On Wednesday, BLM rangeland management specialist Ryan Schroeder texted that he had been reinstated at his job at Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores, Colorado!!!!!!
On Friday, rallies to support public lands and federal employees were held at Tres Rios Field Office (also known as Dolores Public Lands Office; BLM and U.S. Forest Service), Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum (national monument), and at Mesa Verde National Park. Those rallies were followed by a combined rally at the intersection of U.S. Highway 160 and Colorado Highway 184 in Mancos.
I’d call that excellent timing. 🙂
Folks gathering and collecting their signs in the parking lot of TRFO/DPLO.
A law-enforcement ranger pulling in, greeted by a crowd of supporters. I believe this was a Forest Service ranger, but I’d like to give a shout out to our BLM law-enforcement rangers, who are absolutely the best. I’ve worked with a handful of different rangers, and absolutely every one of them has been stellar. At least one of them was just in Disappointment Valley this past week. Two BLM rangers have an enormous chunk of ground to cover – all of Southwest Colorado, something like five or six counties? – and they have told me they make it a point to patrol through Spring Creek Basin and Disappointment Valley as often as possible. Hats off to those guys!
Supporters crowded both sides of the entrance to the DPLO/TRFO, as well as across Highway 184. Lots of folks honked and waved in support of the public lands in Southwest Colorado and elsewhere. I don’t know the percentages, but this region IS public lands! Agriculture (cattle and sheep grazing), timber, oil and gas, hunting and fishing, wild horses, recreation – hiking, mountain biking, camping, backpacking, horseback riding, birding, kayaking, rafting, etc., etc. – all depend on BLM, Forest Service, national monument and national park lands. Jobs aren’t limited to federal employees; they are interconnected among a wide variety of livelihoods. And those folks are our friends, our neighbors; they are part of our communities.
I would hazard a guess that at least (at LEAST!) 95 percent of the people who drove by – whether they honked/waved in support or not – use public lands. We saw vehicles with mountain bikes on racks, sprinter vans, trucks hauling campers and stock trailers, dump trucks, utility trucks, big rigs (one driver from Los Angeles actually pulled his rig to the shoulder and asked what was going on … then gave the supporter who talked to him a bottle of Gatorade!). Vehicles with Colorado plates, Texas plates, California plates, New Mexico plates, Wyoming plates. To say we all use our public lands in these vast reaches of the West – let alone Southwest Colorado – is super simplification. We all have our own uses, and we all should value these lands set aside for us to enjoy and treasure.
Bonnie Candelaria (right) and friends Joy and Lisa (?) were supporters at the event. Bonnie runs the store and cabin rentals at Groundhog Reservoir between Disappointment Valley and Dolores. Every single person she talks to there is using public lands: San Juan National Forest (at least), which surrounds Groundhog.
It was wonderful to see such a great and HAPPY turnout of support for our public lands and federal lands employees. Ryan is the only one I know personally, but the Forest Service side at the Dolores Public Lands Office lost some employees to the rash of terminations, too. I hope those folks also get reinstated ASAP.
We counted at least 65 people – including some youngsters! – at this rally. Simultaneous rallies were being held yesterday morning at both Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum and at Mesa Verde National Park. Then, at noon, folks converged at the highway intersection in Mancos (it’s literally a one-stoplight town :)), and Ryan (who was at CANM for the morning rally) texted me later that an estimated 150 to 200 people were there to show their support!
Huge appreciation to the organizers (I’m not entirely sure if there was a main group, but I think League of Women Voters of Montezuma County, Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Dolores River Boating Advocates, at least, had a hand in it). It was fantastic to join like-minded people in our appreciation of the amazing treasure that is our public lands.
** Update from Tuesday morning, after the so-called “meeting” in Dolores: Who showed up? Hundreds of people concerned about local, regional and national issues – including the firing of BLM, Forest Service and National Park Service employees (including our range specialist Ryan Schroeder). Who did NOT show up? Rep. Hurd’s representative, with whom the meeting was scheduled.
By now, I’m sure most readers of this blog have heard/seen/read about the mass firings of hundreds or thousands of federal employees with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (among other agencies).
Many of you probably even know some of those folks, who work hard for America’s public lands so that American citizens as well as visitors from other countries are able to enjoy these lands. America is the birthplace of this idea of protecting nature and natural resources for future generations. It’s not all dollar-driven extraction industries, though those play a part. But the great, far-seeing vision of the people who envisioned protected lands, available to all citizens, was to ensure that those lands belong to all of us and that we have a part in protecting and preserving them, in addition to enjoying them and all the natural wonders they offer.
Perhaps no collective group of people feel that mission more strongly than the employees who work for little pay, in harsh conditions (and I’m not talking about just rough country), for the love of the land and – !!! – for the very people who also love those lands.
