Next year, this date – Sept. 19 – will mark 20 years since I started documenting Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs.
TWENTY. YEARS.
Sometime next fall (I don’t remember that exact date now), I’ll mark *25* years since the first time I visited Spring Creek Basin – in the rain, in a van full of people I didn’t know, and we didn’t see horses because we never actually got *into* the basin (even if it had been dry, a van might not have been the best choice of vehicle?!). I went back soon after that by myself … and, well, now it’s been 24 years *this* fall. You know that saying “blood, sweat and tears”? Yeah … it’s been ALL of that … a whole lotta alla that.
That means this fall marks my 19th (today) and 24th anniversaries. I still find that pretty shocking to say out loud.
Two thousand seven was a roundup year in Spring Creek Basin. It was the third that decade (and we still had 2011 to come). BLM said the stallion known to most as Traveler (to me as Grey) would stay. They promised. … One guy broke that promise. … One guy made it right. Grey went to Cañon City, and about a week after he had been removed, we brought him back to Southwest Colorado, where his two-week quarantine turned into three weeks (courtesy of the promise-breaker). Four weeks after he left Spring Creek Basin, David and Pati Temple returned Grey/Traveler to the basin, Pati opened the trailer door, and he returned to his wild life, where he lived until his passing a few years ago.
Photo print of Grey by Claude Steelman moments after he was released Sept. 19, 2007, into Spring Creek Basin
“He’ll never have a band again,” the BLM promise-breaker said dismissively at the time. Within a month and a half, Grey had a band again.
Grey’s Return Day was Sept. 19, 2007. After the pomp of Grey’s momentous release (a couple of other people also were there, including renowned Durango-based wildlife photographer Claude Steelman), I stayed in the basin to start documenting every mustang I found. It took three months of weekends. Nineteen wild and crazy – and now, immensely satisfying – years ago.
Grey, toward the end of his life; we thought he was close to 30
So today, I celebrate both the anniversary of Grey’s return and release and the day I started documenting my beloved mustangs, what has become the path of my heart through this lifetime.
My *wall of Grey*; photos of Grey by me circa 2003-2004? Gorgeous painting of Grey by talented Colorado artist Teresa Irick (@tiartcreations on Instagram) based on a photo by me
When I first started this mustang-advocacy journey, 20 years into the future felt like some random date that would never arrive. Now, wow.
I want to do something kinda fun to mark the occasion next year, and this is a head’s up. A few of you have read and commented and shared the mustangs for a lot of years now, and I’d like to send you each a photo print of the mustangs. I probably haven’t taken it yet, but I have a year (!), and I’ll let you choose. You might know who you are. 🙂 I thought I’d also ask readers – on that date, and don’t worry, I’ll remind ya’ll ahead of time – to leave a comment on that post, and I’ll put all your names in a hat and mix ’em all up, and I’ll have a mustang friend pick a name and send that person a pic, too. I want to celebrate YOU who support and love these mustangs, too! There also are a handful of people who have been with me for long years on this mustang journey, and I want to recognize them, too (more about them next year).
Hollywood and his mares, 2019; Hollywood and Houdini are both gone now … Shane, Alegre and Maia are still together
When you’re starting a thing, you never know where that thing is going to go, how it’s going to go, how long it’ll go on. When you have a burning desire to do something strong, something worthwhile, again, you just never know. That’s the future. … That’s LIFE.
So many people have had a hand (even just some fingers) in the accomplishments realized for bettering the management and preservation of Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs, and I can’t even imagine (and I don’t wanna) what path my life would have followed if I hadn’t discovered this herd and all the amazing people I’ve met along the way. We’ve all shared something: love of horses. Love of WILD horses. Love of mustangs.
Remember that promise-breaker? I realized several years ago that I’m *grateful* to him. I definitely couldn’t see it at the time of what felt like deep betrayal by the system, but if not for that guy, would my Irish stubbornness have come to the fore and would I have dug my boots and heart so deep into ground I’d never known but has become my rooted ground?? As I said: *grateful*.
