~> Yakima Reservation ...There are 15,000 horses trying to survive on the reservation’s 410,000 acres of shrubb-steppe rangeland, 10 times more than experts believe the land can sustain. ...This overpopulation puts the horses at risk of starvation, especially in the winter. ...But a Yakama Nation report shows that overpopulation also destroys the range’s fragile vegetation, spreads weeds, damages wetlands and reduces the land’s ability to support native wildlife. ...Other tribes wrestling with the issue include the Warm Springs, Apache and Navajo, which alone have 50,000 to 70,000 wild horses on their reservation. ...Every year, the BLM pulls thousands of horses off federal rangelands in controversial round-ups. ...While they try to find adoptive homes when possible, nearly 50,000 animals are kept in corrals and pastures at a cost of $46 million a year. ...Tribes, including the Yakama, typically lack funding for such expensive control efforts. ... “Lands that were once plentiful with deer and elk now have none as the native species are being run off by this invasive species,” wrote Smiskin and Virgil Lewis, chairman of the Yakama Fish and Wildlife Committee. yakimaherald/news/latestlocalnews/1788077-8/yakama-land-cant-sustain-growing-wild-horse-population
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 05:29:18 +0000
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