A BLM contractor’s helicopter pursues a stallion as cattle graze undisturbed during a 2016 roundup at the Blawn Wash Herd Area in Utah. RTF file photo by Steve Paige.
The Bureau of Land Management plans to use helicopter drive-trapping to capture and remove 149 wild horses from the Muddy Creek Herd Management in Utah.
BLM cites “declining rangeland health, overpopulation and continued drought conditions” as its reasons for removing the wild horses. The animals removed from the range will be prepared for the BLM adoption and sale program.
BLM plans to vaccinate mares with fertility control after reaching the agency-set “Appropriate Management Level” of 75-125, or as low as one horse for every 3,773 acres of the 283,000-acre herd management area.
By comparison, the agency allows 16,040 Animal Unit Months for livestock grazing on adjacent or overlapping allotments. One Animal Unit Month is a month’s forage for one horse, one cow / calf pair or five sheep.
he Muddy Creek Herd Management Area is located in Emery County, about six miles south of Emery, Utah. It was home to an estimated 195 wild horses before this year’s foaling season began.
For BLM planning documents, click here.
For BLM’s tentative roundup calendar, click here.
Take Action
- Wild horses captured at Muddy Creek are at increased risk of going to slaughter because of a new BLM sales policy that allows a buyer to purchase up to 25 wild horses or burros, no questions asked, with no waiting period. Previously, buyers could purchase no more than four animals every six months without receiving special permission. Please click here to send a message to Congress calling on lawmakers to demand that BLM revoke the new policy.