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United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse Herd Management Area Bait/Water Trapping Gather/Population Control Environmental Assessment Little Snake Field Office 455 Emerson Street Craig, Colorado DOI-BLM-CO-N010-2016-0023-EA September 2016 Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 4 1. PURPOSE & NEED ........................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Background ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Purpose and Need ............................................................................................................. 8 1.4 Plan Conformance Review ............................................................................................... 9 1.5 Relationship to Statutes, Regulations or Other Plans ..................................................... 10 1.6 Identification of Issues/Internal and External Scoping/Public Participation .................. 11 1.7 Decision to be Made ....................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2 - PROPOSED ACTION AND ALTERNATIVES ............................................ 12 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 12 2.2 Alternative A - Proposed Action............................................................................. 13 2.3 Alternative B – Fertility Control Management with Bait Trapping Assistance and No Removals............................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Alternative C - No Action ............................................................................................... 18 2.5 Alternatives Considered but Eliminated from Detailed Analysis ................................... 18 CHAPTER 3 – AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT AND EFFECTS .......................................... 19 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 19 Affected Resources: .................................................................................................................. 19 3.2 PHYSICAL RESOURCES ............................................................................................ 23 3.2.1 Soils.............................................................................................................................. 23 3.2.2 Water Quality, Surface ................................................................................................ 24 3.3 BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES ....................................................................................... 24 3.3.1 Invasive/Non-Native Species ....................................................................................... 24 3.3.2 Wildlife, Special Status Species and Migratory Birds ................................................. 25 3.3.3 Upland Vegetation ....................................................................................................... 28 3.3.4 Wetlands and Riparian Zones ...................................................................................... 29 3.3.5 Wild Horses ................................................................................................................ 29 3.4 HERITAGE RESOURCES AND HUMAN ENVIRONMENT ................................... 34 3.4.1 Cultural Resources ....................................................................................................... 34 3.4.2 Native American Concerns .......................................................................................... 35 3.5.1 Livestock Operations .................................................................................................. 36 3.6 CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ............................................................................................... 37 3.6.1 Past and Present Actions .............................................................................................. 37 3.6.2 Cumulative Impacts – Alternatives A and B ............................................................... 39 3.6.3 Cumulative Impacts – Alternative C, No Action ......................................................... 39 3.6.4 Reasonably Foreseeable Future Actions ...................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 4– PUBLIC LAND HEALTH STANDARDS .......................................................... 40 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 40 4.1 Colorado Public Land Health Standards ........................................................................ 40 4.1.3 Standard 3 .................................................................................................................... 41 4.1.4 Standard 4 .................................................................................................................... 41 4.1.5 Standard 5 .................................................................................................................... 42 2 Appendices Appendix A - 2014 Sand Wash Herd Management Area (HMA) Wild Horse Utilization Monitoring Appendix B - Public Comments on Preliminary EA and BLM Responses Appendix C - Fertility Control Treatment Approved Standard Operating and Post-treatment Monitoring Procedures (SOPs) – BLM Instruction Memorandum No. 2009-090 Appendix D - Gathering and Handling of Wild Horses - BLM Instruction Memorandum No. 2015-151 Appendix E - PZP Mixing Protocol Appendix F - Annual Immunocontraception Data Sheet Appendix G - Sand Wash Basin Horses to Remain in the HMA Appendix H - Standard Operating Procedures for Wild Horse Gathers 3 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1. PURPOSE & NEED 1.1 Introduction With passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA), Congress recognized wild horses are living symbols of the pioneer spirit of the West. The Secretary of the Interior was authorized to manage and protect wild, free-roaming horses and burros in a manner designed to achieve and maintain “a thriving natural ecological balance” on the public lands. From the passage of the Act through the present day, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Little Snake Field Office (LSFO) has endeavored to meet the requirements of the Act. Throughout this period, BLM experience has grown, and the knowledge of the effects of current and past management of wild horses and burros has increased. At the same time, nationwide awareness and attention has grown. As these factors have come together, the emphasis of the wild horse and burro program has shifted. Program goals have expanded beyond simply establishing a thriving natural ecological balance (TNEB) by setting appropriate management levels (AML) for individual herds. In addition, goals now include achieving and maintaining healthy populations and slowing population growth through implementation of population growth suppression (PGS) treatments. At the national level, holding facilities for excess and un-adopted horses are at or exceeding their capacity; therefore, gathering and removing large number of horses for the purpose of achieving and maintaining the appropriate management level is a challenge at this time. BLM determines where removals should be prioritized based on limited holding space. Relying primarily on removals of excess horses to achieve TNEB is also unsustainable and fiscally impossible. Population controls, such as the use of fertility control vaccines or permanent sterilization, are being pursued as an alternative to removal of excess horses, to help control the population of wild horses in herd management areas (HMAs) and to bring down the number of excess wild horses on the range over the long term. If used as the sole approach to controlling population numbers, contraception would not allow the BLM to achieve the original population objectives; however, in conjunction with other techniques (e.g., removals of excess animals and adoption) and through incorporation of other population control techniques (e.g., sex ratio adjustments, sterilization), it provides a valuable tool in a larger, adaptive management approach to wild horse and burro management. Furthermore, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS, 2010) has also completed analysis of the potential of population control with the modeling work showing that “more aggressive changes in earlier years will yield more dramatic decreases in later years, obviating the need for removing any horses from the range in the future while still achieving AML”. The HSUS concludes that the current management program is unsustainable and that “by replacing the current gather-and-remove programs with gather-treat-and- release programs, the BLM would save approximately $204 million dollars over 12 years while achieving and maintaining Appropriate Management Levels (AML) on wild horse Herd Management Areas 4 (HMA) on public lands in the U.S”. The HSUS strongly supports the increased use of fertility control and other population controls, advocating the expansion of these
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