Two days after I was able to speak to one of my BLM folks in person – asking her “are you all safe??” (her answer then was yes) – I learned that when she got back to the office, they were NOT. One of our two new range specialists had gotten the “you’re fired” letter that afternoon, citing as the “reason” that during his probationary period, he had “failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs …”
In his own words and with his permission, I’m going to share here the letter Ryan Schroeder wrote that demonstrates that not only do his “subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities” FULLY meet the current needs of Tres Rios Field Office and that of BLM state- and nationwide, they FAR exceed those criteria … as only a bureaucrat in the nation’s Capitol could fail to understand at a glance.
Ryan Schroeder and Chispa (Spanish for “spark,” a fitting name because of Ryan’s previous work as a firefighter), his rescue pup from the Mora, New Mexico, area.
Hi TJ,
This is Ryan Schroeder, I am the (now) former Rangeland Management Specialist (GS-11) down here for the Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Field Office and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in the Dolores, CO area. Thank you for wanting to share my story to say what happened to me on Tuesday Feb. 18, 2025 when I was terminated after less than 60 days on the job. I have written below the most concise way I can think to write about what has happened, and what it may mean for public lands and the people of this state that depend upon them.
A lot has happened in a little more than two months… I finished my PhD at the University of Montana on Dec. 13, 2024; moved nearly 800 miles south to SW Colorado where my Significant Other and I moved in together after being long-distance for over 4 years; started working at my dream job as a Rangeland Management Specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, working to promote and sustain healthy rangelands and habitats for all Americans; …and less than 60 days after being hired I was terminated for a “cause” that is a lie.
“The Department has determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs…” (excerpt from my termination letter dated Feb. 18, 2025; I have attached my termination letter in full).
Rangeland Management Specialists such as myself review, renew, and update grazing permits for private ranchers and entities to graze their livestock on public rangelands, as well as work with our partners to manage Wild Horse Management Areas such as Spring Creek Basin in the Disappointment Valley south of Naturita. To do this, we are mandated by federal statute and regulation to conduct Land Health Assessments, go through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, and work not just with our permittees but all other resources (cultural, wildlife, hydrology, fuels, recreation, and minerals) and other interested publics as part of Interdisciplinary Teams to try and use science to balance grazing habitat use alongside other public land uses, minimize negative environmental impacts while producing food and fiber for America, and use grazing as a tool for habitat improvement.
I have gone to school and worked for 11 years to be qualified for this position (resume attached), one of the most difficult positions to fill in Public Lands Management Agencies. I have gained experience, knowledge, and qualifications from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico rangelands to rise to the tasks given to me; which, when I signed my performance plan 7 days prior to receiving my termination notice, seemed daunting but doable, and a way to grow in my career and be a steward of the amazing public resources we all own as Americans. If I am not “fit or qualified” for the needs of the Department [BLM], then it appears to me that the Mission of the Department [BLM] has fundamentally changed without the knowledge of the public and those who have been with the agency more than one year…
My position, a GS-11 Rangeland Management Specialist, in the Tres Rios Field Office had been vacant following the retirement of Mike Jensen, a Rangeland Management Specialist who had been with the Tres Rios F.O. for more than a decade, and who had developed great relationships with grazing permittees and other interested publics, and it took nearly a year to fill the position. In that short time, there became a backlog of statutorily required Land Health Assessments throughout the 600,000 acre Field Office and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument areas, as well as grazing permits that were soon to expire and be renewed. By law, the revised Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), the BLM is obligated to issue grazing permits and renew expired ones. Those expired grazing permits (often with a 10-year permit period) can either be renewed with a few clicks on a computer, without any modification or updates to the “Terms and Conditions” in the permit, or go through a “Fully Processed” update and renewal to incorporate the latest science, up-to-date on-the-ground Land Health conditions, and adaptive management strategies into new “Terms and Conditions” to not just manage livestock but manage the habitat for the benefit of all resources. My supervisor, Joe Manning (Assistant Field Manager for the Tres Rios F.O.), and Laria Lovec (Colorado State Range Program lead) had brought me on to help address that backlog and incorporate more science of rangeland ecology and ecological restoration into these grazing permit renewals; be an advocate for the rangeland resources when advising on other proposed actions (by private citizens/companies or the BLM) to occur on BLM Public Lands; and continue to steward and sustain positive relationships between the Agency, our partners, and the land.
