Idaho wildfires burned most food in wild horses’ habitats, prompting emergency roundup

The Bureau of Land Management’s Boise office announced Monday that it will gather nearly 100 mustangs from Southwest Idaho rangeland after wildfires burned the vegetation the wild horses need to survive.

In a news release, officials said the Owyhee and Four Rivers field offices would begin an emergency roundup next week. They plan to gather about 40 mustangs from the Sands Basin Herd Management Area near Marsing and about 50 from the Four Mile area north of Emmett.

BLM officials said there is not enough vegetation in either area to support the current mustang populations.

According to the news release, both herd management areas were “nearly completely burned” by lightning-caused fires. The Jump Fire, which ignited near Jump Creek in Owyhee County on Aug. 5, burned nearly 26,000 acres. That include a large swath of the 11,700-acre Sands Basin mustang habitat, which BLM officials said can support between 33 and 64 horses.

The Paddock Fire, which started during the same thunderstorm, burned nearly 190,000 acres. Some of that included the 18,800-acre Four Mile Herd Management Area, which can support between 37 and 60 horses.

Officials said they don’t believe any mustangs died in the fires.

The horses will be rounded up and moved to BLM corrals near Bruneau while the agency works on rehabilitating the area, which could take several years. It was unclear whether the agency plans to offer any of the gathered horses for adoption in the future as part of its wild horse and burro adoption program .

The news release said mustangs would be returned to the herd management areas when the public lands have recovered. It’s unclear how long that could take, but wildfire rehabilitation typically takes several years.

Information on the gathering effort and eventual release will be updated on the BLM website .

BLM conducted a similar emergency roundup on the Sands Basin, Black Mountain and Hardtrigger herd management areas in 2015 after the Soda Fire burned the area. According to the BLM website , 279 mustangs were gathered from those areas. About 200 of the horses were eventually returned to their home ranges .

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