PZP | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Little Book Cliffs darting team earns kudos

3 02 2015

And rightly so!

The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction did a story about BLM’s team of volunteer PZP darters and the benefits they (and PZP) bring to the mustangs of Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range: “Wild-horse control; dart shooters help manage fertility of herd in canyons behind Bookcliffs.”

The overall article is about the benefits of and process behind using PZP to manage a wild horse herd. This nugget is a little bit buried, but check it out: “The result [of the PZP program] has been a smaller, more manageable herd, longer lives for mares and, this year, recognition by the head of the Colorado office of the BLM of the team as its volunteer of the year. The award, which was presented on Thursday by Ruth Welch, the BLM state director, means the team is a nominee for the agency’s national award for volunteerism.”

Marty Felix and Billie Hutchings are among my original inspirations. This award could go to no better team and for no better reason. Ditto the national award for which they’re now nominated.

Best of luck! I’m going to speak right up for Colorado mustang advocates and say we’re behind ya’ll!

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, Education, Fertility control, Little Book Cliffs, Partnership, PZP

Scoping period’s deadline extended to Feb. 28

9 01 2015

Kudos to all who already have sent letters and emails in response to BLM’s request for comments about future bait trapping in Spring Creek Basin! We are so appreciative.

For you procrastinators out there (you’re in good company with yours truly), BLM has extended the deadline to comment. It’s now Feb. 28.

To repeat some information, the scoping letter and National Mustang Association/Colorado chapter- and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners-submitted bait-trapping proposal are linked at NMA/CO’s website.

When you comment, please consider including your address to be added to BLM’s mailing list for future contact about issues related to our Spring Creek Basin mustangs – including the forthcoming EA. The scoping notice is the step that will lead to an EA that should include the potential to use bait trapping in Spring Creek Basin – in the future, when needed.

It is important to know that NO ROUNDUP is scheduled in Spring Creek Basin this year, and with the success of our PZP program, we shouldn’t need one for at least a year or two.

This is a very positive step forward in the evolution of good management of Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs. We already are using native PZP to slow the population growth of the herd. Bait trapping will provide a means of safe “gathering” and removal of horses when needed to keep the herd’s size in balance with the resources of Spring Creek Basin. In our fragile, high-desert environment, we must protect the range for the good of all generations of our mustangs.

Please pass the word, and send those comments! Thank you!

Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Disappointment Valley, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fertility control, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Tell BLM …

5 01 2015

… you want to see bait trapping in the future in Spring Creek Basin.

Today, BLM sent a scoping letter to gauge the public’s interest in doing bait trapping there in the future as opposed to helicopter-driven roundups. I think you’ll all agree that we want bait trapping instead of a helicopter. It was very successful in Little Book Cliffs in 2013, and we’re confident it can be successful in Spring Creek Basin – when needed.

The scoping letter (and bait-trapping proposal submitted by our groups to BLM last year) can be found through links on NMA/CO’s website.

It is important to note that there will NOT be a roundup in Spring Creek Basin this year. Our population is below the appropriate management level of 35 to 65 adult horses, and the use of native PZP has slowed population growth. Apparently, all of Colorado’s wild horse herds were put on the “2015 gather list,” but none were approved because of lack of funding and lack of corral space (this information is as of November 2014).

Note that the name of our herd management area is Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. Also note that Spring Creek Basin is in Disappointment Valley (there’s no such thing as Disappointment Basin – at least not locally).

Please submit respectful and positive comments by Jan. 30. Members of the Colorado chapter of the National Mustang Association, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen and Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen (a coalition known as Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners) have established a long-term working partnership with Tres Rios Field Office managers with regard to managing our Spring Creek Basin mustangs well. Our network of mustang advocates helps reinforce this partnership.

Thank you for your support of our mustangs in Spring Creek Basin!

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fertility control, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, PZP, Roundup, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

National Academy of Sciences report on BLM’s management of wild horses and burros

7 06 2013

It’s out. The National Academy of Sciences has completed its report about wild horses and burros, and BLM’s management of them.

