Common Plants Of The Western Rangelands

Feds nix feral horse plans

By FRANK PRIESTLEY

For the Capital Press

Plans to gather, castrate and release several hundred free-roaming stallions on Wyoming rangeland were ditched recently in the face of opposition from environmental groups who contend that birth control is a threat to the long-term survival of the herds.

Plans generated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management were challenged in court by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, the Western Watersheds Project and others. In spite of proven biological data that shows feral horse populations can double every four years and are extremely destructive to fragile desert ecosystems, the environmental groups' threat of a lawsuit was enough to cause the BLM to withdraw its plans and continue with traditional management plans wherein horses are gathered and transported to holding facilities where they await adoption. The current program results in a small percentage of successful adoptions and costs the federal government in excess of $25 million per year.

The BLM's original plan was to gather up to 900 horses from the White Mountain-Little Colorado herd management areas between Rock Springs and La Barge. The agency planned to castrate all of the stallions it could capture and release 177 of them back to the range as geldings. The rest of the horses were to be sold, adopted or sent to long-term holding facilities in the Midwest.

The withdrawn castration plan, which appears to be a reasonable way to control the fast-growing population was challenged on the basis that it violates federal law. A spokesman for the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign told the Associated Press that castration and release would cause irreparable harm to horse populations.

A BLM spokesman said although the agency no longer plans to castrate and release the stallions, it will move forward with plans to gather and relocate the same number of animals -- 900 -- as determined in the original management plan. The State of Wyoming contends that the BLM needs to abide by its longstanding legal agreement to keep feral horse populations in check to protect rangelands.

Yellow Marsh Marigold « The Nature of the Hills

Hi Sybil. This plant likes its drink to be slightly acidic so I wonder if that means that its not likely to be close to salt water. Just a guess. I enjoy learning about native plants that are edible and although I’m reluctant to pick them (I don’t want to contribute to their decimation), I believe that with enough knowledge, one could survive quite well in the forest at least in the summer. And yes, in excess, probably just about everything is toxic. Thanks for your comment.

August 21, 2011 at 6:27 am

These are lovely! But, I wonder who figured out to boil them before eating? Seems to me you would have to be starving to death to risk touching, much less trying to eat these by boiling!

I picture it: “Oooh, that was really painful and I almost died… so OK, shall we boil it and try it again?”

Lynda

August 20, 2011 at 7:56 am

Too funny, Lynda. I love your sense of humour. I believe that globally, the first peoples had nature wisdom that has probably been lost forever. They knew the earth and could read the signs fluently enough that they just knew that this plant could be eaten if boiled. Thanks for the chuckle though. I too, am not brave enough to try it.

August 21, 2011 at 6:38 am

Thanks so much for this. Last year we found these plants by a mountain stream but couldn’t identify them because our only field guide at the time was to Mediterranean flora and it didn’t list them. Now with your help I’ve turned to our new guide to non-Mediterranean plants and found the very marsh marigold you’ve so wonderfully described. Thanks for filling in a floral gap all the way over here!

August 21, 2011 at 11:14 pm

If only it were that easy! Because of how far north into the Balkan peninsula we are, Prespa straddles what is considered to be Mediterranean and Alpine zones. The fact that it’s a meeting ground between the two is the very reason it is so diverse in birds, flowers and other creatures. Though I can’t say for certain, my guess would be that the marsh marigold in a non-Mediterranean species, hence it existing in my guide to northern plants but not southern. So it’s found a home here, but probably not any further south.

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