Winona with sons Cheveyo and Lyra; Lyra is gone now, and Cheveyo is a band stallion; Winona, of course, is one of our wise ones
And you know what? Holy … horse. 🙂 Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area today is one of the best managed herds in the country (if not the best? forgive me a tiny bit of bias, please, but I don’t know of any others quite like ours). I am so grateful to the BLM folks at Tres Rios Field Office who made that happen and continue to work with our shared goal in mind.
Because we shared a dream and a goal and got to work doing it, not sitting by waiting for someone else to come along and dig in and get ‘er done. I sure didn’t start that dream for Spring Creek Basin, but I tip my visor to those who did … those who welcomed me to the fold so I could join the journey to the goal. And in that time, we have gotten done EVERYTHING we’ve aimed to achieve … bar one that we haven’t gone full force on, and that’s in the hands of bureaucrats, really, which is unfortunate, but it’s still possible.
Comanche’s band in the dust of early summer, 2020
I’ll probably (of course I will) write another long-winded post about this on my actual 20th anniversary, but on this, my 19th, *thank you* to every single person who has given even the tiniest bit of love to Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs. My love and gratitude to each one of you.
And hang on for (at least!) another year, with the mustangs and me, to celebrate the big 2-0. 🙂 No worries: The 20th won’t be anywhere close to the end. To paraphrase something I heard someone say someone told him: I will continue to make as positive an impact as I can in all the time I’m given in and for Spring Creek Basin and its mustangs.
I’m so glad you’re here, with us.
*Grateful*
Comanche’s band, under the rainbow, 2020; Comanche also is gone now
We got some rain. 🙂 (Zoom in to see actual drops of actual, falling rain!)
A proper toad-gagger across Disappointment Valley and across Spring Creek Basin. Zoom in above to see rain drops. … This, pictured, was NOT the toad-gagger; that happened much earlier (before daylight). This was the third or fourth wave. A non-stop symphony of thunder banging the drums across the sky, and it was … *magnificent*.
THE best thing to do after getting rained on? Roll! Almost all the horses rolled when the rain stopped and they wandered out to resume browsing.
Ahhhh. Fresh.
Spring Creek was still running, though low, at the first crossing, but clearly it had run high! By the time I got there, the water definitely was slowing. I’d gone first to where Spring Creek runs under Road 19Q (Disappointment Road), before I went to Spring Creek Basin, and it was rolling along then and there like a proper creek).
Toad’s-eye view of Spring Creek looking upstream. That sky brought the next wave of rain – and thunder rolls.
Absolutely, absolutely fabulous. 🙂 And the forecast is looking extra promising this week (as long as said forecast proves accurate and doesn’t just bomb, as it has so often this year). Dance, pray and cross everything for us. 🙂
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In other news, some of you may remember that I was a member of the Colorado Wild Horse Working Group a couple of years ago. That group was created by Senate Bill 23-275 (2023) as part of the Wild Horse Project to enable the state to provide support to BLM’s management of wild horses in Colorado. A second bill, House Bill 25-1283 (2025), created a program for wild horses within the Colorado Department of Agriculture, along with an advisory committee for that program. I’m now a member of this new committee.
The first bill came with $1.5 million, much of which was granted to Colorado’s boots-on-the-ground advocacy groups for range-improvement projects and fertility-control support. The second bill comes with no funding. Earlier this year, the Colorado Legislature approved a new license plate design, to join the 270 (!) current designs, to funnel funding to the state’s new wild horse program for further on-range fertility-control support as well as off-range (post-roundup) support of Colorado mustangs and adopters.
CDA has just released a survey with several license plate designs, and you, the public, are encouraged to vote for your favorite. As stated, if you participate in the survey, think about this: “Which design will help sell the most plates” … to offer the most financial support. Colorado’s campaign for wolf-related license plates – “Born to be Wild” – apparently generated around $1 million in its first year.
If you’re so inclined, please follow this link to get to the survey to vote for plates and describe what you like and don’t about each plate. Keep in mind that visibility and identifying *wild* horses as the subject are the main goals in order to encourage people to buy these plates for their vehicles to help support Colorado’s wild horses.
And if you’re a vehicle-driving Coloradan, the plates likely will be available next year.