Some links to reports about the study:

“New report offers science-based strategies for management of Western free-ranging horses and burros; ‘business-as-usual’ practices will be increasingly expensive and unproductive for BLM”: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13511

Th National Academy of Sciences link (above) includes a link to the brief summary of the report: http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/wild-horses-report-brief-final.pdf

*** Updated to add this link, by the always-thought-provoking Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/after-wild-horse-report-jewell-faces-first-moment-of-truth-at-interior/276545/

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/independent-panel-readies-review-blm-mustangs

http://www.returntofreedom.org/national-coalition-calls-on-interior-secretary-to-halt-wild-horse-roundups-in-wake-of-scathing-independent-report/

http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/56416617-219/horse-report-wild-horses.html.csp

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/05/horse-burro-blm-nrc/2388947/

http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2013/06/nrc-gets-it-right-in-panning-blm-wild-horse-program.html

Practically speaking, what will it mean? Time will tell.

Comments : 7 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Apollo, Education, Fertility control, Killian, Mustangs, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Tenaz, Wild horses in the news

How does your donation to NMA/CO help the Spring Creek Basin mustangs?

28 05 2013

This question was asked recently, and answering it gives me another chance to let local folks know about the Pati Temple Memorial Benefit Bash we will hold next week, Monday, June 3, at the Kennebec Cafe in Hesperus, Colo. Follow that link for the details and to purchase tickets if you haven’t and plan to attend.

Now, on to an answer(s) to the question!

First, see this page, compiled last year by Pati, for a list of the National Mustang Association, Colorado chapter’s past accomplishments: http://www.nationalmustangassociationcolorado.org/nmaco-accomplishments.html

As it says, NMA/CO has spent nearly $100,000 to date on projects that directly benefit the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin! We rarely do fundraisers, relying mostly on memberships and donations. Administrative expenses are low, mostly what we put toward mailing newsletters. We had T-shirts and hats printed for the adoption in 2011, and we’ll soon have a link to purchase them through the website.

Fence repair and maintenance is ongoing through volunteer labor. As a result of their partnership with us as part of Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, BLM received $25,000 last year through the Director’s Challenge grant, which purchased some materials to be used in a project on the basin’s southeastern boundary line (read about alternative spring break and University of Missouri students’ work here – https://springcreekwild.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/alternative-spring-break-day-1/ – and here – https://springcreekwild.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/12368/). I fix fences as needed while I’m in the basin doing documentation. Sometimes we use materials provided by BLM, other times by ourselves.

We also are continually encouraging BLM to look at water-enhancement projects. More than a decade ago, NMA/CO paid for a water catchment to be built in Spring Creek Basin, and it supplies the mustangs’ only clean source of water (all others being extremely alkaline, at least). We have a signed agreement from about 12 or 13 years ago with BLM to construct at least one more catchment, but it has never been built. I think the catchment cost about $10,000. Several years ago, we also started talking to BLM about water guzzlers (such as those installed on Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range) to add to the horses’ quality of water. Those are about $8,000-plus. NMA/CO also has purchased parts for the catchment’s troughs, which work on floats.

NMA/CO contributes funds to combat noxious/invasive weeds in Spring Creek Basin (knapweed, tamarisk, musk thistle, etc.).

A decade or more ago, NMA/CO was able to purchase the cattle AUMs from one of the two ranchers who held permits in Spring Creek Basin. With the help of the National Mustang Association, we were able to retire those AUMs permanently. In the process, BLM conducted a grazing EA (not sure the exact reference) and then drastically reduced the remaining AUMs and changed the timing to dormant-season grazing only – Dec. 1 through Feb. 28. For the last several years, NMA/CO has been trying to buy or trade for the permit in Spring Creek Basin to also retire those AUMs, with the goal of no cattle grazing in the basin. As BLM itself says, managing wild horses is easier when the mustangs are the priority. The permittee is willing, so we are trying to work with BLM to accomplish this goal.

NMA/CO also is asking BLM to consider the use of bait trapping in the basin, instead of helicopter-driven roundups to complement the use of fertility control. We submitted a proposal for a program using native PZP that was implemented at the 2011 roundup. To bait trap requires the use of a facility in which to hold horses as they are trapped. This facility requires a chute and pens. We recently purchase a chute ($18,000) with donated funds from the National Mustang Association (of which we are a chapter). Our primary goal in fundraising currently is to purchase the required infrastructure for this facility so BLM won’t have only the option of using a helicopter and won’t need to transport one or two horses at a time – as they’re trapped – to Canon City, which is full, as most/all of BLM’s facilities seem to be. NOTE: NO ROUNDUP CURRENTLY IS PLANNED FOR SPRING CREEK BASIN. We are planning this now to have the facility in place so a future EA can include it in the planning process. As BLM said in 2011, bait trapping was not considered because it wasn’t in the EA. It wasn’t in the EA because no facility was available. However, note that we started asking specifically for bait trapping in 2008.

