KINGMAN — Public comment is being sought on a 10-year plan to remove excess wild burros and implement herd fertility controls in an area south of Kingman.
The comment period is for an environmental assessment that analyzes he plan for management in an area known as the Three Rivers Complex that includes the Alamo, Big Sandy and Havasu herd management areas. It includes roughly 955,000 acres of land — 750,000 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land — in Mohave, Yavapai and La Paz counties. It does not the Black Mountain Herd Management Area west of Kingman that extends from Needles to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Bullhead City/Laughlin.
The Three Rivers Complex is composed of the Havasu HMA, which includes land in both Arizona and California along the Colorado and Bill Williams rivers near Lake Havasu City, the Alamo HMA on lands adjoining Alamo Lake and portions of the Bill Williams, Santa Maria and Big Sandy rivers west of Wickenburg, and the Big Sandy HMA about 50 miles southeast of Kingman straddling U.S. Highway 93 in the Wikieup area.
“We are committed to maintaining a healthy population of wild burros in the Three Rivers Complex, as well as being a good neighbor to the communities we serve,” said Amanda Dodson, Kingman field manager for the BLM. “The proposed plan will help us ensure healthy herds, protect native wildlife habitat, promote healthy rangelands and reduce safety impacts to local roadways. Burros removed from the Three Rivers Complex will be humanely placed in good homes.”
According to BLM data, the Three Rivers Complex collectively is home to an estimated 2,300 burros — about four times what the agency considers to be the appropriate management level, creating impacts to wildlife habitat, roadways, local communities and the herds themselves.
Wild burros, protected from capture, hunting or harassment under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, have few natural predators. If not managed appropriately, herds can double in size every four to five years, increasing the impact on the public lands and populated areas nearby and jeopardizing the health of the existing herd that competes for food, water and habitat with other wildlife.
The draft environmental assessment for the Three Rivers Complex analyzes the use of fertility controls, sex ratio adjustments and periodic removal of wild burros over a 10-year period to maintain the appropriate population within the herd management areas. All action alternatives analyzed in the environmental assessment ensure humane treatment of the animals; any wild burros removed from the range would be made available for adoption or sale to good homes through the BLM’s adoption and sales programs.
The preliminary environmental assessment includes five alternatives: the proposed action of selective removal of excess wild burros and population growth suppression using fertility control vaccines on 50% of the females in the herd; those actions plus gelding 50% of the male population; removal and use of fertility vaccines in 70% of the females in the herd; removal of excess animals without use of fertility control; and taking no action.
The draft environmental assessment and other supporting documents are available for review and public comment at the BLM National NEPA Register and at the Kingman Field Office, 2755 Mission Blvd. in Kingman. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The 30-day comment period closes Oct. 11. For additional information, contact Angelica Rose at [email protected] or call 928-505-1200.
The 1.1 million-acre Black Mountain Herd Management Area has been the focus on several burro gathers and other management actions in the last six years. Two planned gathers in 2022 and this year reduced the HMA’s population by more than 1,600 animals with a majority of the removed animals moved to the BLM’s off-range corral at Florence, Arizona.
BLM estimated that before the 2022-23 gathers, the population of the Black Mountain herd was more than 2,200. The target population in the management area is under 500. The gathers were partly in response to requests from local communities — including Bullhead City and unincorporated but populated communities in Mohave County — after burros frequently wandered from the management area in search of food and water, causing property damage and safety concerns on area roadways.