I fear, that with my termination, effective Feb. 18th, 2025, after less than 60 days on the job, the planning we in the Range Program at the Tres Rios Field Office had done to start addressing the backlog of permit renewals, Land Health Assessments, and other projects requiring NEPA this year will not be able to be done, or not incorporate up-to-date science and on-the-ground data to help the agency and the private permittees adapt to challenges faced on the ground, and will be forced to renew most permits without any changes or adequate information. Many of the grazing permits that are up for renewal were originally written in the late 1980’s through the early 2000’s. Conditions on the ground throughout the Tres Rios F.O. and Canyons of the Ancients N.M. have changed since then, and it is not appropriate to renew grazing permits without understanding what changes in the resource base or resource potential have occurred, how they can be mitigated to sustain appropriate grazing use, and how to adaptively manage in response to unpredictable environmental conditions and to promote and sustain both big-game populations, horse herds, sensitive wildlife and plant species, and cultural resources that occur throughout our grazing allotments and Field Office. Thus, if the “new” Mission of the BLM has no need for science, knowledge, stewardship, and passion thereof, as indicated in my termination letter, I fear that public lands projects (not just grazing permits) will be rubber-stamped without careful consideration of on-the-ground conditions, science, lawfully-required public input, and adaptive management techniques due to continued short-staffing of the Field Office, and lead to degradation of Colorado’s public lands and resources and increased vulnerability to external factors such as drought, shifting market conditions, and altered public perception of our rangeland and habitat resources.
Further, I do not think that my termination, in addition to at least two other BLM Colorado employees (effective Feb. 18, 2025), are the last that the agency will experience given the on-going circumstances. I do not know who is on the chopping-block next, but I worry that the BLM and other Public Land Management Agencies will continue down a crisis of confidence, a crisis of leadership, and a crisis of adequate staffing to complete the Mission(s) as they have been known and mandated by Congress and the American people. Those who remain in the agency at the State, District, and Field Office (local) levels are being silenced (both actively and passively) from speaking up about what is occuring, in fear of losing their jobs next. I fear those losses will be inevitable if things do not change, whether they speak up or not, further degrading our Public Lands Management Agencies’ abilities and our public resources in the near term and in the future.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this important matter.
**********
Later this winter or early in the spring, I was hoping to introduce you all to our new team of Anton Rambur (rangeland management specialist), Laura Heaton (range tech who worked with Mike Jensen and replaced Daniel Chavez in that position) and Ryan Schroeder. Anton and Ryan stepped into their positions just last October and December, hired to fill the positions left vacant by Mike and by Garth Nelson. We’re getting a new interpretive sign at the western boundary/entrance to Spring Creek Basin, and I thought that happy event would be a great way to introduce you all to our new BLM’ers.
Now, when that happens, we’ll be missing a key member of our team – Ryan.
From the above letter, you know that Ryan is incredibly well educated and has a significant knowledge of his subject matter. From the additional information he sent me, let me share what he accomplished in the Tres Rios Field Office in less than 60 days:
U.S.D.I. – Bureau of Land Management, CO – Rangeland Management Specialist Dec. 29 2024 – Feb. 18 2025 ▪ Duty Station: Tres Rios Field Office & Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Dolores, CO ▪ Supervisor’s phone #: Joe Manning, A.F.M. 970-***-**** (Permission granted for reference check) ▪ Developed a prioritization plan to strategically address a two-year backlog of Land Health Assessments, grazing permit renewals, and grazing permit updates (requiring the NEPA process) to focus efforts in Gunnison Sage Grouse Habitat and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern within the Field Office area. ▪ Collaborated with grazing permitees to plan livestock grazing and land management actions on BLM lands ▪ Contributed to BLM Interdisciplinary Teams as the Field Office lead range program specialist for proposed actions on BLM lands requiring NEPA review, findings of potential impacts, and mitigation techniques ▪ Responded to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in a timely manner ▪ Worked with Agency partners including non-profits, local governments, tribal nations, and private citizens to respond to and advise on rangeland habitat, livestock, and Wild Horse Management Area issues ▪ Inspected and maintained range improvements within the Field Office and Canyons of the Ancients N.M.
**********
With all due respect (not much) to the bureaucrat(s) who took the time to type up (or more likely copy and paste) his termination letter and find him in Dolores, Colorado, does that sound like someone who doesn’t know their subject matter AND also doesn’t have the “skills and abilities” to meet the needs of the range department at Tres Rios Field Office for an area of Southwest Colorado covering 600,000 surface acres of incredibly diverse landscape between Silverton to the north, New Mexico to the south and Utah to the west?!
If you’re local to our area, please make time to attend a “town hall” with a representative of newly elected U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo) at 4 p.m. today at the Dolores Public Library.
