BLM to hold hearing on Wyoming wild horse roundup

Updated: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 5:29 PM

By MEAD GRUVER

Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A wildlife photographer said Monday she has hand-delivered more than 3,000 letters to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management opposing plans to round up wild horses in southwest Wyoming.

The BLM wants to gather 1,951 wild horses in October. The figure would amount to 80 percent of the estimated 2,438 horses in an area the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

The BLM said the roundup is necessary to maintain ecological balance and protect the range in the high desert area. It also said the move would comply with a 7-year-old agreement with the state of Wyoming.

Opponents countered the roundup amounts to a special service for ranchers.

"They are contending there is an overpopulation. We're saying there is not," Carol Walker said before she submitted the letters at the BLM Rock Springs Field Office. "BLM is not offering any evidence that the horses are damaging the range."

Ranchers said there was plenty of evidence of rangeland damage near water, where wild horses congregate.

"In fact, I think that's just the beginning of what they need to do in southwestern Wyoming," said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association.

He pointed out that horse numbers have far exceeded the BLM's goal populations as reinforced by a 2003 consent agreement reached amid threats by Wyoming to sue.

"From a legal perspective, this gathering needs to take place. From a resource protection perspective, even more so," Magagna said.

The BLM plans to hold a public meeting on the roundup at the field office next Monday.

Federal agencies deliberating controversial matters often get thousands of form e-mails. People with opinions can easily submit such messages through the websites of interest groups.

The BLM didn't accept comments on the roundup by e-mail -- only by mail.

Walker got around that by printing out and hand-delivering e-mails submitted through the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. She said that while the group offered suggestions for commenting on the roundup plan, the e-mails weren't identical.

The e-mails came from around the country and internationally, said Walker, of Lyons, Colo.

"The main thing is that people don't really see a reason that these horses have to be taken from the range," she said.

The BLM has received the letters in addition to 7,000 comments submitted during a comment period earlier this year, said Cindy Wertz, a BLM spokeswoman in Cheyenne.

She said the BLM hasn't yet counted how many letters Walker turned in.

Walker said the Wyoming roundup is part of a regional BLM plan to round up 12,000 wild horses, adding to 38,000 previously captured wild horses in holding pens. The weak economy makes it even less likely people will be able to adopt all the horses soon, she said.