76°F
weather icon Clear

BLM wraps up Red Rock burro roundup

The Bureau of Land Management wrapped up its wild burro roundup at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park on Tuesday.

The agency captured 42 burros in eight days using corrals baited with water and hay.

The animals were collected to reduce a growing herd in Red Rock Canyon that the BLM said is endangering motorists and damaging restoration work at the state park.

The roundup leaves an estimated 90 to 110 wild burros — close to double what the BLM considers an “appropriate management level” — in the agency’s Red Rock Herd Management Area, a 160,000-acre swath stretching from Goodsprings to Kyle Canyon Road.

This was the BLM’s first roundup in the area since 2012, when about 30 so-called “nuisance burros” were removed from the town of Blue Diamond to keep them from tearing up people’s yards and wandering into traffic on nearby state Route 159.

The latest batch of captured burros have been transported to a federal adoption facility in Ridgecrest, California. Anyone interested in adopting one of them must complete an application and meet the BLM requirements.

More information about the BLM’s adoption program for wild burros and horses is available at: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/adoption_program.html

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find @RefriedBrean on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST
Valley of Fire building new visitor center

Nevada officials say the new visitor center at Valley of Fire State Park will feature “state of the art” exhibits that explain the park’s cultural and geological history.