integral part of the new management plan – and that IS being implemented at this roundup. This is a giant step, and it represents numerous steps in a process that at times has been massively frustrating, and it heralds a valuable new partnership between our advocacy groups (National Mustang Association/Colorado, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen – as individual groups and collectively as Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners (which also includes San Juan Mountains Association)) and the Dolores Public Lands Office, managing agency for Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. Representative volunteers from these groups will be actively involved at both the roundup and adoption.
To clarify some concerns I’ve heard from people: We are NOT using PZP-22 here again; we are using native PZP, delivered annually via dart. No stallions will be returned to the basin as geldings. Cattle grazing in the basin is NOT part of the current EA – which pertains to the roundup only.
Sustainable management means managing wild horses in the wild. Doing that means reducing population growth. The means to do that is within reach. Please support Alternative 1.
Varoujan
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
I have followed Billies Little Book Cliffs blog for a couple of years and just found yours. Kudos to you and the organizations who track and monitor these herds! It is such a valuable service tothe horses both for BLM and to get their names and faces out to the public. I have a question for you. How did a daughter of Corona from Sand Wash wind up in Spring Creek basin? that’s a long walk! I spent my younger years around Salida and Canyon City
Betty
I was gone for half a month without a computer and was very anxious about how this was going. I hope helicopters and other means of capture that could injure the horses are less used too, but from what I have seen online, their use seems to increase. I am dreading this roundup, but so thankful it’s not during the winter! Yes! What bothers me the most about all of this are terrible pictures I’ve seen of BLM holding corrals. The horses look uncomfortable and packed together- and I don’t like that at all. Is that really how they are?
Thanks, Betty. I think it has/will make a tremendous difference here in the future management of our herd. Our Corona’s mama, Raven, was with Sand Wash Basin’s Corona before the roundup there in 2008 (from photo documentation). We didn’t know she was pregnant when she and three other fillies (they were all assumed to be 2-year-olds) arrived here that fall (introduced for their genetics, to boost those of our own small herd), but it became pretty obvious that next spring! I’ve always loved that not only will we reap the benefits of Raven, Kootenai and Mona (named here), we have Corona’s bloodlines … and our Corona now is with our beloved stallion “Traveler.” It’s a king’s daughter being married to a king. 🙂
Rochlia … I know what you mean. Our roundup this year will still be done with a helicopter, but bait trapping is being considered for the future. Our contractor changed from SunJ to Cattoor, who has done our roundup at least twice in the past, including the one I witnessed in 2007. In general, I thought it was well-done, though the fact that I’m pressing for bait trapping in the future tells you what I think of the practice overall! Yes, the horses are pretty tight in the pens because the pens are small. Our National Mustang Association/Colorado chapter has asked repeatedly for bigger pens during the roundup, but at the last roundup, we were told it’s actually beneficial to keep them small so the horses don’t get a running start at each other. (Do I believe that???! Noooooo.) NMA/CO has even offered to supply additional panels so the pens could be bigger. We have made many comments about issues exactly like this, and representatives from our group and other local groups that make up our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners will be on hand to observe and perform volunteer duties with BLM. We will absolutely try our best to make sure the horses are handled as well as possible – to include a minimum of that chousing they always get in the pens with the plastic bags. Because of the poor service in the basin and the fact that I will be there for the entire thing (not coming home because home is just too far away), I’m not sure I’ll be able to post any updates. If I can find (reliable) service, I’ll try to post short updates from my “smart phone.” At the least, I’ll post information about the roundup after it’s done and I get back to the Internet. The adoption will be held the next Saturday (the roundup is scheduled from Sept. 15-18, and the adoption is scheduled for Sept. 24), so I’ll have some time between visits to the horses that will be available for adoption. I plan to do a post about this as the time gets closer, but I plan to have information packets about each horse to send with the adopters, and NMA/CO already has two trainers (husband and wife team – she adopted a Spring Creek Basin mustang in 2007 who is the sweetest ever! and he’ll also be an “ambassador,” another program we’ve planned during the adoption) whose services we’ll offer adopters. In other words, people who adopt one of our mustangs will be able to call on these trainers to help them with the first touch and basic gentling, and NMA/CO will pay for that. We think it will make a huge difference in both getting horses adopted and in adopters retaining their horses.