Sandusky 2

Want to get a great horse for a dollar and help out animals of prey, David Sparks, sportsman spotlight. Ken Sandusky is the public affairs officer on the Modoc National Forest. This is an area that has its fair share of wild horses, which make an environmental impact on the area around them. In managing the area, Ken tries to limit the impact the horses make. Adoption is an option. We work really hard to find horses that can't stay on the range due to overpopulation, the best possible homes. But we're talking about the MODOK Plateau and the Devil's Garden Plateau Wild Horse territory, the largest herd and territory managed by the Forest Service. Some forests have more horses, but not within a single herd. So it's very unique geologically. A big flat area, 4500 plus feet of elevation, appropriate management, level of 206 to 402 adult horses with 1926 adult horses at the most recent survey, which occurred only a couple of months ago. So would you call these wild horses wilderness horses? It's not necessarily wilderness. This is a working forest. So the MODOK plateau has provided a long history of public lands grazing. Actually, the MODOK was created to help manage overgrazing in the area back in the early 190o’s by Teddy Roosevelt. And the horses, cows and sheep were grazed right alongside each other by the landowners surrounding the Modoc Plateau since the early days of the pioneers coming in. More tomorrow but conservation is the key here.