You probably didn’t know this was the post you needed. Mustangs + art = fabulous.
The year 2007, the year of the first Spring Creek Basin roundup I attended, was a big year for me (more on this coming in mid-September). This post focuses on my friend and artist Karen Keene Day, whom I met that September, courtesy of Pati and David Temple. Karen and I forged a firm friendship then, and she has been out numerous/many/lots of times since then to see the mustangs. I started visiting Spring Creek Basin in 2002; Karen first visited in 2003. She visited the BLM/USFS office in Durango, and a woman there put her in touch with Pati. “I parked my car in the shade and called Pati … and she didn’t stop talking about the mustangs!”
A lot of us trace our Spring Creek Basin mustangs obsession back to Pati. Fondly so!
Karen has always been an artist … always been a horse lover, though she didn’t have her first horse until adulthood … and in 1999, after her first visit to Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range (Wyoming and Montana), she focused her art, which had always included horses, including Andalusians in Spain, completely on wild horses.
Fast forward from those years to this past Friday night: The opening event was held for Karen’s June art show at Decker Community Room in Ridgway, Colorado. Her absolutely amazing art fills the walls with color and movement and spirit and sheer beauty. And they span her amazing wild-horse-art career from 1999 to 2026. If you find yourself in Colorado, on Colorado’s Western Slope, in the quirky western town of Ridgway, even if you’re just passing through, do your heart and art-appreciating self a favor and stop in to view Karen’s art. The following photos can’t do justice to just how fantastic the entire exhibit looks.
Writer Kathryn Wilder pauses to look at samples of Karen’s art upon arrival at Decker Community Room on Ridgway’s Clinton Street (a short, buzzing few blocks of galleries and restaurants just off the main drag).
Karen (center, black shirt) and her husband, Floyd (seated at right), greeted visitors. We arrived right at the beginning of the opening, and the venue quickly became packed with appreciative art viewers!
Floyd, a retired engineer, is an artist in his own right and also has had showings of his art in Ridgway. His preferred subjects are the cows, calves and bulls that call the ranch country at the edge of the San Juan Mountains home.
Karen’s art comes in many sizes and a variety of semi-similar abstract styles, showing her evolution as an artist. I have loved Karen’s art for nearly 20 years, since I first set eyes on it! I challenge you to be UNmoved by the spirit and movement and beauty illustrated by her vision of wild horses and the wild places they call home. Karen’s quote at upper left: “Peace and unintentional creativity comes to me when I paint.”
You thought mustangs came from drab, dry, desert-brown ranges, didn’t you? The colors she sees in the natural world absolutely inspires me.
You see the faces of horses, don’t you? More proof of Karen’s unique creativity: These are pans she has used below her paintings to catch drips and drops of paint as she boldly creates her art … and then she made art of those very pans! At right are some of her own brushes and drop cloths that she has used while creating her art.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Karen’s exhibit also includes images of her painting and visiting various ranges and wild horse sanctuaries. I love the sketch below the pictures … those are Spring Creek Basin mustangs.
More sketches and journal entries from her visits to mustangs. In addition to Spring Creek Basin, she has visited Pryor Mountain, Little Book Cliffs (near Grand Junction, Colorado), Sand Wash Basin (near Craig, Colorado) and Piceance-East Douglas (near Meeker, Colorado), as well as various East Coast wild horse herds!
You might have noticed that the large black-and-white painting at left in the image above features in a few of the pix. I think that wasn’t necessarily conscious, but that’s Hope, and she is most gratefully mine, gifted to me by Karen many years ago. Karen wanted to include Hope in her art show, and I was thrilled to deliver her to Ridgway, though my wall looks awfully bare without her (I’ll get her back at the end of June). 🙂 Karen and Floyd both told me that many visitors had already told them she was one of their favorites of her paintings in the show.
At right is Chrome. Karen’s words above him read: “A man who moves away from nature loses his heart.”