BLM, as well as the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, is *chronically* understaffed and underfunded. We know from Mike and Garth and Daniel that when you have good people, you hate to see them go (to retirement and the USFS, respectively – that agency lured away two great guys!) … and when you get new people who have the promise to keep your level of partnership and quality of work at an excellent level, you want to hang on to them. Our elected officials need to know how important people like Ryan are to our public lands and our communities.
I’ve worked with Laura since she started with TRFO, and she’s already proved to be a great addition to our team (she’s been in the office about a year and a half and learned under Mike). I’ve met Anton a few times and gotten him into the basin to see the mustangs both with Laura, and with Laura and Ryan; he is a welcome addition to Spring Creek Basin’s herd management (he comes to us from Nevada, and we’re eager to show him how wild-horse management is successful!). Ryan impressed me the second time I met him (on that basin tour), especially when he was able to immediately identify a plant I’ve been wondering about for nearly 18 years (!). We look forward to *continuing* to work with Ryan just as soon as we can get him reinstated in his very necessary position.
Better late than never, and when I finally got my act together, I thought Valentine’s Day would be the best day for this rundown.
As usual, these are 12 (and a bonus) images from the last year that came from each month. This year, I think, most of these photos have been on the blog previously. A little reminiscence of the events surrounding each image will follow the photos. Sometimes it’s those emotions and memories that make a particular image special for the photographer, and these are no exception to that. Just being out with the mustangs, in Spring Creek Basin, no matter the weather, is the very best part of what is impossible to share.
Enjoy … and please consider this is my love letter to Spring Creek Basin and its mustangs from 2024. 🙂
January last year was at least somewhat snowy (this year was very much NOT snowy). Skywalker had been a bachelor with a couple of bands until sometime last year, and here he is with some horses from one of those bands. Completing the composition is part of the Spring Creek canyon rimrocks in the near background and Utah’s La Sal Mountains in the far background. (I wish they were that snowy this year.)
This was a magical February visit with Mariah and her band. The low-angle sunshine made each snowflake a visible bit of earthly magic, and when she looked back at somebody – shazam. Magic captured.
Couldn’t pass up this snowy March day in the basin with Temple! Clearly, she had been enjoying the moisture and excuse to roll in the mud. I love the sunshine on her and the falling snow blurring the background.
I had so many opportunities with the mustangs in April, but this image of Hollywood was just *the one*. You all know exactly what I mean. (To update, I haven’t seen him again since the image I posted earlier this winter. It doesn’t mean anything other than I haven’t seen him. …)
When Spring Creek is running with rainwater, that is a time not to miss photographing it because it doesn’t happen often and water doesn’t run in the arroyo bed for very long. When Skywalker moseyed to the edge of the creek in May, just upstream of the canyon, the scene came alive with story: mustang drinking from an ephemeral stream in the desert.
In June, I was lucky to catch Sundance’s band near Odin’s band … and luckier still to see Sundance and Odin having a friendly little chat! Elder stallion and growing young stallion; what a moment. I’d love to know what wisdom Sundance was imparting to young Odin.
Terra’s stallion adores her. And I mean *adores* her. They travel with another band, but Venture has eyes only for Terra. This image is from July, when it’s hot and dry and the horses just like to doze.
Personally, this is one of my favorite images of the year because those are two of my favorite stallions: Storm and Buckeye. With their bands grazing nearby on this warm August evening, the boys greeted each other quietly and respectfully before returning to their mares.
Here’s your Valentine’s Day image, taken last September. 🙂 Buckeye and Rowan, especially, seem to have a special fondness for each other.
After Storm lost his band in October, the mares went through a couple of younger stallions that couldn’t seem to keep them. Flash ended up with Gaia … then also with Mysterium. And finally, as you know now, he gathered all of Storm’s girls (which, I think, probably was due more to them wanting to be together and evading the youngster that had them than to any particular skill Flash had at stealing them!). (I’ve seen Storm just once since he lost the band, way deep in the southeastern part of the basin.)
Last November, we had some great snow, and we were so optimistic for the winter to come! … And that was pretty much it. Here it is February, and we’re desperate for moisture of any kind while we watch the dirt turn to dust, to powder. But in November, Terra was a gorgeous girl in the sunlit snow, and life was good.
We had more lovely light in December – as seen glowing around lovely Winona – but not a heckuva lot of snow.
And as usual, a bonus:
Buckeye’s girls. 🙂 I don’t remember what caused them to run right past me, but I was stoked to capture this image of them nearly in a row, especially just as Bia was leaping a bit of sage or saltbush!
Thanks for following along, happy Valentine’s Day to you and your loved ones, and if we can have a bit of a love(ly) wish … more snow, please! 🙂
*** Update Friday morning: Disappointment Valley is getting RAIN! Not snow, RAIN. In February. In Colorado. Well, you know we’re in desperate need of moisture, so I’ll take it. (But 38F is hard on the wildlife under rain.)
