Work projects | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Preparing for fence work

17 03 2013

In a couple of weeks, it will be spring break time again. And here, alternative spring break comes in late March, courtesy of San Juan Mountains Association, which has brought University of Missouri students to Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area (and other places on San Juan public lands) for something like 10 years now!

Yesterday, a crew of volunteers helped SJMA’s Kathe Hayes clear greasewood and saltbush and small pinon/juniper trees and a small, interwoven shrub we couldn’t identify away from the southeastern boundary fence so the students can start rebuilding the fence from the road with BLM, Forest Service, SJMA and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners help. For the second year, the students will work for the basin’s mustangs for two days (previous years have had them in the basin one day), and not for the first year, we’re excited to welcome them!

Some pix from our work:

Tif and her daughter, Madison (yes, our Madison is named after *this* Madison!), cut and toss greasewood away from the fence near the road.

Kathe and Lyn clear the fence of greasewood. This shot is looking back toward the road; you can see the metal supports of the cattle guard in the distance. Note Kathe’s handsaw; this part of the basin also is part of McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area, meaning no motorized travel or mechanized tools – like chainsaws. Kathe and other volunteers cut some trees on another day for the students to use to make H-braces; those also were cut using handsaws.

Lyn, Madison and Tif clear brush while Kathe moves on to the next bush in need of clearing. Lyn is clearing the last bit of saltbush; the ground here was moist enough that we were mostly able to pull it up through the soil.

The couple that saws together stays together! Tif and her husband (and Madi’s dad), Curly, cut and saw a small juniper tree out of the fence line.

Curly and Madison head back to the truck after an excellent day’s work. The family that volunteers together … is super fun to have on your work crew!

Tif, her mom, Lyn (Madison’s grandma), and Kathe walk back to the truck along the newly cleared fenceline boundary of Spring Creek Basin.

In other good news, about 37 drops of rain fell while we were working. 🙂

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Categories : Advocacy, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Valley, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Fence work, Kids & Horses, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Work projects

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.

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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

Die, thistle, die!

6 10 2012

To follow up from the knapweed spraying seen at the northwest pond, here are some pix of sprayed musk thistle at the east-pocket pond:

On the western edge of the pond.

On the south edge of the pond – and dying already! (Note the water.)

Dying musk thistle, full pond – what’s not to love?

Did I mention full pond? The east-pocket pond now is one of only two ponds in the basin that have not gotten dug out in recent years. It did go dry this year but rebounded (a couple of times) with rain. And the Sorrel Flats pond, which was dug out in 2010, is just to the south.

Thank you to the Forest Service and BLM for your continued partnership with Four Corners Back Country Horsemen and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners in managing Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area to the best of its potential! It’s fantastic to come back and see the fruits of our labors – GPS’ing sites in the spring – come to fruition in the fall!

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Categories : Advocacy, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Partnership, Ponds, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Water, Work projects

Knapweed spraying

5 10 2012

For two days this week, a Forest Service crew directed by BLM has sprayed Russian knapweed around all the ponds in Spring Creek Basin. In May, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen members and guests GPS’d several sites (including ponds) of weed infestation to help BLM identify sites for future spraying. This is all part of the Director’s Challenge grant, which was awarded to the Tres Rios Field Office based on its affiliation with Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners.

We happened to catch G, with the Forest Service, leaving the basin after his second day of spraying and got the scoop.

After visiting with Duke and Kreacher in the northwest “meadow,” we surveyed the northwest pond and spraying activity.

This was a fitting day to get the news about weed spraying; Pat Amthor, who, with her husband, Frank, has honcho’d 13 years worth of wild horse counts in Spring Creek Basin with Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, was visiting. From our vantage with the boys, it was Pat who spied water in the pond.

The vegetation around the pond is the particularly nasty Russian knapweed, noted in a previous post about the pond and it being dug out this summer (also with Director’s Challenge funds). If the green looks a little unnatural, that’s OK – that’s the chemical spray.

Note: Russian knapweed is toxic to horses if ingested in great enough quantity. The good thing is that horses rarely eat it if other forage is available. And we have plenty of other forage available, especially this year.

As we continued around the basin, we did note that all the ponds we saw showed signs of having been sprayed. Yay!

As a side note, we ended up seeing every single horse in Spring Creek Basin, including – again – the elusive Mr. Poco.

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Categories : Advocacy, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Partnership, Ponds, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Water, Work projects

Sister, brother

13 09 2012

Always handsome, this pair.

Skywalker with big sister Mysterium.

This band has been relatively elusive lately; this photo is from late August. I last saw them last week, way up high above the northwest valley toward Klondike Basin. A couple of Forest Service folks – H and W – brought Pinch and Jammer and Traveler (!), and we rode some fence and fixed some fence. It was a great couple of days, and the mustangs are safer because of it!

