Wild horses near Salt River to be removed by Forest Service

• The Tonto National Forest Service can begin removing unauthorized horses as soon as Friday
• The Forest Service said they will not begin removal on Friday and have one year to determine a plan

To the U.S. Forest Service, it's a safety issue.

To animal lovers, it's an outrage.

Wild horses that roam the Tonto National Forest near the Salt River are creating both a danger and a nuisance, Forest Service officials say. Several have been killed by cars on the Bush Highway northeast of Mesa, while others have trampled campgrounds.

Last week, the Tonto National Forest published a notice warning that unauthorized horses in a portion of the forest near the river would be impounded without further notice beginning Friday and continuing for the next 12 months. Estimates place the number of horses at about 100.

However, Tonto spokeswoman Carrie Templin said the Forest Service has no intention of starting the roundup Friday. There is no timeline for the removal, she said, and contractors to do the work have not yet been selected.

The controversy illustrates the difficult balance of managing wildlife on public land. Previous wild-horse and -burro roundups in Arizona have created controversy, but seldom so close to an urban area.

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The Forest Service is developing similar roundup plans — and encountering pushback from wildlife advocates — for wild horses roaming the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests near Heber and Overgaard. The Navajo Nation also is negotiating an agreement with activists to remove hundreds of wild horses from reservation lands without sending them to slaughterhouses.

Templin said Salt River horses have become a safety issue, with some killed in accidents on the Bush Highway. The popular route to Payson travels from north Mesa along and across the Salt River before intersecting State Route 87 and heading north through the Tonto National Forest. Templin said action was necessary to keep the horses and travelers safe.

"We've got horses in campgrounds, we've got horses on the highway," Templin said. "We would love to see these horses go to a safe place where the potential for accidents don't exist."

Lori Murphy, a manager at Wildhorse Ranch Rescue in Gilbert, said the "iconic" Arizona horses are no more dangerous to the public than many other desert creatures.

"How are they more of a danger than a rattlesnake or a coyote?" Murphy said. "Are we going to start rounding up the other animals, too?"

Federal law protects wild horses and burros, but the Salt River horses and many others in Arizona are not covered by the law because the Forest Service does not consider them to be true wild horses.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 required all national forests to conduct surveys of their areas and determine if wild horses or burros roamed on forest lands. At that time, the Forest Service determined that all the horses in the forest had been claimed, mostly by surrounding Native American tribes, Templin said.

Because of those findings, no wild-horse territory was created on the Tonto National Forest. That means that the horses currently on the land are categorized as stray livestock under the law.

But many people dispute the Forest Service's 1971 findings. The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group tracks the animals and believes the horses are descendants of wild Spanish horses.

PROTEST OVER HORSE ROUNDUP

"Historic evidence points to the fact that these wild horses have been here for 400 years," Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, said at a news conference Tuesday. "So if the Forest Service just wants to return these horses to their rightful owners, they're going to need a time machine."

The Forest Service has one year in which to develop and execute a plan to round up the horses. But wildlife advocates are already citing concerns that helicopters will be used to gather the horses — a move that could be dangerous to some of them.

"Yesterday when we were down there, there was a 1-day-old baby, and her bones are probably so soft that they would snap if she was chased," Murphy said. "They would probably break. And those older guys don't do so well, either."

When the Forest Service decides to round up the horses, it plans to turn them over to the Arizona Department of Agriculture, Templin said.

The department would then decide their fate. The public notice says the horses could be put up for public or private sale, or they will be "condemned and destroyed, or otherwise disposed of."

Agriculture Department spokeswoman Laura Oxley said the agency does not yet have an agreement with the Tonto National Forest.

If the horses are handed over, Leatta McLaughlin, Department of Agriculture associate director of animal services, said state law allows the department to feed and care for them for seven days. If no owner comes forward in that time, a public auction will be held and the horses will be sold to the highest bidders.

She said the department has no plans to kill the animals, as some advocates have feared.

"We do not take part in slaughtering livestock," McLaughlin said. "Anything that we come across, we try to adopt it out to a good owner."

However, that does not bar meat buyers from purchasing the animals for slaughter.

More than 150 people gathered for a press conference at Butcher Jones Recreation Site on Tuesday night to protest the roundups.

People began trickling in earlier in the afternoon to photograph and watch a group of about a dozen horses resting under the trees in the area.

Some people cried, while others directed bitter hostility toward the Forest Service. A question echoed throughout the recreational area: "Why are they doing this?"

Dave Klingensmith decided to come out to the impromptu event with his wife. They are volunteers at Wildhorse Ranch Rescue. Klingensmith moved to Arizona in 1977 and said he remembers watching the horses along the banks of the Salt River while he fished. To him, losing the horses would be like losing one of the last remaining pieces of the true Arizona West.

"I think it would be losing a national treasure of Arizona," Klingensmith said.

He said horse rescue facilities in Arizona are overcrowded and underfunded.

"When these guys go up for auction, it's going to be hard to save them," he said.

Netherlands of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group led a news conference, calling the potential roundups a "historic and colossal mistake."

"These wild horses are not a public safety hazard," Netherlands said. "Not one incident has ever been reported of a person being injured by a wild horse — not in the history of recreation on these Forest Service lands."

Amanda Marsh, widow of Granite Mountain Hotshots Superintendent Eric Marsh and a new board member of Netherlands' group, asked the Forest Service to preserve the wild horses in memory of her husband.

"The reason why I am lending my husband's name to this movement is not to gain any sort of political stance," Marsh said. "The reason I'm bringing Eric's name to this is because he loved horses."

Attorney Bill Miller said he intended to seek a federal court injunction today to block the Forest Service's plans. He said he would argue that no environmental impact statement was completed and that federal law was violated by not designating the Salt River horses as wild horses.

"I cannot imagine how many hearts will be broken if the federal government is allowed to round up these horses," Miller said.

Templin said no environmental impact statement was sought because it is a law-enforcement action.

The only way for the horses to gain wild-horse recognition would be for Congress to pass a law recognizing them as such, she said.

Murphy said she'd like to see more public education about the wild horses. There already is signage about horse crossings along Bush Highway, but people often don't pay attention.