My most beloved Grey (also known as Traveler), memorialized and honored in Karen’s vivid vision and colors. I love that his image at left is in “royal” purple; Grey was short for Sir Grey, and by that, I mean(t) king of mustangs. That one was painted in 2013. At right, titled “Return to Disappointment Valley,” 2008: We’re certain that’s Grey after his return to Spring Creek Basin after he was erroneously removed from the basin during the 2007 roundup … and returned a month later, the day I started my documentation of Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs.
Love the detail of his name stenciled down the side of the canvas. And Kat pointed out the word “SOUL” at lower center on the front of Grey.
In Karen’s writing at right: “Animals are God’s gift to people to teach us how to treat others.”
Left to right: Fellow Ridgway resident (for 30-plus years), artist and mustang advocate and adopter (including of Spring Creek Basin mustangs) Alice Billings, Kat (also a mustang advocate and adopter) and yours truly (they made me stand on the downhill side of the ramp :)).
Kat and I with Karen – mustang chix all.
Karen’s art show runs through June 26. All the art comes down June 27. Visit while you can. You will NOT be disappointed (!). 🙂
To remember how I did this post last year, I had to go all the way back to Valentine’s Day to find the post recapping the previous year (2024, then) in images. This year (for 2025), I’m happy to announce that for once, though I procrastinated, it wasn’t THAT long, and it was in plenty of time (OK, one day to spare) to make the Dec. 31 deadline.
Deep breath: This was a hard year. Last winter was rough (read: bad dry), which meant the rest of the year was rough (read: really bad horrible awful dry) in terms of drought. Monsoons didn’t hit their stride over Southwest Colorado, so we didn’t get much rain, either. Federal employees were hard hit, too, and one of our young BLM’ers was illegally fired from the new job he loved.
But we also had some good-news happenings: Thankfully, he was reinstated, and we have a strong range team in Ryan, Anton and Laura. We got some new signs installed, including the replacement of the old, sun-bleached, weather-beaten interpretive sign for the new information “kiosk” that greets visitors upon entering Spring Creek Basin. Fertility control (native PZP) continues to be an extraordinary benefit to our herd in terms of management and keeping roundups and removals at bay.
In wider Colorado mustang news, the BLM short-term holding facility at the Cañon City prison complex closed in November, BLM and Colorado Department of Corrections being unable to reach a contract agreement. That’s not-great news in terms of uncertainty for rounded up and removed Colorado mustangs. Where will they go? In semi-balanced decent news (?), all of the Colorado mustangs that were in holding there (about 100 at the time) were adopted or went to private sanctuary or are currently in foster situations for a planned adoption in March (and that all happened despite federal employees, including BLM’ers, being out of work (or working without pay) because of the government shutdown).
What follows is a pic from each month of the past year and a bit of reminiscence of what was happening when I captured the image of a mustang or mustangs. Many of these pix have been featured previously on the blog; some haven’t. If you make it to the end, there’s a bonus pic … one of my favorite of the past year.
This is one of my very most favorite pix of the entire year. I love it so much, it’s the background image on my computer. I’m aware that I likely post a lot of images of Buckeye’s family; you won’t be surprised to know that they’re among my most favorite mustangs. I considered this image as the *bonus* image … but it was one wildly beautiful day of snow (well, I was out with the horses, watching the snow coming for at least two hours before it finally reached us), and it didn’t match the otherwise very dry *year*. … So it gets the January title.
Did I say that I love Buckeye’s family? You can forgive me for singling them out, right? The three mares weren’t born here, but gosh, they are treasures from our sister herd in Sand Wash Basin, and I’m so grateful that we have them. And yes, that was February. Utah’s La Sal Mountains may not have been the *closest* snow, but we sure didn’t have much.
March is still fuzzy-coat weather with signs of approaching spring, especially in the high desert of Southwest Colorado. Fortunately, we had ponds early in the year. They’d all go dry before some rain this past fall put water back in a couple of them, including the one pictured above with Chipeta. This pond is nicely full currently – and has mustangs taking advantage of its water.
April found Sundance not far from the pond pictured above, and he still had his band at that time. Later in the year, he lost them, and he’s been by himself since then. He has wandered a bit, following vegetation and available water. The stately ol’ guy is still around … I see him now and then, napping in the sunshine or grazing on the side of a ridge.
