06/26/07 Wild horse hearing date set

The Bureau of Land Management is asking the public to participate in a public hearing next month in Boise to discuss motorized vehicle and helicopter use in the management of wild horses within the Black Mountain and Hardtrigger Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in southwestern Idaho. A wild horse gather is scheduled for these two HMAs on July 25th. The purpose of the hearing on July 12th is to receive information and comments on the use of helicopters for wild horse removals and on the use of motorized vehicles for transporting wild horses. The Black Mountain HMA encompasses 50,823 total acres, and the adjacent Hardtrigger HMA covers 68,705 acres south of the Snake River between Murphy and US Highway 95. BLM says the wild horses within these HMAs are being removed to achieve the appropriate management levels, to relieve stress on rangeland resources and to maintain a thriving ecological balance. BLM is also looking for new pasture facilities in the west. Each pasture must be able to provide humane care for anywhere from one thousand to 25 hundred wild horses for at least one year with a BLM option to have four additional one year extensions. BLM says it needs additional space in additional to current long term facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott