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From the Chronicles of the Heber Wild Horse Herd Part 6

12/4/2022

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Some in the Forest Service wanted to terminate the Heber Wild Horse Territory

It should come as a surprise to no one who has read our previous ‘Chronicles’ that the intent of the Forest Service was to eliminate the horses and disband the Heber Wild Horse Territory. For years the Forest Service paid ranchers to round up horses with no evidence to indicate the horses were not part of the protected Heber wild horse herd. A 1991 report by the FS said the “A/S [Apache-Sitgreaves] “herd” should not be recognized at all”. Those same words were then used in correspondence by other Forest Service employees including Forest Supervisor Elaine J. Zieroth and range manager Kendall Hughes.

“From the Chronicles of the Heber Wild Horse Herd Part 5“ provided information from a March 10, 1994 memo from Forest Service District Ranger Kate Klein to a public lands rancher in the Black Mesa Ranger District. In her memo she instructed the rancher to capture and remove horses that were seen in one of the pastures. On June 21, 1993 District Ranger Klein sent a memo to Forest Supervisor John Bedell with the subject line “Territory Withdrawal Recommendation”. In the memo Klein mentions the 1991 report and how it said the Heber Wild Horse Territory should “not be recognized at all”. Klein’s final sentence of this short memo was: “I recommend it [Heber Wild Horse Territory] be removed from the records as a territory and that the animals be removed by the State Livestock Sanitary Board.”

Although the Heber Wild Horse Territory was not eliminated there are still Forest Service websites found online that list Wild Horse Territories but do not include the Heber Wild Horse Territory.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wild.../territories/index.shtml

​Those of you who had been in the forest years ago may remember band stallion Van Gogh.
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From the Chronicles of the Heber Wild Horse Herd Part 5

12/4/2022

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After the establishment of the Heber Wild Horse Territory the elimination of free-roaming horses in the Sitgreaves National Forest continued.

Obviously unphazed by the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the designation of the Heber Wild Horse Territory the Forest Service continued on in their attempt to eliminate unbranded, unclaimed horses in the Sitgreaves. The Forest Service had written agreements with local ranchers to capture horses that were in specific cattle allotments. Some of the agreements included pastures that overlapped the designated Heber Wild Horse Territory. Agreements stated the rancher would be paid $100.00 for each horse captured and $2.00 per day for feed pending disposal by the Forest Service. The horses were then sold at public auction without limitation.
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A 1974 Range Inspection Report that we obtained through a FOIA request revealed horses in the Black Mesa Ranger District had been captured and sold at public auction that year. That was just months after the establishment of the Heber Wild Horse Territory which was supposed to protect wild horses as mandated under the 1971 Act. From the same FOIA request we received numerous written agreements between the Forest Service and public lands ranchers for the capture of free-roaming horses during the 1980s and into the 1990s. The FOIA response also produced numerous invoices from Valley Livestock Auction where the captured horses had been sold. The final memo we received from the FOIA request was dated March 10, 1994. It was sent to the ranch owner and cc’d to the local ranch manager. It instructed the rancher to remove horses from one of the grazing units in “hopes to eliminate” horses that were observed. It came from Kate Klein who was the Forest Service District Ranger.
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