This wasn’t especially the best pic I took in May, but I love both the perspective and the sort of inside joke that Cassidy Rain always likes to be the farthest away from the two-legged. That day was a pretty warm one, and the band was in an area of basin where I rarely find them. It’s not a place with a lot of trees (in fact, there are very few), but they had found a couple, and were comfortable together in the shade near sunset.
My best boy Storm made a brief appearance in the northern part of the basin in June … one of the first times I’d seen him since he’d lost his band the previous autumn. Bittersweet. I haven’t seen him since about July, when he was at a water source with another band as I was trying to shoot the rising moon.
Ah, July, the month the Deer Creek Fire at the base of Utah’s La Sal Mountains sparked. It wasn’t the biggest wildfire of the season, and it wasn’t even the biggest with smoke visible from Spring Creek Basin and Disappointment Valley, but it was uncomfortably close to home. It was a reminder (as if we need any more) that it’s hotter and dryer out there, and we all need to be super aware and careful.
Fortunately, the mustangs live in the moment (while the humans obsess over the wildfire updates), and they still enjoyed peaceful days such as this: Three mares content with their world and each other.
Finally, as summer gave way to fall, Mother Nature cried her best tears and filled some ponds for the mustangs. THAT brought huge relief to us all (if I may speak for my four-legged friends as well as myself). Interestingly, visible at upper left in this image is Benchmark Lookout, a U.S. Forest Service wildfire-watch tower staffed during the critical seasons of the year (which includes September). In this backcountry, we are massively grateful for those who watch for and provide critical information about wildfires, as well as those who work to contain them, allowing them to provide some benefit in some cases while trying to keep property and lives intact.
It might be about now in the list that you’re thinking, “for talking about dry it was, she sure included a lot of pix of ponds.” It’s not because we had so much water; it’s because we’re massively grateful for the water we had.
There’s no water in this image – and it was November, before snow graced the peaks on our northwestern horizon – but the ponies are lined out on their way out to graze after drinking at a little place I call the marsh. This is post-sunset, but wow was it gorgeous under the autumn light. … And it’s not UNgorgeous at blue hour.
You’ve just seen this image of Temple with Temple (yes, the same) Butte and McKenna Peak in the background under a stream of stormy-looking (they didn’t produce a drop over us) clouds. I decided not to choose a pic from the bit of snow we got at the very beginning of December because the above is what we saw the whole rest of the month. The weather has been warm and dry … and that’s awfully nice for getting around and playing outdoors (60s! in Colorado!! in December!!?!) … but if things don’t change in the next few months, I’m going to be singing the same ol’ why-won’t-it-snow song that seems to be stuck on repeat.
And your bonus:
This was an evening in June. Nobody wanted to pose much, and I was going bananas, trying to get somebody – anybody – in front of that background in that subtle, delicious light. Finally, this young stallion obliged. And it seems to sum things up a bit: Hot this year? Yes. Dry? Gosh, yeah. Anxiety-inducing? Pretty much like always … with an extra edge. But! Beautiful, peaceful, a place of escape from the world’s ills (at least the headline type). Kind of a promise that it’s there … out there … and sometimes we don’t have to search all that far for it.
And there you (kinda) have it: 2025 in the rearview. It’s always hard to select just one pic for each month (plus a bonus!), but I hope you enjoyed this little recap.
In best-of-all news, I spent a lot of time (again) with my beloved mustangs in the best place on Earth (in my ever-so-humble opinion). 🙂
And close to that is my gratitude for all of you readers who follow the mustangs and our pictorial journal of peaceful, wild, beautiful life here in Spring Creek Basin. Thank you so much, and I hope you all have a peaceful, wild, beautiful 2026 (with lots more moisture!!!!!!!!!!!!!)!
Today is the 10th anniversary of the passing of Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, beloved fertility-control advocate (and so much more) for wild horses and burros (many species of wildlife, actually). I remember that when I got the news in an email from a friend, though it was December, I thought it was some kind of cruel April Fool’s joke.