Enhancing water sources, retiring the remaining cattle AUMs, establishing a fertility control program and making bait trapping the priority for roundups all were Pati Temple’s goals for the Spring Creek Basin herd. In addition to the accomplishments made for the mustangs during Pati’s lifetime, we plan to accomplish these goals in her honor.

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Categories : Advocacy, alternative spring break, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fence work, Fertility control, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen, Mustangs, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, Pati Temple, PZP, Roundup, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water, Water catchment, Work projects

Dr. Jay

15 01 2013

Here’s another nudge for Wild Horse Scientists – and a guest post on Kay Frydenborg’s blog by Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick!

My copy arrived last week, and I wholeheartedly give it two thumbs up. It’s an excellent resource for information about PZP and how fertility control is helping wild horses, particularly on Assateague Island and Pryor Mountain. It’s a “children’s book” in the sense that we’re all learning and have much to learn. It’s truly appropriate for ALL ages.

Well-researched, well-written, beautiful photographs, and I absolutely enjoyed reading it.

This is a book that should not languish below the radar!

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, Education, Fertility control, PZP

Assateague & Chincoteague

8 01 2013

In the interest of clearing up what may be common confusion about Chincoteague and Assateauge islands and the wild horses that live there, Kay Frydenborg, author of Wild Horse Scientists, agreed to write a guest post about the topic. Yes, these East Coast islands are most of a continent and a world away from the West’s wild horses, but population management and fertility control are common topics. So here we go. I hope you’ll leave any questions for Kay in the comments!

Sorting Out the Wild Horses of Assateague Island

Since writing Wild Horse Scientists, I’ve run into a lot of folks who are a bit confused about the famous Chincoteague ponies, and that confusion is well-founded. It is confusing. For starters, the animals most people think of when they think of Chincoteague ponies are not ponies, technically, but small horses. And except for a few days each July during Pony Penning (which many people know about from Marguerite Henry’s classic children’s book Misty of Chincoteague and the movie that was adapted from the book), the wild ponies don’t live on the island of Chincoteague, but rather on the larger, uninhabited nearby island of Assateague.

To further complicate things, Assateague Island straddles two states (Maryland and Virginia), and two different federal agencies are in charge of overseeing the wild horses in each state (National Park Service in Maryland, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Virginia). On top of that, the wild “ponies” on the Virginia side of the island are legally the property of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which has been running the famous round-up, the swim across the channel to Chincoteague, and the foal auction for many years. The horses are not only rounded up for this annual event (which provides needed funds for the fire company and much tourism for the town), but they are also gathered at other times and given routine immunizations and veterinary and farrier care. Their population is kept at a maximum of about 150 by means of the foal auction alone; no contraceptives are used to limit the herd size in Virginia.

On the Maryland side of Assateague, home of the Assateague Island National Seashore (as well as a Maryland state park within the national park!), the wild horses are managed quite differently. They’re called horses here, not ponies, and managed in a mostly hands-off manner, with no human handling and no roundups. Unless a horse becomes gravely ill or injured and the Park Service determines urgent medical care or euthanasia is required to spare undue suffering, the only human intervention in the lives of these horses is the remote darting (via special rifles) of the contraceptive PZP. Over the 25-plus years that PZP has been used as the sole management tool, the numbers of horses has gradually stabilized to sustainable levels. At the same time, these horses are observed closely from a distance, and careful records are kept for the purposes of effective management of the PZP program and ensuring that a viable gene pool is maintained among the horses.

Though all of the wild horses of Assateague Island descend from the same original herd, after the island was split with the National Seashore designation in 1962, these different management strategies on the two sides of Assateague have resulted in some real differences in the makeup of the herds. You can read much more about these differences, and the 300-plus year history of these unique wild horses, in my book. I hope you’ll check it out!

Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Education, Fertility control, Partnership, PZP

Wild Horse Scientists

6 01 2013

Behind the scenes and out of the public spotlight – the way they like it – are a number of people – scientists – working to improve wild horse management. A new book by Kay Frydenborg, Wild Horse Scientists, published in November by Houghton Mifflin, looks at a couple of these scientists: Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick and Dr. Ron Keiper.

