The third large-scale helicopter roundup of Colorado mustangs within a year ended Tuesday in dusty sagebrush country on the far western edge of the state, part of a massive effort by federal land managers to thin the wild horse population across the West. Wranglers and a helicopter pilot herded and trapped 864 stallions, mares and […]
Bureau of Land Management
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government
More than 400 wild horses captured in first week of western Colorado helicopter roundup, despite objection from top state officials
It took federal land managers about a month to capture 18 wild horses by hiding in the sagebrush not far from a corral baited with food and fresh water. In a week, a helicopter buzzing across the rugged prairie of western Colorado has captured more than 400. The efficiency of a helicopter roundup is the […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics and Government
Helicopter roundup in western Colorado aims to capture 750 wild horses in the next month
A low-flying helicopter is set to begin rounding up wild horses on rugged, parched rangeland in western Colorado on Friday despite weeks of protest from national mustang groups as well as Gov. Jared Polis. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management intends to thin the Piceance East Douglas herd by 750 animals, leaving about 630 wild […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Federal officials ignore Colorado governor’s plea to stop capturing wild horses, plan Western Slope roundup this week
Federal officials will begin capturing hundreds of mustangs roaming in far northwestern Colorado this week, dismissing a request from Gov. Jared Polis to halt roundups while the state and U.S. Bureau of Land Management find a “more humane” option for managing wild horses. The federal agency’s announcement of its next roundup — in the Piceance-East […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics and Government
Cañon City facility where 145 wild horses died is short-staffed, in violation of federal policies, report finds
The federal Bureau of Land Management failed to vaccinate wild horses captured from western Colorado because the Cañon City holding facility lacks enough workers and because the mustangs were “unusually high-strung,” according to a report released Thursday that offers the first clues about why 145 horses died from a typically preventable equine flu. A review […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Federal judge blocks plan for 35 gas wells on national forest land in western Colorado
A U.S. District Court judge blocked a plan approved by federal agencies for 35 fracked gas wells across 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land between Gunnison and the Grand Mesa, handing a victory to environmental groups suing the government for failing to take climate change into account in approving new drilling. U.S. District for […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Gov. Jared Polis calls for delay in wild horse roundup after 142 die in federal facility in Cañon City
Gov. Jared Polis is asking federal officials to delay rounding up wild horses off Colorado’s rangelands and consider a “more cost effective and humane” plan after 142 horses have died from the equine flu while penned up in a federal facility in Cañon City. “The facilities and procedures are ill-equipped to take on the hundreds […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government
141 wild horses — a third of those captured from the Western Slope — died in country’s deadliest flu outbreak
A third of the wild horses captured from Western Slope rangeland last summer have died in the equine flu outbreak at their holding pens in Cañon City, though federal officials said Wednesday that the outbreak is winding down. Mustang deaths — which numbered more than 20 on the worst days of the outbreak — have […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Many of the 119 wild horses killed by equine flu at Cañon City facility weren’t vaccinated, BLM says
Three dead foals were the first sign that something was wrong with the West Douglas herd, mustangs that until eight months ago had roamed dry and rugged rangeland in far western Colorado. When the third foal died on April 18, following the recent death of another foal and one that was stillborn, the Bureau of […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Nearly 100 wild horses have died in less than a week as equine flu spreads at federal facility in Cañon City
Veterinarians say a highly contagious equine flu has killed 95 wild horses so far this week at federal Bureau of Land Management holding pens in Cañon City. The mustangs captured from Colorado rangeland and hauled to the federal facility on state prison grounds have been dying at a rapid pace. Federal officials first announced the […]