I met Dr. Jay in August 2010, when I showed up at the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Montana, for a PZP training course. I also remember that it took me a long time to work up the courage to follow the advice of a couple of friends and contact him; he was a rock star to me. Legendary. Untouchable. Unapproachable!
Except that neither of those last two words was true.
I finally worked up the gumption to email him … and sign up for training – BEFORE we got approval to implement a PZP program in Spring Creek Basin. I tentatively approached the lab, on the grounds of ZooMontana, the day before the class officially started, to see what I was getting myself into. When Jay appeared, I didn’t ask for an autograph (!), I asked if I could give him a hug. I still remember that, while he laughed, he indulged me. … Wow, I miss him.
Jay was one of the friendliest, most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met, all the more amazing because he was also one of the very most obviously crazy-intelligent people I’ve ever met (to this day). He had this way of making everyone welcome and like you were IN ON IT with him, even as he explained his “why wouldn’t you do it this way” philosophy surrounding better management … some of which you might never quite have thought of but was so wonderfully simple – and, according to his same philosophy, attainable.
Dr. Jay was one of the best, most inspiring, most humble, most committed and dedicated people I’ve ever known, and I feel so blessed to have known him, even briefly. He trained me not only to mix and dart with PZP, the *why* behind doing it, the keeping of records (back at a time when it was particularly challenging for us in Spring Creek Basin) but also the importance of having optimism and a plan … and persevering.
I got to know him for five years, and he encouraged me through the sometimes rocky start of Spring Creek Basin’s PZP program. Even now, 14 years and only one roundup later (in 2011, when we started our PZP program), I think of him quite a lot. He’s one of the three (at least) angels watching over Spring Creek Basin, and I hope he’s proud of what we’ve accomplished here.
Friends Celeste Carlisle and Kayla Grams, along with Melissa Esser (whom I haven’t yet met but already greatly respect) visited Rocky Mountain National Park during their trip to Colorado for the Pathways 2025 Human Dimensions of Wildlife conference. Celeste wrote this blog post for Return to Freedom.
Ladies ‘n lads, there’s a whole lot going on in the world right now.
None of you need me to tell you that.
What I do want to tell you is that there is a hard-working core group of folks (some of whom don’t even know and/or aren’t involved with each others’ work … and many working in great collaborations) who are dedicated to Colorado’s mustangs, on and off their home ranges. I can list our on-range groups easily (Friends of the Mustangs, Little Book Cliffs; Sand Wash Advocate Team and Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin, Sand Wash Basin; Piceance Mustangs, Piceance-East Douglas), but I don’t want to try with the off-range-focused groups for fear of leaving some/any out. Believe me: They are out there, and they are dedicated.
As much as so many are divided these days, we mustang advocates are united in our love of our mustangs and goals of securing good management or good off-range lives – and sometimes both at the same time.
This post is late because I forgot to schedule one ahead of time (and/or I may have thought I’d have time to do it when I got home …), but I was just visiting a sanctuary and herd in northwestern Colorado where beautiful mustangs roam, and there are people as dedicated to protecting them and providing safety and wild futures for them as I am here for my Spring Creek Basin beauties.
The trip renewed my sense of hope that, at least in this, we have options and opportunities to continue the important work of advocating for our mustangs, wherever they might be in Colorado, with people who are united in doing the same (however differently).
That’s pretty cool.
(This golden eagle indulged our visit right along the road for many wonderful moments, and s/he seemed to be an excellent example of the sentiment of hope that goes with this post.)
After posting the information about Kathryn Wilder’s forthcoming (in November) book, The Last Cows, I thought I’d do a “pay it forward” post and recommend another couple of books that I’ve recently added to my library.
I’ve been lucky enough to know Barb Kiipper for many years during our mustang advocacy journeys. She’s the founder and director of Jicarilla Mustang Heritage Alliance, a group that advocates for the mustangs of the Carson National Forest’s Jicarilla Wild Horse Territory in northwestern New Mexico. She has poured heart, sweat, blood and tears into the challenge of working toward good management for that herd, getting many, many mustangs adopted to good homes along the way. I met Michele Bell only recently and have been inspired about her approach to taming and training mustangs from a variety of places (the Jicarilla, BLM-managed herds and Mesa Verde National Park).