Dr. Kirkpatrick is director of the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Mont., where PZP is made and darters are trained. His work has proved especially invaluable with the wild horses managed on Assateague Island National Seashore. Dr. Keiper came up with a system of identifying the Assateague Island horses when research and fertility control started there around 25 years ago.

The book is aimed at children 10 and older, but given the myths and misconceptions I still hear about fertility control and wild horses, it’s likely appropriate for all age levels. Also, the idea that science IS being applied to the management of wild horses – particularly on Assateague, where the population is controlled only by the use of fertility control and a roundup hasn’t been conducted in many years (?) – is important and has applications that readers of all ages can appreciate.

Hoping to get more kids aware of the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin, our National Mustang Association/Colorado chapter and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners are working with the Telluride Institute to get schoolkids to the basin. This book could become an important part of their unit about good, in-the-wild management of these horses.

For more information, see Kay’s website: http://www.kayfrydenborg.com/

From her website:

“Dr. Ron Keiper and Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick have both, in their own unique way, made the wild horses of Assateague Island, Maryland their lives’ work. Experience Dr. Keiper’s handwritten notes—taken over countless watchful hours in the field—which are both a diary and a scientific log that chart the lives of his equine subjects, some of nature’s greatest survivors. And follow Dr. Kirkpatrick from the lab to the field as he works tirelessly to find a way to manage the horse population with a birth control vaccine, and helps keep the precarious balance of Assateague’s ecosystem intact.

“Descriptive prose meets solid science as author Kay Frydenborg offers a rare glimpse into the wild herds of Assateague, sharing beautiful photos of the Assateague herds in their island home and of both of the scientists at work—some of them never seen before.”

Also visit the website where Houghton Mifflin promotes authors, photographers and conservationists who highlight all kinds of topics to get kids interested in science: http://www.sciencemeetsadventure.com/

Find the book on Amazon. I just ordered mine.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Education, Fertility control, Kids & Horses, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Congratulations!

2 12 2012

The Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores, Colo., has honored Pati and David Temple with an award that recognizes their dedication during the last 15 years to the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin.

In 1997, Pati and David joined the board of the newly formed Colorado chapter of the National Mustang Association. They have served continuously on the board since then.

Some major projects have been completed in Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area at Pati and David’s urging:

* The water catchment in the basin was funded by NMA/CO – about $18,000. Although there are several ponds and seeps/springs, the catchment provides the horses with the only clean water source in Spring Creek Basin (the others being, at the least, very salty because of the alkaline soil).

* About a decade ago, NMA/CO raised $40,000 to buy cattle AUMs from a rancher who held grazing rights in the basin and, after a five-year struggle, succeeded in retiring those AUMs. Not only that, a grazing EA was prompted, which reduced the remaining AUMs and changed the grazing season to dormant-season grazing only (Dec. 1 until Feb. 28). The National Mustang Association, based in Utah, was instrumental in finally accomplishing this goal.

* Because of Pati and David, magazine subscriptions, horsemanship training videos and countless pairs of boots have been donated by NMA/CO to the inmate training program at the Canon City prison facility, where BLM has a short-term holding facility.

* Pati and David have assisted with the removal of old fences and wire from within the basin as well as construction of new boundary fences and the repair and maintenance of fences.

* For close to a decade, San Juan Mountains Association has hosted University of Missouri students during alternative spring break, which has included projects in the basin. David is an arborist, and NMA/CO regularly has funded chemical spray (Garlon) for tamarisk removal. David (pictured below at right) also has volunteered his time and expertise to help with eradication efforts.

* Because of Pati’s single-minded determination and her refusal to give up on him, when Grey/Traveler was sent to Canon City at the end of the 2007 roundup, we got him back. Pati and David hosted him at their ranch for three weeks (quarantine) until he could be returned to Spring Creek Basin (pictured below). Long-time readers of this blog will know that he not only rebuilt a band, he has the largest band in the basin at the tender age of “aged,” as aged at the last (2011) roundup.

