BLM starts rounding up wild burros at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
The Bureau of Land Management has begun rounding up wild burros at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park in Red Rock Canyon, where the growing herd is endangering motorists and damaging the restoration work.
The Bureau hopes to collect up to 40 burros in the coming weeks using corrals baited with hay and water.
Kirsten Cannon, spokeswoman for the bureau in Las Vegas, said the operation could last up to a month or reach its goal within a matter of days. It will all depend on the animals, since no helicopters or people on horseback will be used to drive the burros to the corrals.
Reducing the population by 40 will leave an estimated 90 to 108 wild burros in the BLM’s Red Rock Herd Management Area, a 160,000-acre swath stretching from Goodsprings to Kyle Canyon Road.
The remaining herd will still be roughly double what the bureau considers an “appropriate management level” for the area.
This is the BLM’s first roundup in the area since 2012, when about 30 so-called “nuisance burros” were gathered in the town of Blue Diamond, where the animals were tearing up people’s yards and wandering into traffic on nearby state Route 159.
State park officials have notified the BLM about wild burro issues several times since December 2014.
Once the current roundup is over, the captured burros will be transported to a federal adoption facility in Ridgecrest, California. Cannon said the agency rarely has much trouble finding homes for burros, which seem to adapt well to life as pets.
Anyone interested in adopting one of the Red Rock burros must complete an adoption application and meet the BLM requirements to adopt.
The BLM plans to post periodic updates on the roundup at http://on.doi.gov/2aUTacx
More information about the BLM’s adoption program for wild burros and horses is available at: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/adoption_program.html
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.