Why A Mustang is part memoir of their journeys, part philosophy about working with mustangs and what these amazing horses have taught these women about themselves and mustangs, specifically and in general. It’s a bit of an addictive read (and if you’ve been involved with horses and/or mustangs as long as I have, absolutely fascinating with insights about behaviors and taming/training techniques), and I highly recommend it.
Also …
Long-time friend and amazing nature/wildlife photographer Claude Steelman visited the other day on his way to Spring Creek Basin, and he gifted me a copy of his newest book, Wild Journey: The Photography of Claude Steelman. I don’t see this book on his website, so I’m not sure of its availability. Claude had a gallery in Durango for a number of years and currently has downsized to a studio just above Main Avenue – so he can be out shooting more! This wonderful book is a sort of compendium of his travels and experiences across the West (and beyond) during his 40-plus years (!) as a photographer chasing natural light and wildness. Mostly images, only a little text; his photography truly speaks volumes.
As you would expect from the photographer who published Colorado’s Wild Horses, there’s a section in this book about mustangs, which includes images from Spring Creek Basin, including the above gorgeous scene. 🙂
Claude says people ask him when he’s going to retire, and I love his phrase at the end of the book that indicates that if he retired, he’d “just go take pictures, so why bother” retiring!? Find your passion, indeed!
I have been so fortunate along this journey to not only meet and spend time with “my” own mustangs but also many like-minded humans. The mustangs and these people keep me grounded on my own path.
This is what the original interpretive sign looked like (I know you were wondering!), courtesy of Kathe Hayes, who retired a few years ago after working many years for San Juan Mountains Association as the volunteer coordinator. Long-time readers will remember Kathe’s name associated especially with the alternative spring break program, which brought in college students from the University of Missouri every year to work on various projects in Spring Creek Basin and other public lands (both BLM and U.S. Forest Service) around Southwest Colorado.
When Kathe read about the new kiosk installation, she sent me a text and some emails about the history of the FIRST sign installation at the west basin boundary:
“Excited to see that Laura [Heaton] was involved in the installation of the new sign in Spring Creek Basin. As you know as a child, she was involved in the installation of the first sign along with a group of college students from the University of Missouri and Ranger Rick from BLM. I remember Laura and I climbing up the side of the hill and rolling large rocks down so that we could surround the sign so cars would not drive over the sign. A lot of hard work and dedication went into the original sign, and I was sad to see that it had disintegrated. But I am grateful for the new sign and the information it portrays about the wonderful Spring Creek Basin. Thanks for your help in this, TJ.”
Also:
“I was really excited to read about the installation of the new sign. I believe the old one was installed around 2008. It prompted me to resurrect a photo of the original. Laura was involved in the installation of the original sign, as a young kid working alongside the University of Missouri students and Ranger Rick Ryan (BLM). Wow, such good memories for me.
“Attached is the original sign photo. It was a lot of work back then, getting that sign created and approved.”
Not much has changed in that respect. 😉 I asked Kathe if I could share the image of the original sign and her words about the history of it.
“I remember this about installing the original sign. Rick Ryan (Ranger Rick) had been mixing cement in a wheelbarrow and then pouring it into the hole to secure the base of the sign as we all watched curiously as to how this was all going to work. Laura said that that’s not how my dad would do it [Laura’s dad is well-known rancher Al Heaton; their family is well respected in the entire region of Southwest Colorado. She is, quite literally, a local!] and I just laughed. Laura‘s family was instrumental in the success of the Alternative Spring break program. I doubt I would have continued without their support. And Laura was my little shadow since she was about 6 years old. Her parents let me drag her all over the place. She loved being with the college students who loved playing games especially spoons.”
Wild and crazy how things come back around full circle, eh? 🙂
Thanks so much for the history, Kathe! We miss the alternative spring break program (I think it lasted almost 20 years with Kathe’s guidance?), but we sure loved each year’s crop of students and all the work they did for us in Spring Creek Basin! And we now have Laura as one of our BLM range team members, carrying on that good work!
** 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.)
