Independent Ecologist Publishes Assessment of Piceance Herd and Habitat

Photo Credit: Scott Wilson, https://www.wilsonaxpe.com/wildhorses - PEDHMA July 5, 2022

Colorado Sierra Club ecologist Delia Malone recently conducted an independent assessment of the Piceance East Douglas HMA habitat and horses. Her findings directly contradict the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claim that the horses are starving and the range is severely degraded due to wild horse overpopulation. BLM is moving forward with their plan to conduct the largest helicopter roundup in Colorado history despite massive public outcry and the fact that it is now foaling season.

Here is a snapshot from Delia’s report:

As an ecologist who has conducted ecological assessments on Colorado’s west slope for more than two

decades, including in the Piceance Basin, I visited the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area

(HMA) on July 5th and 7th, 2022, to assess the condition of the landscape and the condition of wild horses

occurring on that HMA. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has cited the “poor condition of the

horses and range conditions coming out of the winter” as justification for the accelerated roundup of a

wild horse population which exceeds the BLM’s arbitrarily determined Appropriate Management Level

(AML). The agency has also cited damage by wild horses to a Federally protected plant species, Physaria

congesta.

Field observations from this reconnaissance provide no evidence to support the BLM’s claims of wild

horse malnourishment or damage to Physaria congesta or its habitat. Instead, field assessments

document that upland habitats provide ample forage to support the Piceance-East Douglas wild horse

population. Field reconnaissance also identified domestic livestock as a primary cause of riparian habitat

degradation.