September 11 is a date Americans aren’t likely to forget. In 2001, I was on a morning mountain bike ride from my house in Durango, having lived there only a few months. I came home and started getting ready for work (at The Durango Herald) to my phone lit up with messages telling me to get to the newsroom as soon as I could. The rest is a blur of news stories, images and devastating emotions that left my colleagues and I – and the rest of (all of) America – reeling.
As of 2021, I have another – and very good – memory of Sept. 11: The day friend Tif and I went to Sand Wash Basin to load and bring three fillies back to Spring Creek Basin, where we were met by friend Kat to UNload the fillies to the rest of their life in our basin, tucked into a northeastern hideaway in Disappointment Valley.
We are far – so far – away from the world here, tucked into our own (mostly) peaceful valley. I rarely mention outside events, even when they affect me deeply. I’m no longer a journalist, but I do still have a journalist’s curiosity about the world. My world has shrunk, and I find what’s within these narrow boundaries is just where I want to be and what I want to continue to learn about – and share.
That said, history is worth remembering, lest we repeat the sometimes horrible events. … It’s also worth remembering the good parts of our personal histories, that we might repeat those events in the future.
Please don’t let the hate and violence in the greater outside world (or even near at hand) prevent you from embracing love and seeking beauty. It’s always there. Just as the other is. … But the beautiful parts are worth so very much more, always.
Readers of this blog know that I/we have enjoyed a particularly good partnership with our BLM folks for the last nearly decade, in huge part because of rangeland management specialist and Spring Creek Basin herd manager Mike Jensen.
Our PZP program was implemented during the 2011 roundup, before Mike returned to herd manager duties (he was herd manager here first in the early 2000s), but Mike has been an absolutely staunch supporter of the program. It was under Mike’s leadership that we were able to get bait trapping solidified as the capture method of choice (when the time comes), and because of Mike’s dedication to vegetation monitoring, for the 2020 herd management area plan update, we had the data necessary to allow the increase in AML (appropriate management level) from 35 to 65 adult horses to 50 to 80 adult horses. That, combined with the very successful PZP program, has meant an astounding 13 years to date since the last roundup and removal of any Spring Creek Basin mustangs.
Mike is the BLM partner every advocate wishes for and we have been so very fortunate to have.
Under Mike’s leadership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area is a model that other BLM managers and advocates can aspire to. (That’s not arrogance; that’s pure gratitude.)
As I described in yesterday’s post, last week, Mike and Tres Rios Field Office Manager Derek Padilla came to Spring Creek Basin for the field trip with Colorado Wild Horse Working Group members. I take every opportunity offered to describe Mike’s work ethic, partnership and support of our mustangs to anyone who will listen, but this was the first opportunity for group members and our Colorado advocates to see him in action as he talked about the history of Spring Creek Basin as a herd management area and our accomplishments in both herd management and the projects we’ve completed for the benefit of the mustangs. Naturally, everyone wants a Mike clone for their areas. 🙂
By the time we reached the day’s end goal and turnaround spot – the northwest-valley water catchment we built in 2022 – we were down to our local advocates and a Jeep-full of advocates from the other herds.
And because Mike retires Friday from a long (30 years) career with the Bureau of Land Management, we local advocates wanted to take advantage of the last opportunity we’d likely have Mike in Spring Creek Basin to mark the occasion, wish him well and give him a token of our appreciation.
Left to right: Mike Jensen, Frank Amthor, Tif Rodriguez, Pat Amthor and yours truly.
Thank you, Mike, for being such a champion for wild horse management here in Spring Creek Basin, for being a true partner, for being one of the people I respect most in this world. We wish you well in retirement! Don’t be a stranger. 🙂
Six vehicles. One ATV. Twenty-six bipedal humans. Most bands in Spring Creek Basin.
Crazily excellent weather (temps in the comfortable 80s, not blistering 90s or sizzling 100s). Perfect breeze. … NO GNATS (how that’s even possible, I don’t begin to know).
Earlier this week, I was joined in the basin by several members of the Colorado Wild Horse Working Group and associated people, including BLM herd manager Mike Jensen and Tres Rios Field Office Manager Derek Padilla, and (very) long-time Spring Creek Basin advocates and amazing friends Pat and Frank Amthor and Tif Rodriguez.
Some background: In May 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 23-275 into existence. In a nutshell, “in 2023 the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 23-275 to provide resources and support efforts to ensure the long-term sustainability of Colorado’s wild horse herds and rangelands.”
