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John Hall, BLM Wild Horse & Burro Specialist: This is the Cibola-Trigo Herd Management Area
down here. We are just south of Blythe, California.
We are down here to lower the number of burros in the population so that we are closer to
our appropriate management level.
We have a really unique situation down here with the Cibola Imperial Wildlife Refuge because
those areas are managed for wildlife. They allow burro utilization to occur in the refuge
areas. We have a working relationship with them allowing
burros utilization so that we have a viable, healthy herd down here in Yuma.
If the population becomes too high of burros down here then we have excessive utilization
on certain key species of vegetation that are needed for wildlife.
Basically how it works is that a contractor comes in after we complete the NEPA (National
Environmental Policy Act) process where we do an Environmental Assessment (EA). We meet
a contractor down here at the potential trap site. We have some suggestions that we give
them through the EA. Basically the contractor gets to choose the sites that he wants to
use. But we have a resource team that will be on the ground with him so that we can advise
them on whether or not it is acceptable from the resources side.
Then once we have an acceptable area for the traps the contractor goes out and sets up
wing traps, which are makeshift corrals with wings that go out in each direction for about
100-yards. They usually set these in some type of valley or wash or something so that
the animals will be naturally funneled in.
Once this process and traps have all been set up then a helicopter takes off and will
locate animals. And they will move them at a slow pace and then you will have wranglers
that are on the sides kind of hiding behind trees, brushes, or rocks. Once they get close
enough those wranglers jump in and do the final push into the wing traps.
Then once the animals get into the wing traps the gates are closed and they are in the corrals.
Then we will load them into trailers and move them over to a temporary holding facility
that we set up. They are provided with food and water and a rest period before they are
transported to the actual holding facilities where they are prepped for adoption.
We have a veterinarian on site that roves between the trap and the holding. The veterinarians
make sure that the animals are in healthy condition and that they are safe during the
transportation process and that they are healthy enough to be transported to the permanent
holding facility where they prep them for adoption.