Federal Judge Blocks Plan To Remove NW Colo Horses -comment by plaintiff

This is applicable to our local Heritage Herds as well. Insist on NEPA to correct deficiencies in management plans.
Kathleen Hayden
Coyote Canyon Caballos d' Anza


Barbara Flores Plaintiff,
Wish you had the whole story. It is much more than this. There were more than 9 horses in the area of the West Douglas HA in the 1970's, and the BLM had eye witnesses to the fact at that time. This is a fair and thorough judge, who looked carefully at both sides. BLM has NEVER had the authority to simply decide not to manage for wild horses in an area they used in 1971, when the Act was passed, but they have wiped out wild horses from approximately half the herd areas established at that time, and some that they have never publicly recognized, like the 600+ wild horses eradicated from the Douglas Mountain HA in the 1970's and 80's. With more wild horses now in holding facilities than on the range, and the BLM proposing to kill all those in holding facilities, we will soon have none of this heritage left to us. I only hope this will make a difference.

Barbara M. Flores
American Mustang & Burro Assoc., Inc.
plaintiff
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/20295785/detail.html

DENVER -- A federal judge in Washington has blocked the Bureau of Land Management's plan to use helicopters and baits to trap and remove 100 wild horses from 128,000 acres of federal and private land near Rangely in northwestern Colorado.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled Wednesday that the BLM overstepped its authority because it had not determined whether removing the horses was necessary to preserve the ecological balance and multiple use of that area.
BLM officials said energy exploration and development since the 1980s has caused overgrazing in part of the West Douglas Herd Area and areas outside their range.
Originally numbering nine in the 1970s, the herd has grown to 147.
The BLM planned to remove the horses in September.