Among other things, the bill created this working group, made up of a wide variety of “stakeholders,” to share information and consolidate that knowledge into specific recommendations to legislators in the Colorado Legislature and to the governor. To that end, the working group started meeting last October, and members will offer a first (draft?) report of recommendations by Nov. 1, 2024. Among other folks from other groups and state and federal agencies, representatives of each of Colorado’s herd management areas and wild horse range are members of the group: Stella Trueblood with Sand Wash Advocate Team (Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area); Cindy Wright with Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin; Judy Cady with Friends of the Mustangs (Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range); Kathy Degonia with Piceance Mustangs (Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area); and yours truly for Spring Creek Basin (and you know that I truly took advantage of the geographic field trip to hammer the difference between Spring Creek and Spring Creek Basin!).
At our meeting in swanky Telluride the day before, our group members, excellently facilitated by Heather Bergman with Peak Facilitation Group, started to more narrowly define what we would like to present to legislators and the governor as recommendations to best support BLM’s management of wild horses on federal lands in Colorado … AS WELL AS populations of wild/feral/trespass horses in the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado, the Southern Ute Reservation, the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, where horses from both the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and the Navajo Nation are crossing state, tribal and monument lines drawn (by humans) in the desert rock and sand to roam without benefit of legal protections or management.
These include the creation of a state-funded and staffed wild horse program, possibly within the Colorado Department of Agriculture (through which the working group is currently led by Wayne East, ag/wildlife program manager with CDA); staff/monetary support for fertility-control efforts and the same for adoptions and adopter success with their mustangs; an advisory board for the aforementioned wild horse program within the state; and the potential creation of a state wild horse preserve.
To quote a BLM manager at a different event, the wild horse (and burro) situation is … prickly. It’s thorny. It’s controversial. It’s complicated. It is surrounded by passionate folks. Seemingly, there’s not a lot of (noticeable?) compromise. I think that at its base, our goal is collaboration supported by the compromises that are essential. Colorado probably leads the nation (or at least the 10 Western states that have herds of wild horses and burros) in support of our mustangs. Each of our herds has an associated advocacy group working for the long-term good, successful management of those herds and their ranges. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges or that more support wouldn’t be welcomed and isn’t essential. It’s a big issue, folks, and “black and white” doesn’t begin to describe the myriad of other issues involved and necessary to consider. I will say that this Colorado Wild Horse Working Group is the among the best I’ve been part of in working toward compromises and collaborations – and best management practices – for our mustangs. And I’ve been in this world for a very long time (nearly 17 years).
I was happy – and also nervous – to welcome folks to my sacred space, my happy place, my HEART place … to see the valley and basin I call home and the horses that are the loves of my life. Spring Creek Basin is so very dry right now, but Mother Nature cooled the air and brightened our vistas (red-flag warnings the previous three days in a row meant the dust level was high) and – amazingly – quelled the gnats (!). And the horses. … I can’t tell you how many people thought I was “communicating” with my mustangs to present the very best wild horse experience imaginable. 🙂
Those weren’t all the folks present, just those associated with the working group. At the end of the field trip, my advocate friends and I had a little something special for Mike Jensen, who retires at the end of this month after 30 years with the Bureau of Land Management. To say we are losing someone respected and essential is to do a grave injustice to the end of an era and his partnership and leadership. That’s for another post.
Thank you, everyone. I hope you enjoyed your visit with our mustangs in the very best place (if one of the driest?! (and I don’t mean to overlook or disparage other places in even worse drought than we’re in)) in the universe.
Pictured in the first image at the top of this post (with titles as accurate as I can remember or look up), left to right: Derek Padilla, Tres Rios Field Office manager; Lynae Rogers, on-range wild horse lead for BLM in Colorado (she also juggles a lot of off-range duties); Kathy Degonia, Piceance Mustangs; Tracy Scott, Steadfast Steeds; Sandra Solin, American Wild Horse Conservation; Judy Cady, Friends of the Mustangs; Stella Trueblood, Sand Wash Advocate Team; Tessa Archibald, Homes for Horses Coalition; Abe Medina, Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners; Will Benkelman, Peak Facilitation Group; Mike Jensen, BLM rangeland management specialist and Spring Creek Basin herd manager; Elise Lowe-Vaughn, Rewilding America Now; TJ Holmes, Spring Creek Basin darter and documenter; Wayne East, ag/wildlife programs manager, Colorado Department of Agriculture and leader of the working group; Maggie Baldwin, Colorado state veterinarian with CDA; Tim Brass, Colorado Department of Natural Resources; Lucy and Trish Menchaca, alternative livestock & special permits coordinator, CDA; Emily Blizzard, acting director (?), APHIS, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
United States Department of Interior Honor Award Michael L Jensen is hereby awarded this certificate of honor for Superior Service
For … the certificate doesn’t specifically mention … his outstanding work for the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. It’s been a long time coming – at least three years since we started trying to get some kind of BLM award to recognize Mike for his – literally – superior service and partnership.