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Categories : Advocacy, Fence work, Mysterium, Partnership, Skywalker, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Work projects

Water, blessed

1 09 2012

Oh, peeps. What a summer. No rain for months. Then rain. Ponds – three – dug out. Then no rain – again. Did I mention heat? Drying wind.

We got a big rain last week. I couldn’t wait to get back in the basin to check ponds. But I’ve been distracted – by Terra’s new baby, by checking Chipeta (no baby today). The day I found Terra’s baby boy, I got stopped at the first Spring Creek crossing by a big wash of rock, some still-not-dry mud (which kinda IS mud, eh) and a tall/deep “step” of dirt/mud at the far side. It wasn’t much changed today. It took one aborted attempt in regular four-wheel drive then four-wheel-low to get up and over it today.

But this stopped me:

The old washout, washed out again. But this time, it’s all the way across the road. I hate to think what mess the hunters will make trying to get past it.

Did I say it stopped me? Welllll. It stopped the Jeep. Bike to the rescue. I hit the road, to this destination:

Is this not a glorious sight?! This is the roadside pond, full to the brim! OK, maybe not quite to the brim – you can see how high the water got. The spillway is at back right, but it doesn’t look like much water went over there.

Back on the bike. Back to the Jeep. Back to check the northwest pond.

Did I say the other photo, of a brim-full pond, was a glorious sight? Nah. (Well, yeah.) But this, folks … this is what it’s all about. 🙂

Not full at all. In fact, just a puddle compared with roadside and trapsite (which also is full), but Hollywood’s band was there (Mona and Shane seen above). Comanche’s band was there. Duke was there. Bounce was there with Seven and Kreacher. The young misters Hayden, Tenaz and Apollo were there.

That is there. See it? The green stuff? Not in the foreground (BLM, that’s weeds again already, and not the good kind; good thing BLM is set to spray weeds this fall from the coordinates we GPS’d during the Four Corners Back Country Horsemen’s project this spring!). Where the horses are. Comanche’s closest; Hollywood’s a little farther and to the left. Duke was in there, too, I think.

That, my friends, is lovely, life-sustaining grass.

Oh, what a difference, rain.

Glorious rain. Valuable, wonderful rain. We had a little more last night. Despite the promising clouds, none tonight.

(Pond notes: The northwest, trapsite and roadside ponds all got dug out this year, courtesy of the Forest Service and Director’s Challenge money, which our Tres Rios Field Office was awarded based on partnership with our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners. The east-pocket pond had gone dry, then had water again, then gone dry again. I wasn’t able to get back and check it, but based on roadside’s full status, I’d bet it has water again. All the other ponds have water. Grass is amazing. Horses are fabulous!)

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Categories : Director's Challenge, Mona, Ponds, Rain, Shane, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water, Work projects

Horses of different colors

30 07 2012

Mama Kestrel and her girls Madison, 2 1/2 months old, and Juniper, yearling. Her first daughter, Winona, is buckskin. Juni is going grey like her daddy, Comanche, and baby Madi is bay like … ? Her daddy also is Comanche; his background unknown.

Great news on the pond front: The trapsite pond has about 3 feet of water as of today! Thanks to C (and intern from South Carolina D) for the great news! The Forest Service dozer operator still was working on it some but had to abandon. J will finesse the spillways of the northwest and roadside ponds and then be done with those two. They look great – nice and deep. We had amazing rains yesterday and Saturday – particularly Saturday. Disappointment Creek started flowing again (not that it helps the horses because it doesn’t flow through the herd area, but it’s a marker for the overall valley).

The hills are green – for the first time this year really. So amazing to see what some good rain can do for this high desert environment!

This was taken at the northwest pond late last week looking northish. Sundance’s band is in the scene; can you spot them? Trick question. 🙂 They’re really not visible in this image, especially at this size. But they are there. See the promontory at the top of the image? Below that, on the open hill, the trees? The horses are near/under the leftmost of those trees. I kept looking up there, thinking I saw something … and telling myself “no way.” But I *have* seen horses up there before … and sure enough, when I finally went for the binocs, Sundance’s band. Those mountain goat-ponies. 🙂

But really, look at the foreground: grass! This area was seriously *burnt* as recently as a week or two ago (I hate it when people say/write “burnt” when they mean burned, but this area was seriously crispy, and there’s really just not another word for it).

This is looking northwestish from the middle-ish area of the basin. Duke is there.

Rain. Green. Love.

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Categories : Juniper, Kestrel, Madison, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water, Work projects

Not-so-big dig

18 07 2012

The Big Dig, it ain’t. But I’m still excited about it!

