Sand Wash Wild Horse Advocate Team
The Annual Rendezvous
Did you know that we have three beautiful wild horse herds here in Colorado? Did you know that all three herds have exemplary volunteer groups that support and help manage these herds in collaboration with the BLM? (See links below.)
A great group of people gathered in service to the wild horses.
The Sand Wash Advocate Team (SWAT ) supports the Little Snake Herd Management Area located north of Maybell, Colorado, where a colorful herd of wild horses roams free. I went to their annual workday and barbeque last month and camped out on the herd management area.
It was a time of reconnecting with friends, such as TJ Holmes, who documents the Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse Herd located near Montrose, Colorado. I have traveled down to the Spring Creek Basin to photo journal about the wild horse herd there several times, going back to 2008!
I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with Bruce Rittenhouse, Branch Chief, in charge of the Natural Resources for the Colorado State Office from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). We had a great conversation regarding the complexities and challenges of managing our wild horse herds.
This event was hosted and facilitated by Michelle Sander, founder of the Sand Wash Wild Horse Advocate Team, and on the range support program of the Great Escape Mustang Sanctuary (GEMS). Michelle founded GEMS in honor of her father’s dream to create a sanctuary for wild horses. Michelle and her supporters are devoted to collaborating and working together with the Bureau of Land Management to effectively and expeditiously manage the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses.
It was a heartening experience to volunteer with Michelle and Aleta Wolf, SWAT Program Director, alongside several BLM officers and employees, which is a rare occasion.
I even won a photograph in a raffle of wild horses of the Sand Wash Basin taken by Shawn Stoehr!
The BLM will be conducting a gathering of some of the younger wild horses from this herd of 600+ wild horses out on the Sand Wash Basin this month, November 2016. The appropriate management level of this herd is 362. The BLM will use “bait trapping” rather than using helicopters, which is much less traumatic, and more selective, removing horses based on genetics, health, and age. The plan is to treat the mares with PZP, a birth control medication, and approximately 50 wild horses will go to The Great Escape Wild Mustang Sanctuary where some of them will be gentled through the TIP Training program and made available for adoption.
The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board have sent out a recommendation that all 47,000 wild horses in holding facilities be euthanized. This action is a poignant declaration highlighting the magnitude of the dilemma we currently face in the management of our wild horses. There are no easy answers, only tricky decisions — a genuinely heartbreaking situation that direly needs the support and collaboration of many people.
Times have changed. We have way too many wild horses and not enough land designated for them. Since the horses are on multi-use land, the range requires management; not only do horses depend on the forage, but also cattle, sheep, elk, deer, and antelope, sage grouse, and cutthroat trout. All of this is controversial; public lands are over-grazed, and wild horse herds double their numbers every four years.
For more information, you can go to:
Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program: https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro
Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse Advocate Team: https://www.facebook.com/sandwashadvocate/
Friends of the Mustangs, a volunteer group for the Little Bookcliffs Wild Horse Range: http://www.friendsofthemustangs.org
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs: https://springcreekbasinmustangs.com/about/