We advocates had a small celebration for him a few years ago during an informal gathering of ourselves and Mike and his wife, Shawna (a Forest Service hydrologist), but it was really satisfying to see Mike recognized among his peers at a BLM meeting this week in Mancos. Stephanie Connolly, BLM Colorado’s Southwest District manager, also was in attendance (and took the above pic). Derek Padilla, our new Tres Rios Field Office manager, led the meeting (which wasn’t about awards until the end), and it was Joe Manning (pictured above at left), assistant TRFO manager, who introduced the award and Mike.
As Joe said, the wild horse and burro situation is “thorny,” and it is that and more. We’ve had our own challenges in Spring Creek Basin with (very much) less than “superior” service (!). Mike has smoothed out the rough edges and been a partner in every sense since his return to the herd’s helm almost (?) 10 years ago.
Mike is retiring this summer after 30 years with BLM – most of those spent in Dolores at what is now called Tres Rios Field Office. In the pic above, yours truly is grinning like a fool because 1) I was so happy for Mike to get this recognition, and 2) I was trying not to cry (which, as anyone who knows me can attest, even if they weren’t there, I completely failed to NOT do).
Mike says we’ll be OK – and we WILL be. Because of his leadership and vision in getting projects done such as the two new water catchments and his diligent work at updating our herd management area plan, which is stellar among such things. I’m not gonna miss him until I have to miss him (he laughs when I say (repeatedly) that I’m going to chain him to the cattle guard at the basin’s entrance so we don’t lose him), and I will write more later, but damn, I’m going to miss him.
Congrats, Mike. Your service IS superior, and we all are grateful for it.
Thanks to Stephanie Connolly, Derek Padilla, Joe Manning and, of course, Mike Jensen.
In attendance (Mike is pointing them out in the pic above) were VERY long-time (since the 1990s) volunteers and supporters of Spring Creek Basin mustangs Pat and Frank Amthor (who traveled from their home in New Mexico), and Kat Wilder, author of Desert Chrome and neighbor of the mustangs. Tif Rodriquez, another long-time supporter, advocate AND adopter of Spring Creek Basin mustangs Whisper and Asher (and other mustangs), unfortunately was feeling awful and wasn’t able to attend. (Thank you so much, Joe, for letting us know about Mike’s award so we could be there to support HIM!)
As usual, it’s hard to believe that another year has come to an end and another is starting.
As usual, there’s been good news and bad. … Much of the time, it seems like bad news is all the news that is news.
We need to know what’s going on in the world – from our local communities to the wider global community – but the constant onslaught very often has the effect of hurting the heart (as an understatement). Wouldn’t it be crazy if good news so dominated the headlines that bad news was relegated to the “inside pages” – or not at all? A good kinda crazy, for sure.
With this blog, I strive (in part) to provide a positive counter to the negativity that’s so easily found. If you’re here, reading, you’re looking for that positivity, and I’m so glad you’ve found it with our Spring Creek Basin mustangs. 🙂 If you get to visit the basin for yourself, so much the better. There’s truth in the phrase that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a … let’s say human.
What follows is one photo for each month of the past year. Some have been on the blog previously; others have not. All pix were taken in the month they represent. Onward.
January
While photographing Flash and some bachelor pals, snow started floating through the air while the sunshine illuminated every single flake. I mean, GORGEOUS! The bachelor boys are famous for mostly ignoring me, but that light and those flakes demanded photographic proof. Fortunately, Flash paused his grazing – and chewing – just long enough to look at his pals, and I snapped the shutter on a magical moment. The snow ended very soon after I did so – or maybe it was the light on the snow.
*****
February
In February, we welcomed a long-awaited addition: Hollywood’s and Shane’s son, Odin. He was at least a week old when I found him and just as cute and fuzzy and stout as I could have hoped. He is growing so well and is as cute and stout – and fuzzy, again! – as can be! Hollywood no longer has his band, but his legacy continues in his son. This is still one of my very favorite pix of Odin and Shane.
*****
March
I couldn’t have been more thrilled when Dundee, one of the three introduced mares from Sand Wash Basin, had her very big first colt by Buckeye: Ranger. A couple of weeks later, Aiyanna delivered her delicate little filly – also by Buckeye – Bia. Unfortunately, we lost Ranger at about a month and a half old to unknown circumstances. Bia continues to do very well and is growing into a very lovely filly. She’s the spitting image of her mama – though she’s bay and mama is dun. She is adored by her entire band.