* Pati and David represent NMA/CO in our coalition advocacy group Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners. They bring to Wild Bunch – and BLM – all their historical knowledge of BLM management of Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, as well as modern visions that fit with our advocacy goals, which they use to encourage new projects to benefit the horses. With the previous herd manager, one project Pati and David suggested and we convinced BLM to undertake was digging out ponds to increase storage capacity. Some hadn’t been dug out since the 1980s. In 2009, two ponds were dug out. In 2010, three ponds were dug out. In 2012, three ponds were dug out. All but two ponds in the basin have been dug out, and at least one of those still is on the priority list to BE dug out. Currently, in a desperately dry year, all but three ponds have water. To further illustrate how impressive this is – how visionary – ranchers throughout the region are hauling water to their cattle because water sources on their grazing allotments are dry.

* Also as members of Wild Bunch, Pati and David are an integral part of the partnership with BLM that resulted in the Tres Rios Field Office being awarded $25,000 as part of the Director’s Challenge this year.

* NMA/CO always has championed the use of fertility control. In 2007, NMA/CO paid for five doses of PZP-22 to be administered to the released mares. In 2010, NMA/CO signed on to the proposal submitted to BLM for the implementation of a program to use native PZP in Spring Creek Basin to slow population growth and reduce the need for frequent roundups. Also in 2010, NMA/CO paid for my PZP training at the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Mont. Then they paid for the darting rifle. When fertility control using native PZP was approved for the Spring Creek Basin herd ahead of the 2011 roundup, we were ready to volunteer.

* Pati and David have adopted several mustangs over many years (including those they’re riding in the photo of the plaque above). In 2011, they adopted yearling Rio (Grey/Traveler or Twister x Two Boots) and renamed him Sherwood, in honor of one of the founding members of NMA/CO. Pati is a genius at groundwork, and at 2 years old, Sherwood loads readily into a trailer and accepts a cinched saddle, among other things.

* In 2012, Hollywood and Piedra had a filly. She was named Temple in honor of Pati and David.

Pati and David are true mustang angels in every sense of the words. Their passion about and commitment to mustangs, particularly Spring Creek Basin mustangs, is legendary in our part of the world. Personally, I am grateful to Pati and David a million-fold for their support and friendship. Their work has laid the foundation for the excellent health of the herd today and into the future. This list hits just the highlights, but I hope it conveys how inspiring they are and should be to mustang advocates everywhere. In addition, they are two of the nicest, most generous people you’ll ever know.

The plaque reads: Presented to David and Pati Temple. Thank you for your many years of unselfish commitment and dedication to the Spring Creek Basin Wild Horses and the Herd Management Area. The support that you have provided to the BLM has been invaluable to the long-term goal of a sustainable and healthy herd area in Disappointment Valley. Without your devotion to the horses, advocacy, hard work and persistence, many maintenance, enhancement and fertility control projects would not have been accomplished. November 2012. Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Field Office.

The photo on the plaque, taken by Durango photographer Claude Steelman and featured in his book Colorado’s Wild Horses, shows Pati on Bandolier and David on Concho, their Sulphur Springs mustangs.

With appreciation beyond words and always grateful for you both, thank you, Pati and David, for your generosity, commitment and passion. It is contagious and has infected us all! And thank you, Tres Rios, for honoring Pati and David for all they have done for our mustangs.

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Valley, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fence work, Fertility control, Partnership, Ponds, PZP, PZP-22, Sherwood, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple, Water, Water catchment, Work projects

SCB mustangs in the spotlight

22 04 2012

Most readers of this blog aren’t local to this neck of the woods, but if you are, I’d like to invite you to the “Southwest Colorado Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse Management Program” at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango. It’s part of the center’s “2012 Program Series: Celebrating the Preservation of our Natural and Cultural Heritage.”

Guest speakers will be Fran Ackley from Canon City; Tom Rice from the Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores; and Kathe Hayes with the San Juan Mountains Association. Our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners will represent our member groups – National Mustang Association/Colorado, Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen and SJMA – during the event. It’s a great way to let the public know about our groups individually and Wild Bunch as a whole, and educate people about our Spring Creek Basin mustangs and how we help, including being part of the Director’s Challenge award that netted our BLM office $25,000 for projects for the horses. We’re excited to be part of this educational series hosted by the Center of Southwest Studies!

The event will start with a reception at 5:30 followed by the program at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the center’s Lyceum on the Fort Lewis College campus.

If you are local, or even passing through, we hope to see you there!

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Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fertility control, Gaia, Houdini, Mariah, PZP, Roundup, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wild horses in the news

Spring Creek Basin Mustangs