For the first time in four years, the Bureau of Land Management brought its wild horse and burro adoption program back to Camp Verde.
The BLM is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior. It manages millions of acres of land across the West where wild horses and burros roam.
The rustle of paper or a conversation nearby alerts the radar-like ears of the burros, which swivel to pick up the sound. Still, they remain huddled and seemingly unconcerned. As it is, they have hardly any natural predators in the wild.
The same goes for the horses. That’s why the BLM runs the adoption program. Without predators, the herd sizes of both the horses and burros can almost double every few years, according to federal statistics. To keep things in balance on the land, the government tries to find homes for many of the animals.
“I’d like to see them all adopted,” said Roger Oyler, a BLM wild horse and burro specialist. “I don’t think it’s going to happen though.”
Oyler was helping oversee some temporary livestock pens set up on the far side of the parade grounds at Fort Verde State Historic Park over the weekend, where the 56th annual Fort Verde Days was attracting crowds to the old army post.
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Oct. 17, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