It represents potentially more water for the horses and increased grazing in an area the horses don’t use a lot because there’s not often water there. And it represents BLM keeping our mustangs’ welfare a priority, especially in this hot and dry year.

We went from this:

To this today:

It’s not done yet! This is looking from the “spillway” across the pond to the west – the same perspective as the photo above. Many thanks to C and J from the Forest Service who are honchoin’g the project and doing the dirt work!

C and J discussing the finer points of pond clean-out. C also was involved in coordinating the contractor hired to dig out the Round Top pond and the one double pond in 2009.

This is what I call simply the northwest pond, it being in the northwestern corner of Spring Creek Basin. This is looking southeastish across the basin. In the middle ground, you can see the twin buttes and part of Flat Top. Just left of the juniper tree in the foreground is the spillway from which I took the first two pix.

J pushing dirt.

There are basically two drainages that feed this pond, and he’s cleaning out in front of the smaller one, which you can see in front of the dozer. The other one is behind him, out of the picture.

Work should be finished on this pond tomorrow! I’ll post another pic or more later.

Also scheduled for dig-out is – at least – the trapsite pond, which is above Spring Creek Canyon (site of previous roundups). The roadside pond, which was about half dug out in 2010 (because it rained before it was completed), will get dug out if there’s time and/or it dries out more. The dirt of that pond, which went dry a month or so ago, is still damp about 4 inches down where the water dried up last. The Flat Top pond, which has been our priority to dig out since 2009, ends up holding some water when the monsoons kick in again. We’ll try to move that up to a June time-frame for next year; if the roadside pond doesn’t get dug out this year, there’s next year.

Director’s Challenge funds, awarded because of the Tres Rios Field Office’s partnership with Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, are paying for this work!

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Categories : Advocacy, Director's Challenge, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Partnership, Ponds, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Water, Work projects

Rain: falling, filling

13 07 2012

Aspen against a rainy sky a few nights ago.

The recent rains DID, in fact, put water in some of the ponds. Some went from very shallow to quite a bit fuller. Some went from dry to this:

The Flat Top pond. It (likely) won’t get dug out this year, but it’s good to see it with water again.

The northwest pond, however, should get dug out next week – it’s still dry. Or was; the basin got rain again this afternoon after a dry spell of a few days.

The east-pocket pond has water again. The Sorrel Flats pond has way more water (it was getting pretty shallow). And those are just the ones I’ve looked at, being more concerned with pony doings. What can I say, I get distracted easily. 🙂

I should have – but didn’t – take pix of the first Spring Creek arroyo crossing. No more water flowing, but the rocks the water pushed along was awe-inspiring (as always). Water is a driving force in this “Disappointment Country” – and the lack of it just as much, if not more so.

And I’ll leave ya’ll with this pretty sunset over the La Sal Mountains (to the northwest of the basin, in Utah):

It’s good to have rain. 🙂

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Categories : Advocacy, Aspen, Disappointment Valley, Ponds, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water, Work projects

Looking for – and finding – water

28 06 2012

FS range guy HP and I did some more riding to GPS water seeps in some of the main arroyos, trying to get an idea of water availability for the horses. There is good news to report: Three ponds still have water – though one is much shallower than a week ago. And we have GPS’d at least half a dozen places where water seeps up or percolates down in various arroyos across the basin. The horses continue to be in good condition.

Pix of our pony partners:

Fox trotter Pinch and HP.

HP’s other fox trotter Jammer, my partner for the trek.

Handsome and smart and willing! These guys went everywhere they were pointed. I think the only time Jammer’s pointy ears were less than full forward was during our lunch stop! HP wrangles and rides Forest Service horses in the course of his duties, too, but Pinch and Jammer belong to HP.

These with my cell phone (so I didn’t have to carry my big camera). Sorry about the quality!

HP riding Pinch near the weeping wall. The white is salt from the alkaline soil. Almost everywhere there’s water, there’s salt in abundance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much salt coming to the surface of the ground. We found water in an eighth- to a quarter-mile stretch through this arroyo. Clearly getting active horse traffic.

Jammer, left, helps HP and Pinch check out the old guzzler. It’s dead dry. We’re not sure why. (Note the shade of cloud cover – ahhh!)

Jammer drinks from water in a tire tank near a natural seep. The first time I found this area, a few years ago, the tire was full of water and the seep was producing water. Every visit since then, the tire has been dry. Now, the seep is nearly dry, but the tire is full and trickling over. Hmmmm??

Thanks again to HP for his work and horses! And thanks to BLM’s Tres Rios Field Office management and our herd manager, Kiley Whited, who is spearheading these projects!

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Categories : Advocacy, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Water, Work projects

Spring Creek Basin Mustangs