*****
April
As I remember, we had a nice, lingering spring. As spring was springing, love was in the air. Above, one of our young(ish) stallions, Zeb, was flirting with one of his mares. Really, who can resist his handsomeness or the flirty swish of his tail?!
*****
May
With the decent winter, we had a nice wildflower season, but it sure took its sweet time in arriving (or so I thought at the time, being, as usual, impatient). I visited my parents for Mother’s Day and left Disappointment Valley still brown and drab. When I returned, holy green! And then came the wildflowers. And once again, Flash proved a fabulous model among the larkspur (it was a bad larkspur year for the cattle folk), globemallow, wild onion and other lovelies. And the grass, of course. Green is my favorite color. 🙂
*****
June
That light! That grass! Those pinto girls! I saw Reya’s band only rarely this year, but they make every visit worthwhile. Mama and daughter Chuska: lookalike girls!
*****
July
That. LIGHT! Terra and her stallion, Venture, enjoyed a quiet moment during the height of summer. I think he adores her, and I think this moment in time illustrates that perfectly.
*****
August
Oh, this was another of those beautiful evenings in Spring Creek Basin. Buckeye’s band was napping on a hillside in an area that wasn’t usual for them. Another band was grazing down in a little cove among the hills. I walked up to take advantage of the view, then waited. Baby Bia had been napping between her auntie Rowan and mama Aiyanna. My waiting paid off when Bia ducked under mama’s neck on her way to nurse, and Aiyanna gave her a quick little casual “hug” as she did. Click went the shutter on one of those moments you never forget.
*****
September
On a stormy evening that didn’t bring rain (to us), Buckeye was guarding his band from a nearby band on the flanks of Filly Peak. (He appears to be napping, but he was alert, I assure you.) His band is to my left – and they really were napping, secure in his watchfulness. Beyond him is his mother, Winona. Her band was mostly out of sight in a little low place between here and there. The photo for this month was a tossup between this one and another photo from that same evening. Quiet, peaceful, lovely.
*****
October
Young stallion Cheveyo was in just the right place at just the right time for the very low sun to highlight him against the far, shadowed, hill and turn the foreground grasses to dancing flames of light. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I adore backlighting!
*****
November
This was the first snowfall of the season, and I was happy to find Remy’s band grazing in the western part of the basin. The sun was flirting with the clouds. A great wave of light would sweep across Disappointment Valley, followed quickly by the greyer light – the kind of light that keeps photographers hopping (and hoping). Light snow also was falling and stopping and drifting and stopping and floating and stopping. A small band of young bachelors was nearby, but they weren’t too interested in Remy’s girls. Remy took his band to water in Spring Creek canyon (the rimrocks are seen in the background), and I called it a (beautiful) day.
*****
December
Our Hollywood, beloved and storied elder stallion, rounds out the year. This was the second snowfall of the season (and our last to date, as it happens). The snow was a little deeper, and it stayed pristine a little longer, than the first. The day was glorious for a hike, and that’s how I found Hollywood – originally drinking at a nearby pond. Here, he’d walked away from the pond before he stopped for a nap. As hard as it is to see the aging process at work on him, and missing his loyal mares, it’s always good to see this wonderful wild stallion.
*****
Bonus
Taken from very far away, I love all the layers in this image of Buckeye’s band – with prince’s plume! – and Tenaz and the band he escorts. A dear friend was with me at the time, and the enjoyment was doubled to have her along for the visit.
*****
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and positive 2024!
Merry Christmas and happiest of holidays to all you loyal readers and admirers of Spring Creek Basin’s beautiful and beloved mustangs!
Our very dry winter (so far) and just lack of a particular image that said to me “Merry Christmas” mean that this year’s greeting “card” shows fuzzy ponies and the nearest snow on the peaks of Utah’s La Sal Mountains. (OK, maybe not quite the nearest … say, the most photogenic.)
From our herd to yours – four- and two-legged all – we wish you all the blessings of this special season! 🙂
Last week, some folks visited Disappointment Valley from Ohio and Colorado’s Front Range, respectively. It was wonderful to show them the mustangs and a little bit of what I do in this great wide wonderful yonder. For two, it was their first visit. It was the second visit for the third, but because of very damp weather last time, we didn’t have the opportunity to get into Spring Creek Basin to see the mustangs.
Not only did we get in the basin this time, we had a wonderful visit with one of the bands.
As photographers do, we ended up photographing each other with the horses in the background. I will say that he did a much better job of catching me with the horses than I did of catching *him* with the horses (mostly because I was photographing the horses, and only when I swung my lens over did I catch him looking at/photographing me!).
Probably not many readers have any idea who this person is who’s photographing these mustangs and writing the (few) words for this blog, so with gratitude to friend James, here’s me:
The second pic, of course, captures the better subjects. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 